The most expensive cars in the world

Lists of the most expensive cars often mix very different things. Some prices are what a maker asked for a new car built in tiny numbers. Others are what a collector paid for an old racing car at auction. And many headline figures are reports or estimates, because the buyers of these cars rarely publish their invoices.

The first version of this post listed dozens of hypercars with prices that could not be traced to a source. This refreshed guide is shorter and stricter. It separates new cars from auction sales and gives the date and currency of each figure. It also says plainly when a price is an estimate.

How a car's price is set at the very top

At this level a price usually comes from one of three places:

• A maker's list price for a limited run, such as Bugatti's starting price for the Tourbillon ⁷.
• A commissioned one-off, where the maker and a single client agree a price that is not published, and the media report estimates ².
• An auction result, where the hammer price and fees are public ⁹.

Auction results are the most reliable figures, because they are recorded in public. Commission prices are the least reliable. Keep that in mind as you read the figures below.

The most expensive new cars

The priciest new cars are not hypercars at all. They are coachbuilt Rolls-Royces, made for individual clients.

Rolls-Royce Droptail

Rolls-Royce presented the Droptail on 18 August 2023 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, during Monterey Car Week ¹. Four were made, and all of them were built and sold ¹. The first, La Rose Noire, was named after the French Black Baccara rose ¹.

Wikipedia reports an estimated price of more than US$32 million, citing an article that put the figure at US$30 million ¹. Rolls-Royce did not publish a price, so treat these as estimates. The car uses a 6.75 litre twin-turbo V12 ¹.

Each of the four cars was different. The second, Amethyst, was styled around the owner's son's birthstone and includes a Vacheron Constantin watch and real amethyst stones ¹. The third, Arcadia, takes its name from a place in Greek mythology seen as heaven on earth, and has a Rolls-Royce clock that took two years to design ¹.

Rolls-Royce Boat Tail

The Boat Tail came first, presented on 27 May 2021 ². Rolls-Royce made a trio of Boat Tails, each for a different client ². Its price was never confirmed, and the figure most often reported is a speculated US$28 million ².

The car is a showpiece of coachbuilding. The rear deck opens to reveal a parasol and cocktail tables, along with a full set of Christofle tableware, and the car contains 1,813 bespoke parts ². It shares its chassis and engine with the Rolls-Royce Phantom ². There are even two fridges, finished to match a particular brand of champagne bottle ².

Bugatti La Voiture Noire

Bugatti revealed La Voiture Noire at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show as a one-off ³. Wikipedia records that it sold for £9.5 million ³. It is based on the Chiron and harks back to the 1936 Type 57 SC Atlantic ³. The car shown at Geneva was a show car moved by electric motors; the finished car uses the Chiron's W16, and Bugatti expected it to take about two and a half more years to complete after the show ³.

Bugatti Centodieci

The Centodieci was revealed in California on 16 August 2019 as a tribute to the EB 110 ⁴. Ten were built for customers, at €8 million each ⁴, and the last was delivered on 19 December 2022 ⁴. Underneath it is a Chiron, with the same 8.0 litre quad-turbo W16 tuned to 1,600 PS ⁴.

Bugatti Divo

The Divo came a year earlier, revealed in California on 24 August 2018 ⁵. Bugatti built 40 between 2019 and 2021 ⁵. It shares the Chiron's engine and gearbox ⁵. Its extra aerodynamic drag, along with concerns about tyre pressures, meant its top speed was limited to 380 km/h, lower than the Chiron's ⁵. It is named after Albert Divo, who raced for Bugatti in the 1920s and won the Targa Florio twice ⁵. Bugatti did not publish an official price in the sources checked for this post.

A new Bugatti for a mere few million euros

Even Bugatti's series cars are rare. The Tourbillon, revealed in 2024, is limited to 250 cars from a starting price of €3.8 million ⁷. Our post on Bugatti's V16 engine explains what that money buys.

The record for a new car at auction

New cars occasionally go to auction too, often for charity. The results can top the list prices.

In August 2026 the first production Ferrari Luce, a "Tailor Made" car known as Chassis 0, sold for US$40 million at an auction in Monterey, California ⁸. The Luce is Ferrari's first fully electric car, and all the proceeds went to educational programs run by the Ferrari Foundation ⁸. The auction house waived its buyer's premium on the sale ⁸, so the price is the full amount paid. The buyer will not take delivery straight away: the car was to return to Maranello, with delivery planned for the first quarter of 2027 ⁸.

