Start with what the Bugatti Type 46 is: a car with 5359 cc I8, built from 1929 to 1936, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold. What it meant takes a little longer.
The engineering
The engine is 5359 cc I8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 3505 mm (Type 46) / 3099 mm (Type 50). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Bugatti line-up the Bugatti Type 46 has a clear place: the factory was Molsheim, Alsace (Usine Bugatti de Molsheim), France. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Rolls-Royce Phantom II, the Lancia Lambda torpedo, the DKW Typ 4=8. Its Bugatti stablemates include the Bugatti 57 Galibier and the Bugatti 8-cylinder line.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Bugatti Type 46 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.
Bugatti type 46 limousine1930
Bugatti type 46 roadster1930
Bugatti type 46 S sedan1932