Spending $400 on a toaster might seem like a questionable idea, but you know what’s even more questionable? Spending $400 on a toaster that’s not very good at its one job.
Enter the Bugatti Volo: a $439 toaster that’s one of the lowest scoring models in our review.
While the name makes it sound like it’s made by the excruciatingly expensive car brand, it’s actually an entirely different company that makes kitchen products.
Its eye-watering price tag might seem excessive, but this is actually the cheap version. If you thought $400 was too much for a toaster, how does $800 sound?
€900 ‘joaster’, anyone? Didn’t think so.
We bought the $439 white model for our testing, but if you’re feeling especially fancy you can drop $799 on a gold or rose gold version.
In Europe you can even pick up a denim, newspaper, leather or embossed gold or black version for a cool €900. Wow.
We checked with the manufacturer and the only difference between the white version and the more expensive models is the coating – which means that no matter how much you pay for a Bugatti Volo, you’ll get the same performance.
And that performance is in no way proportionate to its price tag.
With a CHOICE Expert Rating of just 56%, the Bugatti Volo is one of the lowest scoring toasters in our review, which has earned it a place in our list of toasters to avoid.
It was even outclassed by a $7.50 Kmart toaster on virtually every test we conducted. Awkward.
The Bugatti Volo is available in a range of leather finishes.
So what’s so bad about it?
Our experts rated it as ‘Poor’ for toasting evenness and for cooking both multigrain bread and frozen bread. It’s slightly better at turning out the same coloured toast cycle after cycle and at toasting a single slice of bread, but it still only scored 55% on these tests.
Oh, and it’s difficult to clean – so you’ll spend all that money for a flash toaster but you’ll struggle to keep it looking flash.
“The Bugatti didn’t look or feel any different in terms of build quality from other generic-brand toasters we’ve tested,” says CHOICE expert tester Adrian Lini.
“It’s made in China like cheaper toasters and there were minor defects in the appearance that aren’t in keeping with a high-quality, expensive designer product.
The Bugatti didn’t look or feel any different in terms of build quality from other generic-brand toasters we’ve tested
Adrian Lini, CHOICE expert tester
“If you compare that to the Dualit and Milantoast, they’re both made in their brand’s country of origin (the UK and Italy respectively), which is rare these days, and all of their components are made from metal where possible.”
Plus it only has a two-year warranty, which is pretty standard for most toasters, but then most toasters don’t cost anywhere near this much.
If it fails after those two years, you could be left with an expensive paperweight.
If you have this much dough to drop on a toaster, our experts suggest you don’t spend it on this one
(Given the price, you could argue that you should receive a repair, replacement or refund under the Australian Consumer Law for a longer period of time, as a reasonable person would expect an expensive toaster to last more than two years, but you may have a battle on your hands considering that companies frequently flout consumer law.)
So where’s the value? We’re not sure really. The aesthetic? (Questionable.) The brand? (It’s not *that* Bugatti.) The cred of owning an $800 toaster? (Some people must be impressed by that kind of thing.)
If you have this much dough to drop on a toaster, our experts suggest you don’t spend it on this one.
Toasters are generally pretty simple appliances, but Breville has recently developed a futuristic machine for making high-tech toast.
The Eye Q Auto uses optical sensors rather than a timer to cook the bread to your preferred toastiness. It keeps an eye on how brown your toast is and once it’s the right shade, it stops toasting.
Breville says the sensors scan the bread ten times a second to check your toast’s progress.
The Eye Q Auto uses optical sensors rather than a timer to cook the bread to your preferred toastiness
But does something as straightforward as toast really need such fancy technology? Our experts aren’t convinced. They trialled it on various types of bread and the results were mixed.
Their verdict? It’s a lot of money for an appliance that doesn’t seem to deliver results worthy of its $459 price tag. (There’s also a four-slice version that’s $629!)
We will be putting it through its paces using our rigorous test methods later this year, comparing it alongside traditional toasters, so stay tuned for the full results.
While the Bugatti Volo is more about style than substance, the makers of the Milantoast and Dualit NewGen had a firm focus on substance when they designed these two toasters.
That’s not to say they lack style – but there’s more to them than just a slick exterior.
They aren’t quite the Ferraris (or Bugattis) of the toaster world – although with prices that high you could be forgiven for thinking so. Rather, they’re more like the Teslas of toast: environmentally friendly, but a big upfront investment.
The most expensive toaster in our test, the Dualit NewGen is designed to be repaired over and over again.
They’re designed so that every component can be replaced or repaired, so instead of having to chuck your toaster out when the element dies or the lever stops working, you can just get it fixed and then continue on your merry toasty way.
Both Dualit and Milantoast claim the toasters will last a lifetime, so you’ll be saving the many toasters you would otherwise buy over the years from ending up in landfill.
You’ll be saving the many toasters you would otherwise buy over the years from ending up in landfill
So are these toasters worth 500 bucks? It really depends on your priorities – and your budget. For many of us, a $500 toaster just isn’t affordable. However, if you’ve got cash to burn but don’t want the planet to, it might seem like a good investment in the future.
