What do billionaires drive? Same cars as the rest of us...
If you had a net worth in the billions of dollars, what would you drive? A bright red Ferrari? The million-dollar Bugatti Veyron? The super-luxurious Maybach 62? How about one of each? You may be surprised to find out what Forbes' Top Ten richest people in the world are driving. Not an exotic Italian supercar among them.
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Bill Gates drives a '99 Porsche 911 cabrio. He's also got a rare Porsche 959, for which he got President Clinton to sign a law legalizing it for road use. Now that's some serious clout, but with $50 billion at his disposal and a taste for Stuttgart's finest, wouldn't a Carrera GT or a new 911 Turbo have found a way into his garage?
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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett drives a Lincoln Town Car Signature Series, complete with landau roof.
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IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad has a '93 Volvo 240 GL, but prefers taking the bus. Seriously. And he uses his senior-citizen's card, too.
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Like his pal Bill, Mircosoft co-founder Paul Allen has a Porsche 959 (how original), but drives around Washington State mostly in an '88 Mazda B-Series pickup.
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Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, meanwhile, has got the Infiniti FX45, Hummer H1, Volvo XC90, Rolls Royce Phantom and Daewoo Matiz in his garage. Two of each, so that his entourage can follow in identical wheels. (If the Daewoo seems out of place, it's because the prince is part owner of the company.)
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Michael Dell (whose name is probably emblazoned on the computer you're using to read this) alternates between a 2004 Porsche Boxster and a 2005 Hummer H2.
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Larry "the Oracle" Ellison has got wheels with some style: a pair of new Bentley Continentals, a GT coupe and a Flying Spur sedan. (They go well with his fighter jet and America's Cup racing yacht.)
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Jim Walton, owner of Wal-Mart, has for a garage what you'll probably find at the local used car lot: a 2002 Dodge Dakota, '99 Chevy Silverado, '98 Mitsubishi Montero Sport and 2000 Acura Integra, all available at everyday low prices. (His '59 Cadillac is probably a sweet ride, though.)
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Jim's sister Alice Walton walked after killing a woman in '89 behind the wheel of a Porsche. Now she drives an F-150 King Ranch pickup. (More carefuly, we hope.)
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Like his colleagues Bill and Paul, Steven Ballmer made his billions at Microsoft, but he stays true to his motown roots at the wheel of a '98 Lincoln Continental.
We know what you're thinking. "If I had that kinda money...". But you don't. Neither do we. So we'll all just keep on dreaming. Follow the link to Forbes for pics of these millionaire-mobiles (not the actual ones owned by wealthy, just stock shots).
[Source: Forbes Auto]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ryan 9:19PM (9/19/2006)
at least ralph lauren has some style with 3 mclaren f1s and a bevy of other incredible rides...
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nIcK 8:42PM (9/19/2006)
In keeping with the theme of techies, I wonder what Steve Jobs drives? If I had to guess, I'd say a Prius, or an iCar that runs on applejuice.
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Dave 8:50PM (9/19/2006)
I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs drives a Benz SL55 without license plates. California has permitted him to drive without a plate and instead with a bar code where the plate should be because his plate has been stolen too many times.
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Will 8:53PM (9/19/2006)
Warren Buffett auctioned off his Lincoln, as Autoblog already posted here ..
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/08/25/warren-buffet-auctions-town-car-for-charity/
Nice to have conflicting news stories.
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Jiminy Cricket 8:54PM (9/19/2006)
Buddy of mine is worth a little over $500million and he would drive around in a junky Ford Taurus. It wasn't for show, he actually liked the car. He hired a consultant to deal with the problems owning a company that saw explosive growth and the consultant told him to buy a car that would show his authority and park it in front instead of the back parking lot. What does he buy? A C-Class Mercedes, the German Taurus. How funny.
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erdos 9:00PM (9/19/2006)
--- Jim Walton, owner of Wal-Mart, ---
Wow, the largest corporation on earth has ONE owner? That guy must be busier than a one-legged cat trying to bury sh*t in a frozen pond. I could've sworn it was a publicly traded company with about a million stockholders. Oh well.
Seriously though, don't forget Sam Walton himself busted into the national consciousness 20 years ago as the country's richest man -- driving his OLD red pickup truck.
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Todd 9:04PM (9/19/2006)
I don't think much of Larry Ellison, but I like his taste in cars better than the others ones in this list!
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Stoneman 8:08AM (9/20/2006)
I'd buy something environmentally conscious...like an H1.
bahahaha
Just kidding.
Stoneman
http://www.stonemanautoreview.com
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billionaires are frugal that's why they are so wealthy 9:23PM (9/19/2006)
great article, a lesson for all rich boys what it really means to be rich.
Rich passionate men don't buy toys, they do philanthropy.
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David 9:25PM (9/19/2006)
Warren Buffett is showing his support of GM by driving a new DTS.
I believe that this was also an Autoblog post a couple of weeks back.
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imight 9:32PM (9/19/2006)
Generalizations are dangerous.
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verdegrrl 9:32PM (9/19/2006)
Yes, Jobs drives silver Mercedes sedans w/o plates.
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Kruder 5:10PM (9/20/2006)
Steve Jobs drives a silver Mercedes S-Class and a silver Mercedes SL 65 AMG, both without license plates.
Pictures of his cars:
http://www.romain-moisescot.com/steve/beingsteve/pics/car.jpg
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=61490613&size=o
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Joe 10:13PM (9/19/2006)
It's interesting to me that most of the guys who made their money drive sensible cars and the guy who went out and spent big bucks on his wheels is the guy who was GIVEN his money, the so-called prince.
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mxs 10:17PM (9/19/2006)
That Forbes article is 6-7 months old at least, must be a slow day.
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Jason 10:20PM (9/19/2006)
Steve Jobs is handicap?
BTW he does have nice cars though.
I believe I also saw this a while back on here and on Forbes.
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JZeke 10:34PM (9/19/2006)
Kinda pointless dontcha think?
Cars are an irrelvance when the world is not enough. Paul Allen and Larry Ellison own multiple mega-yachts, the largest of which is each over 450 feet. Paul Allen also helped fund the X-prize, and helped Burt Rutan build the world's first commercial spaceplane.
If you can travel like that, who'd want to drive anything in traffic?
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Tony Vallone 11:41PM (9/19/2006)
Steve Jobs lives down the street from me. He has a black AND silver sl. I haven't see an sclass parked there for awhile.
He used to own a z8 but that was awhile ago.
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Buckus 11:22PM (9/19/2006)
Why buy junky old cars when you can buy Planes, houses, countries, vaccinations for a few billion people, sports teams, etc. I bet people who are worth 1-10 million have more exotic cars just because after a house, it's the most expensive thing they can afford (private jets would be too expensive to own and operate for these types.)
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hmmm 11:33PM (9/19/2006)
does anyone know why everyone wants to steal Steve Jobs license plates ? ive tried for a few months to figure that one out !
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