Dtugg, Im aware of that. Do you really feel that I don't know the facts about why it is expensive IN this society? As a background, I have made most of my money in the stock market, I do know about costs. Now, my question was deeper in the sense that I wanted to be evident that it is expensive because the engineers, the research, the simulations, some of the materials, are expensive in a monetarian based society.
But, I believe there would be engineers fascinated by the chance to work on the necesary equations to reach 400Km/h, there would be scientists smiling by the possibility of runing the simulations, first in a computer and then in a wind tunnel. People involved in the project because IT IS INTERESTING TO ACHIEVE THE RESULT. This would not cost a cent if all these people lived in a society where there is no money.
I have a question for you. Do you believe that it costs more to design a nice wheel than an ugly one? Why does the cheapest cars have ugly wheels? Why after market wheels can be so nice? Do you believe that the price is always right and follow the same rules? Do you know that in Panama I can buy a pair of Levi's for 3 bucks? What's the cost of something? Ok, that's more than one question
I'm sorry but I think that you are incredibly naive.
VW has some of the best engineers in the world not only because they are interested to achieve the result but also because they pay the engineers well (I assume). Take away the money, would they still want to do it? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'll just concede that it's unknowable and move on.
Besides the cost of engineering, there is the cost to manufacture it which I assume contributes a good sum of the total. Things like carbon fiber, titanium, and magnesium are not in infinite supply. They cost something to make, even if you don't put a price on it. Nobody is going to go mining for all the extra titanium or magnesium or fabricate all the extra carbon fiber just because they like doing it. They do it now because they get paid.
Then there is the labor involved in it. Each one takes two or three weeks to build by hand. I'm sure that they for the most part enjoy doing their jobs, but they also, I am sure enjoy getting paid well for it. If you take away the economic benifits from doing it, there is no guarentee that people would do it.
Then of course, you have the fact that when demand skyrockets because you are giving them away for free, there is no way to keep up with it. Well, what if more people don't want to work for Bugatti to build supercars? Or what if the people that do are not qualified and end up screwing every thing up? You can't just wave your hands and say make it all automated, because its doubtful that is even possible.
That's thing thing about giving stuff away for free. Especially things as highly coveted and difficult to build as a supercar. There is no possible way for supply to keep up with demand.
As for your question about the wheels. Yes it probably does cost more to design nice wheels that crappy ones, anybody could design some generic wheel made out of steel. And if definitely costs more to make them. Things like chrome and magnesium are not in infinite supply. Not everybody that wants 20inch chrome wheels can have them. If the price was the same as crappy wheels, the demand would quickly exceed the supply. The cheapest cars have the ugliest wheels because the manufacture of the car is trying to keep the price down for the people in that would be interested in buying a car in the price range. If they want better ones, they can shell out more money for them. Its up to the consumer.
The price is usually a good indicator of how much resources and labor went into making something. Capitalism forces companies to compete with each other and one of the biggest ways for a company to keep business is to sell something for as low as possible. Sometimes, especially with luxury items, they might charge significantly more than costs because they know people will pay it. I doubt this is the norm though. On the flip side, companies sometimes sell stuff below cost to gain market share. GM is has been selling cars for less than it cost them to make for a while (and losing a crapload of money doing so). Walmart does this sometimes too.
As for your Levi's for $3 in Panama, I highly doubt that those are the same jeans that they sell in the States, for example. They are probably low-qualify versions or perhaps even counterfeits. Levi's has around a 10% profit margin on about $4 billion in revenue. That is nothing to complain about, but if they lowered the price of all their jeans across the world to $3, they would be losing all kinds of money.
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I call that love.