Something I have wondered for a while... Instead of renting(or buying) vehicles used as the alt modes, couldn't they have saved money(and had more freedom as far as damage, etc) by just licensing the vehicle images and building what are essentially shells that are visually identical(or at least close, filling in the holes with CGI) and slapping them on top of the chassis of clunkers found at a junk yard? Wouldn't even have to be like the V8s or V12s...you could have a 80 hp 3 cylinder under a Bugatti kit and replicate the exhaust sound. Stupid thought possibly, or not.
They might have done that (or something similar) for the 'stunt' versions of the cars, vs. the 'hero' versions. It's not uncommon, I don't think, in order to make the cars safer and more resilient to multiple takes.
That's basically what they did for Bumblebee's Concept Camaro form in the first film - that's actually a Mustang chassis with a Camaro frame attached, because the Concept's true prototype wasn't available for filming. The problem is that with supercars? They're really freakin' big. The Bugatti Veyron is 6 foot 7 inches in width - that's wider than most humans are tall! You can't just take a normal car chassis and put a mock-up of a car that big on it, though really given how Mad Max Fury Road custom built an insanely large amount of vehicles, it probably could still have been done. But then that's the problem with the direction the films were taking after DOTM, or arguably WITH DOTM since there was no reason that Ferrari needed to even be in the picture given those image obsessed bastards made Dino pretty much worthless. Everything had to be "authentic", ranging from the supercars to the locations (they literally filmed on Stonehenge...only to build a complete replica anyway just to blow it up, thus rendering the entire point of filming at Stonehenge pointless), to that stupid ass submarine bit. Nobody actually watching the film gave a damn about authenticity.
We're actually both wrong - it was a Holden Monaro - though you're probably talking about its rebadged version as the Pontiac GTO's final production phase. Bumblebee (Movie) - Transformers Wiki
Considering they make money for using the cars in the movie cause it's basically a sponsorship, I don't think they were too concerned about penny-pinching in that area for the most part.
I could have sworn it they said it was a GTO in the behind the scenes stuff on the original DVD. They were essentially the same car. It's interesting because the article goes on to mention the GTO.
