Secrets Behind Celebrities and Their Cars

In the web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” Jerry Seinfeld invites a fellow comedian for a drive, coffee, and conversation.  In each episode—72 in all—he selects a vintage car to drive and explains its significance to his passenger. For example, in the first episode, featuring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, they ride in a 1952 VW Bug, which Seinfeld describes this way:

“And if you’re like me, you feel like true humility is in short supply, this is the car for you.”

Cars driven by Seinfeld in the series range from the very basic—a 1976 Ford Country Squire station wagon driven with Sarah Jessica Parker—to the most extravagant—a 1976 Lamborghini Countach LP40 for Jim Carrey.  Now in its eleventh season, the show has been a monster hit, streamed over 100 million times, according to a New York Times article by Dave Itzkoff.

Since people are so fascinated by both celebrities and cars, it seemed a natural for Seinfeld—a noted car enthusiast with a massive collection of cars himself—to combine these two loves in his Comedians series.  Apparently, fans also wonder what their favorite celebrities drive because there are dozens of lists and an entire website devoted to the topic.

Autoaccessoriesgarage.com, for example, published the article “75 Celebrities and Their Cars,” which lists Jennifer Lopez’s car as a sporty Aston Martin DB7, while Matt LeBlanc of “Friends” fame, tools around in an “everyman’s” Ford Focus.  

You can find lists upon lists of information about celebrities and their cars online, including “The Top 15 Celebrities Who Drive Cheap Cars” (look for exes Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake on this list); the “25 Most Expensive Celebrity Cars” (which includes the lucky Kanye West and David Beckham); and the catch-all “75 Celebrities and Their Cars,” (which includes everyone from Jessica Simpson and her Cadillac Escalade to Julia Roberts and her super-green Prius).

There’s an entire website dedicated to celebrities and their cars, called—no surprise here—celebritycarsblog.com.  The site is impressively comprehensive, with categories including “Celebrities,” “Athletes” and even a page devoted to “Celebrities that Drive Pink.”  The Celebrities page is so comprehensive, it includes a list of over 200 celebrities with links to a short biography about them, along with a photo of them with their car.

I decided to do a little investigating to see for myself the veracity of some of these sites and here’s what I found.  Yes, Britney Spears drives a “cheap” mini-cooper, but she also seems to drive, at times, a BMW 328i, a Mercedes-Benz CLK, a Maserati Gran Turismo, a Jaguar XK and even a tiny Smart Car.  And why is Ashton Kutcher driving a Fisher Karma (huh?) on celebritycarsblog.com and a Ferrari California on autoaccessoriesgarage.com? 

I learned pretty quickly that celebrities are as fickle about their cars as they are about their choice of dinner restaurant or designer outfit.  They easily can choose a luxurious Mercedes one day, an economical Prius the next day and a sporty Porsche the day after that. Guess I’ll just chalk it up to the perks of being fabulously famous and wealthy!