Manual toasters: The learning curve
Both the Milantoast and the Dualit use analog controls, meaning they have an old-fashioned timer dial, and when toasting is complete, you’ll need to manually raise the toast out of the carriage using a lever (although this does help keep it warm).
“Getting good results with a manual toaster like this requires a lot of trial and error – and probably plenty of undercooked or overcooked toast,” says CHOICE appliance expert Kim Gilmour.
“You can get better results but you’ll need to persevere. It’s a learning curve.”
Could an expensive toaster actually be cheaper in the long term?
When you add up how much you could spend on toasters in your lifetime, $400–500 actually doesn’t sound like much. You’ll have to factor in the cost of replacement parts and labour, but you could still end up ahead if you invest in a repairable toaster.
Let’s say you’re buying toasters for around 50 years of your life. If you buy a mid-range toaster at $100, it should last you around four years, so that’s $1250. A cheap $30 toaster will likely need to be replaced every two years, so over your toaster-buying lifetime, it’ll add up to $750*.
When you add up how much you could spend on toasters in your lifetime, $500 actually doesn’t sound like much
When you look at those figures, a $500 toaster starts to look like a reasonable price to pay – especially when you consider how many toasters won’t be going into landfill.
And can you really put a price on your environmental impact?
(*These numbers will vary based on market circumstances. For instance, inflation might push those numbers higher, or they could go lower if toasters become cheaper to manufacture.)
According to Milantoast, its two-slice taster will last a lifetime.
Is the $490 Milantoast worth the money?
Spending almost $500 on a toaster is a serious investment, so how does the Milantoast stack up?
With a CHOICE Expert Rating of just 54%, it only out-scored a $29 Kmart toaster by a miniscule one percentage point. It scored just 20% for toasting evenness – the same as another Kmart Anko toaster.
The Milantoast is crummy at consistent toasting.
But one of the most noticeable issues with this toaster was toasting consistency (whether it delivers the same level of toastiness cycle after cycle).
The Milantoast is designed to save energy by holding the heat from the first toasting cycle, which means it doesn’t need to run as long for subsequent cycles.
This means that the first cycle takes significantly longer, and then you need to reduce the cooking time for the next cycles (or you could end up with burnt toast).
Even using the company’s suggested method, the results were still far from consistent.
In our toasting consistency test this meant that in the first run, it produced undercooked toast, and then its residual heat meant that the remaining cycles produced inconsistent results.
We also tested the toaster using Milantoast’s suggested method, which involves reducing the toasting time for subsequent cycles.
The results were slightly better but still inconsistent.
While the Milantoast’s potential lifespan certainly is a positive, it could work out to be a negative: do you really want to spend a lifetime with an expensive toaster that doesn’t toast well?
Is the $580 Dualit NewGen worth the money?
Another repairable toaster, the Dualit NewGen can also be pulled apart and have its parts repaired or replaced.
The Dualit delivered far more even and consistent results than the Milantoast.
For around $100 more than the two-slice Milantoast, you’ll get four toast slots with the larger model, a five-year warranty – and far better performance. (The two-slice Dualit NewGen is $450.)
It did well on many of our tests, particularly tests for toasting evenness and consistency, but was less impressive at toasting frozen bread.
Its simplicity is a big drawcard in that it makes the toaster easy to repair, but it can also be a drawback – its manual design means that you’ll have to be more involved in the toasting process.
That’s not likely to be an issue for engaged home cooks, but if you’re not a morning person you might be better off sticking with a toaster that’ll do all the work for you.
Four of the 10 toasters recommended by our experts cost less than $100, so clearly you don’t need to spend a fortune to get great results.
However, there’s no guarantee that cheaper appliances will last a long time, which means you may have to replace them after a couple of years. That’s a lot of toasters going into landfill!
According to our research, a regular toaster will last anywhere from two to six years, depending on how much you spend on them – higher-end toasters do tend to last longer, while cheaper ones often have a shorter lifespan.
(This is just a rough guide: even expensive toasters can fail before their time, and cheaper ones can kick on for years.)
The verdict
If you have $500 to spend on a two-slice toaster and sustainability is important to you, then the Dualit NewGen could be a good investment (it’s certainly a better option than the Milantoast), whereas spending that money on the Bugatti makes no sense at all.
And the technology in the Breville Eye Q Auto could use some work before it delivers toast worthy of its high price tag. It’s also a new product and it’s not clear yet how replaceable or repairable it is.
But while the Dualit NewGen might save you money in the long term, for some, the upfront cost will be too much.
If you have $500 to spend and sustainability is important to you, the Dualit NewGen could be a good investment
If the $500 price tag is out of reach for you, you’re probably better off buying a good-quality toaster that you shouldn’t need to replace too quickly.
And since you’ll hopefully be toasting with it for five to six years, you’ll want to make sure it works well: check our reviews to find the best toasters.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. LinkedIn
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. LinkedIn
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