Are You Elite Enough to Buy a One-Off from Bugatti or Aston Martin? Probably Not

For ultraexclusive automakers, maximum profits come from minimum volume. Illustration by Ryan Olbrysh|Car and DriverFrom the May/June 2026 issue of Car and Driver. In January, Bugatti unveiled its latest custom-commissioned hypercar from Programme Solitaire, the recherché automaker's one-off-vehicle project. Called the F.K.P. Hommage, the 1578-hp quad-turbo W-16-powered reinterpretation of the Veyron celebrates the Volkswagen Group's revival of the Bugatti brand under former monomaniacal chairman Ferdinand Karl Piëch. The goal, says Bugatti head of design Frank Heyl, was to "revisit this icon" but with "all the technologies and learnings we've taken from the last 20 years." That wasn't the only motivation. Increasingly, the core objective in this rarefied slice of the auto industry is uncovering new ways to separate very wealthy people from their money. Unique custom creations are particularly effective in that effort. Consider that the Bugatti Chiron initially stickered for $2,998,000 in the U.S., whereas the Chiron-based F.K.P. Hommage is rumored to have cost more than $20 million. Michael Dean, global head of automotive research for Bloomberg Intelligence, estimates that the profit margin on such vehicles is at least 50 percent. "Otherwise," he says, "it would not be worth them doing it." See all results for used cars for sale near 50000 Ferrari's Special Projects program has been chasing this business since 2008, with the F40-inspired SC40 one recent fruit of its efforts. At Rolls-Royce, the Coachbuild division handles customer commissions of various Droptails, the Boattail, and the Sweptail. "There's been a huge increase in high-net-worth individuals," Dean explains, "and they have a lot of spare cash." Alex Long, managing director of Aston Martin's Special Vehicle Operations, echoes this sentiment: "They know exactly what they want, but they can't buy it. So they want to create it." In addition to the profits these singular vehicles generate, they are also exemplars for a brand's broader personalization capabilities. "It cascades into people who make smaller changes on higher-volume cars," Long says. "What could you do on your DBX?" Long notes that Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark has made it a goal to get more bespoke content into the core range. This makes sense, according to Dean. "It adds quite a lot of margin to the vehicles," he says. See all results for used cars for sale near 50000 The exclusivity itself creates a challenge with potential buyers who aren't used to hearing the word no. "You can imagine the hand-raiser list is very long. The demand is very high," Bugatti's Heyl says. "But we will certainly never do more than two cars per year." That's because, as profitable and pressworthy as they might be, one-offs absorb valuable resources. "It's really the same work as if I would design a full production car—all the tooling, and vector analysis, and thermodynamics, and aerodynamics—and then make just one copy," Heyl says. Clients also must be carefully handled and educated regarding what's possible. For example, placement of pillars, impact-protection components, and sensors for advanced driver-assistance systems can't be changed, Long says. If they are, then that triggers a lengthy and prohibitively expensive rehomologation process. As the rich become richer, automakers will continue to turn out low-volume but high-margin products. Because when you can have anything you want, what you want most is something no one else has. Brett Berk (he/him) is a former preschool teacher and early childhood center director who spent a decade as a youth and family researcher and now covers the topics of kids and the auto industry for publications including CNN, the New York Times, Popular Mechanics and more. He has published a parenting book, The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting, and since 2008 has driven and reviewed thousands of cars for Car and Driver and Road & Track, where he is contributing editor. He has also written for Architectural Digest, Billboard, ELLE Decor, Esquire, GQ, Travel + Leisure and Vanity Fair. A Visit to Toyota's Futuristic 'Woven City' Future Cars Worth Waiting For: 2026–2030 The Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Finds the Sweet Spot Every Automaker Selling EVs in the U.S. for 2026 A Guide to Every EV for Sale in the U.S. for 2026

Are You Elite Enough to Buy a One-Off from Bugatti or Aston Martin? Probably Not

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