The Most Expensive Grocery Run in the World? Maybe.
It isn’t every day that the CEO of two of the world’s most prestigious automotive brands picks up a gallon of milk while driving a four-million-dollar machine. But for Mate Rimac, the Croatian tech visionary behind Rimac Automobili and current CEO of Bugatti Rimac, an ordinary grocery run sometimes begins with unlocking his Royal Blue Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. With a shimmering carbon fiber body, 1,578 horsepower, and a top speed limited to 273 miles per hour, the car is designed for blistering speed, not for ferrying groceries. And yet, this scene actually happened and, unsurprisingly, made its way online.
The Chiron Super Sport is typically reserved for closed tracks or long European highways. It was built to be a technical masterpiece. Its eight-liter, quad-turbocharged W16 engine delivers power with such graceful brutality that it redefined the modern hypercar. It also carries a price tag close to four million dollars, more than the cost of homes in entire neighborhoods. Despite that, here it sits, parked casually outside a Croatian market, looking more like a weekend cruiser than a showroom marvel. The image is surreal, yet surprisingly relatable. It invites a different understanding of luxury, shaped by someone deeply connected to its extremes.
What stands out most is not the spectacle of using such a machine for errands, but how completely unbothered Rimac seems about it. The man steering Bugatti into its electric future has built his reputation on making the impossible real. Taking a hypercar to buy eggs doesn’t come across as staged or flashy. It feels authentic, even slightly humorous. It reflects a connection to cars that is more about love than status. When you spend your life building the fastest machines on Earth, speed becomes background noise. The real message may be found in how simply you choose to apply it.
Between Power and Restraint
Mate Rimac’s personal story is built on contrasts. He is regarded as one of the most innovative minds in the automotive world. Yet his private garage contains classic BMWs and low-profile performance vehicles. While the Chiron grabs global headlines, it is often his more understated choices that earn the respect of enthusiasts. Not long ago, he bought a used Volkswagen Golf R32 as his daily car. This is a six-cylinder, all-wheel-drive hatchback from the early 2000s. For someone with access to an endless fleet of exotic machines, the decision speaks volumes.
The Golf R32 may not turn heads or represent cutting-edge technology, but it offers something else entirely. It reflects a return to simple, analog joy. It shows that, despite overseeing a company that pushes the limits of electric propulsion, Rimac still cherishes the feel of traditional driving. Choosing such a car feels like a quiet rebellion in an era obsessed with touchscreens and futuristic range estimates. It feels like nostalgia meeting clarity, a moment of pause amid the noise of acceleration.
This contrast between extraordinary performance and everyday usability is part of what makes Rimac fascinating. He does not just build hypercars. He also reimagines what driving should feel like. Whether it is the roar of a Chiron or the hum of a Golf, he taps into both ends of the spectrum. He honors innovation without forgetting the soul of the machine. For him, the goal has always been the same. Driving should feel joyful.
More Than a Statement Piece
The Chiron Super Sport is a monument to combustion engineering. But seeing it pull into a grocery store parking space makes it feel unexpectedly human. In a world where ultra-rare vehicles are often hidden away in climate-controlled garages or brought out only for concours events, using one to run errands feels almost revolutionary. It shifts the narrative. The car is not a prop for admiration but a tool designed to be driven.
With a price tag approaching four million dollars, the Chiron represents the pinnacle of internal combustion performance. It stands as a kind of farewell to an era now yielding to electric propulsion. That may be part of the appeal in watching it roll through a mundane setting. Rimac, who is leading the push toward electrification with innovations like the all-electric Rimac Nevera, understands exactly what the Chiron symbolizes. Taking it out for groceries might be his quiet tribute to a time soon to pass.
In the end, the story is not just about a man and his machine. It is about the freedom to enjoy what humans have engineered at the highest level. Rimac’s easy relationship with something so rare challenges conventional ideas about wealth and exclusivity. True luxury might not be about ownership or display. Sometimes, it is about treating the extraordinary as part of ordinary life. And if that life includes milk, eggs, and over fifteen hundred horses, then so be it.