Comic Jay Leno is greatest referred to as efficiently filling the sneakers of longtime “Tonight Present” host, and DeLorean proprietor, Johnny Carson starting in 1992. However following his retirement after greater than 4,600 episodes of NBC’s late night time present, Leno lastly acquired to pursue his true ardour for all issues mechanical on a full-time foundation. That features helming “Jay Leno’s Storage” on CNBC earlier than the present was cancelled and moved to YouTube just a few years in the past.
Some media shops exaggerate the scale of Leno’s assortment at greater than 260 vehicles, nevertheless it’s extra like a still-impressive 181 vehicles, plus about 160 bikes thrown in for good measure. Contained in the entertainer’s Burbank, California warehouse lies an eclectic gathering of sheet steel to make sure, beginning with the early twentieth century steam-powered vehicles that proved to be hazardous to the septuagenarian tinkerer. In fact, there’s the requisite supercars like a McLaren P1 and a Porsche Carrera GT. Heck, he is even acquired a Tato Nano — a mud low-cost microcar from India. However one model that any automotive lover value his or her salt cherishes is conspicuously absent: Ferrari.
What’s Jay Leno’s beef with Ferrari?
To be clear, Leno is a fan of the prancing horse model. Each traditional and modern Ferraris just like the F50 have graced “Jay Leno’s Storage,” however the denim-clad aficionado would by no means really use his personal cash to purchase one. “I like Ferraris, they’re glorious vehicles,” Leno states on a “Vehicles and Tradition” podcast circa 2022. The jokester continues, “I simply by no means appreciated coping with the sellers. I do not wish to give a man 25-grand in an envelope [for the privilege of buying one].” He likens the Ferrari buy expertise to “wealthy guys who go to a dominatrix” to get the crap kicked out of them.
Leno additionally ranges accusations that prospects are required to purchase inferior fashions first as a prerequisite to purchasing the automotive they really need, and that the model pressures house owners into buying expensive certificates of authenticity to take care of a car’s provenance. Leno contrasts the chilly shoulder from Ferrari with glorious customer support from McLaren, whose salesperson suggested him in opposition to pointless expensive choices like carbon fiber brakes and later supplied a big horsepower improve for his MP4-12C, freed from cost.
A curious side of Jay Leno’s stance on new Ferrari possession is that his appreciable fame — automotive and in any other case — would doubtless negate the necessity to bounce by way of the identical hoops that mere mortals like us would endure. The truth that Leno would not throw his superstar weight round and treats a Ferrari buy from the identical viewpoint as your common Bitcoin millionaire speaks volumes about his humility.
