Tuesday, October 10, 2017

would you be angry if you'd bought a car new, drove it 40 miles to store it, then learned you had terminal cancer and would neither enjoy the car, nor benefit from the investment? Would you then enjoy it for what little time remained to you?


18 year old William Leland III, otherwise known as the descendant of the founder of Cadillac and Lincoln Motor Company, got his dad to co-sign, and then stored this car

Bill made it clear when purchasing it at the dealership, that it was not to be driven and gave special instructions to the dealer that included no detail washes and no holes in the bumpers for the license plates, keeping it as mint as possible for the pampered life it would soon be living.

When Leland went to pick up his car from Pell Pontiac, its odometer read only 6 miles. He then drove it 20 miles to his home, locking it away to preserve it in its original state. It sat unregistered for years before Leland moved somewhere else, yet again just 20 miles away, racking up a still-negligible amount of usage on its way there. 17 years it remained in Leland's garage while being started up and rowed through gears periodically to keep the drivetrain fresh.

Bill Jr. was then diagnosed with terminal melanoma cancer, leaving the '79 in his father's care. In the years since, the car has climbed to a mere 65 miles and is currently for sale for 160k



http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/14988/this-pristine-1979-pontiac-trans-am-has-traveled-just-65-miles-since-new

1 comment:

  1. This reminds me of the Jay Leno's Garage episode "1951 Ford Coupe". Bruce Levin the owner died before he could really enjoy it. It's heart breaking.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XISoGSeNZtg

    ReplyDelete