Billionaires Really are Different than Us

Oddly enough, some billionaires never splash out any droplets of their liquid assets on a fancy set of wheels. Some of the most frugal plutocrats keep their purse strings pulled tighter than Hillary Clinton’s lips during a campaign concession speech.

But why would a wealthy person drive a beat up old car? Let’s just call it the “Beverly Hillbillies” effect. Some billionaires like Donald Trump are flashy and use their wealth to flaunt how successful they are. Others see their thrift as part of the reason they managed to get to their elevated monetary position. Or they were just hillbillies who found oil on their land and moved to Beverly Hills—a place full of “swimming pools and movie stars” where no one told them they should trade in their open top jalopy for a Bentley.

So what do the people controlling the upper percentile of wealth in the world drive? Here is a tasty sampling:

• Warren Buffett—He is currently the world’s richest man with a net worth of $62 billion after he overtook friend Bill Gates for the top position. The notoriously frugal business maven recently sold his 2001 Lincoln Town Car on eBay to benefit a charity. The personalized license plate read “thrifty.” Its replacement? A 2006 Cadillac DTS. We guess he likes to have a car with a bench seat and a column shifter. That sort of limits his choices to these two vehicles which are usually reserved for use as airport limos or hearses. Given his age and current level of business travel, perhaps the DTS can be called into use for both purposes. That would be the ultimate statement of “thrift” for an obscenely wealthy man.
• Donald Trump—Ah, the Donald. So well coiffed, so classy. While these two things have never really been uttered about the multi-media mogul, they could be used to describe his choice of vehicles. To make him appear more stylish the Donald has a Ferrari F430. For those times when he needs to appear like less of a tacky and desperate media *** he has a Rolls Royce Phantom.
• Ralph Lauren—His clothes make us look better and his car choices make him look all the better to us. The latest entry in the style maven’s fantasy garage is a brand new Bugatti Veyron. Besides the Bugatti, the only other modern car he has is a Porsche GT3. No minivans or crossovers for Mr. Lauren. His classic car collection spans from a 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gull-wing to a 1929 Blower Bentley. Color us fashionably impressed. Good clothes and good cars? Ralph Lauren is the kind of billionaire we aspire to be one day.
• Richard Branson—The creator of Virgin Music, Virgin Atlantic Airlines and, well, all things Virgin admits he doesn’t drive a very exciting car—currently a Saab 9-3 biofuel vehicle. This seems odd to us considering this is the same eccentric billionaire who tried to hot air balloon around the world on two separate occasions. He tried and failed as both times he and his hot air balloon team ended up running into bad weather and crashing into the ocean. Billionaires do the darndest things, don’t they? You try to hot air balloon around the world but the best you can come up with to get yourself to the office is a mid-level executive luxury sedan that runs on old soybeans? Let’s hope he doesn’t pick up Janet Jackson (a star on her music label) in the Saab whenever she is in London.
• Bill Gates—Possibly the world’s most famous billionaire, you might think this eco-minded uber-geek would drive a Prius. Perhaps even a Prius that drove itself. But no, old Bill has gone Hollywood and like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz before him, he drives a 1999 Porsche 911 cabrio back and forth to Microsoft headquarters. Wait, a 1999? Why would a man with billions still be driving a 1999 Porsche what with a vastly superior version released in 2005? Much like the people who are resisting the update to the new Microsoft Vista, it appears that Mr. Gates is also refusing to update to the latest version of the venerable Porsche. Or perhaps he is upside down on his payments?

via Forbes