Somewhere, at the back of everyone’s mind, we have a “billion dollar wish list.” Maybe even just a million dollar wish list or less, but we’ve all thought at some time or another about what we’d buy if money grew on trees.
For many celebrities, they get to check off their wish list with a diamond encrusted, platinum pen. Between $5K handbags, $2K shoes, and even $25K sunglasses as we recently saw on “The Real House Wives of Beverly Hills.”
A few celebrities would forego all the yachts, handbags, clothes, and homes in the world—as long as they have a garage (or rather, a building) to house their antique cars. You know the ones—if they didn’t show off their car collection on MTV Cribs, then they’ve let Oprah into their vault of valuable cars, or they talk enthusiastically about them while they’re conducting an interview.
If you’re a car enthusiast (or an insurance agent), here are three celebrity garages you’d probably like to get inside of.
Jerry Seinfeld
Ooohp! That unmistakable voice just popped into your head, didn’t it? If you’re not a fan of that voice, no worries—it could quickly become inaudible over the sound of the engine of his Porsche 959. The 959’s value is $700K, just a fraction of the reported $1.4 million dollar garage he wanted to build on his property to house his many cars.
One could say the 959 is a good enough reason to want protection like that. Even for the everyday Joe, insurance premiums come much cheaper if an antique car or collector car is garaged. Seinfeld is certainly making the life of one insurance agent very happy, so his agent probably happily advised Seinfeld of anything and everything he could do to get a “cheap” insurance premium. If it meant buying an airplane hangar at the Santa Monica Airport to do so, he did. His collection includes several antique 911s, about ten Boxsters and a Porsche 550 Spyder (the same model James Dean died in). The hangar was only temporary though—in 2004, he built a $1.4 million private garage.
Amazingly, all of these cars only account for an estimated 3% of his net worth, with an estimate of $10 million. To top it off, each car in his collection is painted a different color. We can just imagine Seinfeld singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” while admiring this colorful collection.
Ralph Lauren
If you know fashion, you know the value of anything that’s ‘one of a kind’ or limited. If only five of the newest Birkin handbags are made, they’ll not only have high price tags, they’ll gain a lot of appreciation in their lifetime—and not in the form of women drooling while window shopping.
Nobody knows the definition of ‘one of a kind’ and ‘vintage’ like Ralph Lauren. Lauren is now known as having one of the most expansive (and expensive) car collections in the world. He owns one of the five McLarenF1LMs ever made, which helped attach his name to serious car collecting in addition to the tag every golfer’s shirt. The McLaren is known as one of the naturally fast cars on the road, and comes with a speed racier than any runway model’s legs—225 miles per hour.
Most car collectors would sacrifice a limb just to drive a McLaren, but that wasn’t enough for Lauren. He topped off his collection with a few dozen other collector and antique cars and houses them at his New York estate. In May of 2011, a few of Lauren’s cars were put on an exhibit in Paris, where he shared cars like his 1929 Bentley Blower and 1930 Mercedes-Benz SSK. Wonder how many models realize they must look mundane to Lauren compared to his cars.
Jay Leno
Most people just want a job that makes them happy—especially if you’re a funny man like Jay Leno. His jokes and wit are almost as fast as some of the cars in his large and popular collection. Leno has become known for two things—late night television and for being one of the most dedicated car collectors in the world. Unfortunately, his impressive car collection may be worth more than some of his jokes.
Leno has surely paid for the college educations of a few insurance agents’ children. His garage holds a list of antique cars, collector cars, motorcycles, aircrafts, and even steam cars. The collection includes a McLarens, Duessenbergs, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and more. He has ‘collections’ of individual models and types the way some collect thimbles. Overall, he owns approximately 100 vehicles, 90 motorcycles, and then a number of other ‘special’ items like fixed engines.
Typically cars are the last things to sink money into, but Leno happily did so. The garage he built for his hobby also holds equipment usually only used by specialists, like sheet metal machines, welding machines, and a water-jet cutter.
Leno has a website, JayLenosGarage.com that looks like a family photo album—except for the fact that only Leno and his ‘babies’ are pictured. There’s no doubt this collector gets a multi-vehicle discount on his insurance policy, and that the premiums of his policy makes the average policyholder premium look cheap in comparison.
-DesireeBaughman, InsuranceQuotes.org, -@DesireeDB
Photos from Wikipedia: Jay Leno: Lee Stranahan; Jerry Seinfeld: David Shankbone; Ralph Lauren: David McJonathan
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