Bugatti's one-off Chiron Profilée also found its buyer at auction. It sold in February 2023 for €9,792,500 ⁶, after all 500 Chiron production slots had been assigned ⁶.

The most expensive cars sold at auction

For old cars the auction records are clear and public. As at November 2026, the top five on Wikipedia's list were ⁹:

• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut coupe: US$143 million, sold in Stuttgart on 5 May 2022 ⁹.
• 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen: US$53,917,370, sold in Stuttgart on 1 February 2025 ⁹.
• 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO: US$51,705,000, sold in New York on 13 November 2023 ⁹.
• 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, chassis 3413GT: US$48,405,000, sold in Monterey on 26 August 2018 ⁹.
• 1964 Shelby Daytona: US$42,905,000, sold in Monterey on 14 August 2026 ⁹.

The Uhlenhaut coupe stands apart. Wikipedia describes the price as €135 million, paid by a private collector, and it is still the record ⁹. It sold for well over twice as much as any other car on the list ⁹.

Why one Ferrari keeps appearing

Four of the top ten auction results on Wikipedia's list were 1962 Ferraris sold as 250 GTOs, one of them listed as a 330 LM / 250 GTO ⁹. Besides the 2018 and 2023 sales above, a 250 GTO sold for US$38,115,000 in August 2014, and another for US$38,500,000 in January 2026 ⁹. Each of those cars is a 1960s Ferrari racer with a documented past, and that history is what the bidders are paying for.

What makes a car this valuable

The cars on these lists share a few traits.

Rarity. Numbers are tiny. Rolls-Royce made four Droptails ¹ and three Boat Tails ². Bugatti built one Voiture Noire ³, ten Centodiecis ⁴ and 40 Divos ⁵.

Craft. The one-off Rolls-Royces are as much furniture and jewellery as they are cars. The Droptail's first version includes an Audemars Piguet watch ¹.

History. The auction record holders are mostly racing cars from the 1950s and 1960s, with a story that no new car can copy ⁹.

When a supercar becomes a collectable

Not every valuable car was rare when new. The original Lamborghini Countach was built from 1974 to 1990, and 1,983 were made across all versions ¹⁰. It was designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone ¹⁰, and Wikipedia describes it as the first production car to use scissor doors ¹⁰. Lamborghini revived the name in 2021 with the Countach LPI 800-4, a hybrid built for the model's 50th anniversary ¹⁰.

Cars like the Countach show how desirability can build over decades. Original condition, matching numbers and a known ownership record all count when such a car is finally sold, which is why careful owners keep every receipt and record. A car that was simply a fast, wild-looking supercar in its day can become a collectable once it becomes a poster car for a generation.

What these prices mean for Australian buyers

None of the record prices above was set in Australia, and each is in a foreign currency. Converting them to Australian dollars only adds another layer of estimate, so this post leaves them in the currency in which they were reported.

For the rest of us, the useful lessons are smaller ones. A rare, well-documented car with a clear history holds its value best, and paperwork matters as much as paint. The same is true of an ordinary used car: service records, a clean history check and an honest description protect both the buyer and the seller when the time comes to sell. Our story on Australia's only McLaren F1 and our report on the flood-damaged McLaren P1 show both sides of that rule.

If your budget is closer to the everyday end of the market, browse the cars for sale on Car Domain and work out repayments with our car loan calculator. For the quickest cars rather than the priciest, see our list of the fastest cars in the world.

You can explore the full list of the most expensive cars sold at auction on Wikipedia, and read FOX 13's report on the Ferrari Luce sale.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, Rolls-Royce Droptail, accessed 2 November 2026
2. Wikipedia, Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, accessed 2 November 2026
3. Wikipedia, Bugatti La Voiture Noire, accessed 2 November 2026
4. Wikipedia, Bugatti Centodieci, accessed 2 November 2026
5. Wikipedia, Bugatti Divo, accessed 2 November 2026
6. Wikipedia, Bugatti Chiron, accessed 2 November 2026
7. Goodwood Road & Racing, Bugatti Tourbillon ushers in a fresh era with a new V16 engine, accessed 2 November 2026
8. FOX 13, Ferrari's first EV sells for staggering $40M at Monterey auction, accessed 2 November 2026
9. Wikipedia, List of most expensive cars sold at auction, accessed 2 November 2026
10. Wikipedia, Lamborghini Countach, accessed 2 November 2026