Good Lord. I did read that Obama had a Chrysler 300 (not that he's President he's probably not allowed to travel in any car that doesn't have six inches of armour plating) but I don't who would want pay that kind of money for it. We're not talking about a particularly special car either (I like the 300 but it's very common at the moment), it's not like it's one of Prince Charles' old Aston Martins or something like that.

Looks like Obama got a raw deal compared to those guys! I'd take any of those cars over a Granada

If anyone's interested, here is a small list of Presidential first cars:

Ford: 1924 Ford coupe
Carter: 1947 Studebaker
Reagan: 1934 Nash
Bush Sr: 1947 Studebaker Champ
Clinton: 1963 Buick LeSabre convertible
Bush Jr: Oldsmobile Cutlass

Harper gets driven around in a 300C, while the Governor-General usually has a Lincoln Town Car with special plates. They might have also used Buick Park Avenues on occasion.

There was an interesting article I read the other day about American presidents and their personal cars; unsurprisingly, most drove brands such as Chrysler and Ford although there are some exceptions. For instance, Lyndon B. Johnson owned an Amphicar that he liked to drive into the lake at his ranch while George W. Bush once owned a Triumph convertible.

Regarding other politicians: McCain drives a Cadillac CTS (1st gen).

Politicians: I don't know what Harper has, but I remember reading that Paul Martin (the previous Prime Minister) had a Chevy Impala.


I think his cars are worth a lot of money on their own merit. There's probably some old Nissan/Datsun racecars in there, as well has his semi-famous V8 Volvo wagon (840?).

p.s. about private cars of politicians - i remember the hysteric discussion in the usa before the president-elections "does he drives and us car or not?", i can say, that our german chancellor mrs.merkel is not "bling bling"-orientated, as its known from m.sarkozy from france. she is a convinced vw golf-driver since several years.

our former chancellor mr.schröder drives a vw touran.

in 1983, when he was becoming the previous chancellor, mr.kohl has bought a german car, because this should have been better for his reputation (by the opinion of some "spin doctors"). then the bought a audi 100 typ 43 and has sold it peogeot 504.

@neptune: there are people around, which are paying extreme much money for cars or other "devotionals", just because they were owned before by prominent people. or they are buying things, which were involved in a special event.

do oyu remember the abnormous price, the owner of an internet-casino had paid for the vw golf, which was owned before by pope benedetto? i dont remember the exact price, 130 000 or 170 000 euro - for just a simple vw golf mk3.

later on such a deal was tried with the former private car of pope johannes paaul, a simple 1978 ford escort. the car had a real value of just 900 euro.


dont you remember the many auctions of cars -at brooklands or sotheby's-, which were owned by prominent owners? a lot of them are getting higher price, just because of the previous owner, not because of the cars itself.

actually the cars of the collection of paul newman shall be sold at auctions.


and think about some thing, which were involved in historic events or happening. for example dishes from the "titanic", letter of the "hindenburg" zeppelin, etc.....



some years ago i had the chance to buy a nsu ro 80, former owned by that guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Kartner
...o.k., not to compare with obama and the pope, but well known in the 70ies. anyways, the car was in quite good condition and not too expensice (12 500 dutch guilders, ca.5500 euro), but i had not the money and the space for it. and a prominent previous owner is not important for me.


actually there is a german license-plate at ebay, which was formerly at a car of the south african/german singer
howard carpendale. yesterday the price was around 165 euro - for a regular, unvalid german plate without any real value.

in summer 2006, exactly to the semi-final of the soccer-worldcup there was sold at ebay for over 300 euro a pair of -old and unvalid- licence-plates, which belonged to the german coach jürgen klinsmann.

What does embezzlement have to do with anything? Senators are on government payroll funded by taxpayer money. Average pay for a senator is around $160k a year.

I like Obama (I hope he doesn’t make me regret voting for him) but I would never, ever pay that much money to own a car that he owned.

That kind of money for a 300 C just because Obama had it ...... silly!