How does a $3 million car look, sound and drive?
This piece originally aired July 14, 2017.
One of the most exclusive cars on the market today can go from zero to 60 in less than two and a half seconds.
The Bugatti Chiron can reach up to 261 mph and is said to be the fastest production car in the world. Only 500 models were built worldwide, and half have reportedly already been sold.
CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave took the luxurious car for a ride.
Like a fighter jet – it can pull nearly two G's – hitting 116 mph in a just few seconds. That kind of need for speed doesn't come cheap, though. You'll need to be in the Tom Cruise or Jamie Foxx tax bracket to afford one.
"I would say the average is $3.3 – $3.3 million," said Maurizio Parlato, the car maker's chief operating officer.
"You get one of 500 cars built worldwide, an exclusive limited edition. You get a car which is the most powerful, most beautiful, and most luxurious car in the world," Parlato said. "Our customers own an average of 30, 35 cars. And they want to make it, like, really the pinnacle of their collection."
Re-launched in the late-90s by Volkswagen, the Bugatti name traces its history to Ettore Bugatti who over a century ago built cars under the motto that no car could be too beautiful or too expensive.
Today, Bugattis are individually built by hand in France where nearly every detail – from the specially designed carbon fiber skin to the color of the hand sewn stitching in the leather seats – can be customized. The 1,500-horsepower, 16-cylinder engine is the fastest in the world. Bugatti engineers had to cap the top speed at 261 mph for safety reasons.
Its top-tier clientele don't ask the kind of questions a regular customer might when buying a car.
Asked about the car's gas mileage, Parlato said, "You know it's a very good question. We don't consider that. No customer has asked for that."
But the car does come with four years of free maintenance – so there's that.
For the same $3 million, you could buy about nine average American homes, give 13 kids an Ivy League education or buy a Rolls Royce Phantom for each day of the week.
But a Harvard degree can't go from zero to 60 in under two and a half seconds.
Butch Leitzinger is Bugatti's official driver. Yes – that's a real job.
"This is the moonshot. From the beginning, this car was meant to be no compromises," Leitzinger said.
Well, Bugatti did make one compromise. They let a CBS News correspondent drive it.
Leitzinger told Van Cleave he was "asking very little throttle" during their ride. Van Cleave joked, "I was being conservative 'cause it's not my $3 million car."
The Chiron feels like luxury and performs like a missile and, like most people on the planet, I'll never be able to afford one.
To get one of these, you're going to need to be patient. There is at least a three-year waiting list, but you'll be one of only 140 or so in the U.S. to own one. What you don't get for $3 million is a whole lot of trunk space.