How Bugatti Lost a Customer Over a Failed Veyron Roof Presentation

This tale comes from Kris Singh, who owns a car collection that's the real-life equivalent of a bedroom full of posters.

The Indian American businessman, who made a fortune in the investment field, is known on Instagram as Lamborghiniks. Now, the gear head loves to share his automotive life with the world and the man recently recalled the time when he nearly grabbed the keys to a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse.

We're talking about the hairstyling incarnation of the 1,200 hp Veyron Super Sport, which debuted as the world's fastest production roadster back in the day.

And while the velocity lover had decided to adorn his garage with such a Bug a couple of years ago, the man wanted one more test to be done before making the purchase. To be more precise, he asked a Bugatti representative to demonstrate the installation of the temporary roof.

Well, after a job that took ten minutes and reportedly looked more like a comedy stunt, the aficionado gave up, deciding to skip the Molsheim hypercar. For the record, the car lover has acquired machines like the $4 million Lamborghini Veneno or the $2M-plus Koenigsegg Agera XS meanwhile.

In a social media post, Singh now details the experience: "I test drove a Vitesse years ago, and I was ready to buy it, but the person from Bugatti was stumped when I asked him to show me how to install the temporary roof. He was fiddling around with it for 10 minutes. I took a photo of him. I showed him the photo, and I told him that I live in the tropics, it can rain at any time, and I can’t look like he does in this photo while it’s pouring rain on me. I would end up as a meme on the internet. So, I passed, but I really LOVED the car. Fast forward a few years, and when I first saw my bro @whitesse ‘s car I was kicking myself for not going for it anyway. Since then, I learned it’s a lot easier than the rep made it look and he cost Bugatti a sale and me an awesome car that I would have enjoyed a lot,"

Note that the Lamborghiniks account is private, which is why you'll have to follow it if you want to check out the actual post (in other words, the post can't be embedded, but the image above is the one the collector used).

And while certain Instagram users rushed to drop negative comments on the post, basically dismissing the matter as a first world problem, the reality of having to cope with the said roof mechanism can't be ignored.

In fact, we've added a piece of footage below (the clip on the left) that shows just how clumsy one can look when operating the "umbrella" of the Veyron Grand Sport. Note there's also a second video (the one on the right), which demonstrates the operation of the hypercar's hard top.

Alas, Bugatti isn't the only special automaker that has come up with such troubled roof designs, with the cloth top of the Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster showing similar issues. Fortunately, times are changing and here's to seeing more roof solutions that actually work in the real world.