Even Bugatti’s Latest Two-Car Chiron Recall is Luxurious
The fix includes dispatching a team of ‘Flying Doctors’ to remedy the affected cars.
Bugatti is recalling just two of its U.S.-based Chirons over concerns that they may have defective side-impact airbags, a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirms. But it won't be forcing the Chiron owners to pencil a trip to the dealer into their calendars; instead, Bugatti will be dealing with the warranty in the only fashion it knows how: profligately extra.
Since 17 percent of its Chiron owners in the U.S. (Bugatti only sold 12 models in the States) were affected by the recall, Bugatti wanted to ensure that its customers would receive the most premium treatment for their inconvenience. This meant that the affected owners of the $3 million hypercar will receive a recall that most of us peasants will never have the pleasure of experiencing. Read on.
First, Bugatti will dispatch a team of engineers and technicians that it calls "flying doctors," comparing the team to concierge service at a six-star hotel. The doctors will determine if the vehicles do in fact fall into the service criteria before proceeding with the recall, just to ensure that it doesn't waste the owner's time. If the two vehicles are affected, the doctor will arrange one of Bugatti's partners to have the seats to be flown back to Molsheim, France in a special wooden container for further investigation and remedy.
The term "flying doctors" doesn't really seem ambiguous, but it defines how the automaker defines its ultra-luxury approach to ownership. To put this into further perspective, Bugatti takes a sense of pride in ensuring that its owners are never inconvenienced; since the Veyron, its vehicles phone home to France with telemetry data that measure various parameters. If the manufacturer's automated systems notice that any of its 450 Veyrons or 100 (of its total 500 to-be-produced) Chrions have so much as low tire pressure, one of the company's flying doctors would immediately reach out to a customer. Given this level of service, we could only imagine how much Bugatti would work hand-over-fist to potential customers for its upcoming $5.9 million hypercar, Divo.
As for the cause of the recall, Bugatti's airbag supplier for the Chiron, Key Safety Systems, is reportedly pointing the finger at a "particular worker" at its Romanian plant, stating that he or she did not properly install a heat shield which would protect occupants from the airbag's gas generator. Bugatti first noticed this problem after it observed burns while it tested airbag deployment under high-temperature conditions and has already taken steps to inspect and remedy any remaining seats it has in its possession.
