“They know cars are depreciating assets.”
This woman says her husband once worked with an A-List actor on a project, and the car he drove to set every day would surprise you.
TikTok creator Samantha Fox (@not.samantha.fox) recorded the video in response to a comment about whether wealthy people “drive ‘old beat up cars.’”
“My husband once worked with Tom Hanks,” Fox says. “And I’m sure you assume he drives a super nice car, which I’m sure he owns, but when my husband worked with him, he showed up every day in a lime-green Ford Fiesta.”
Motor1 contacted story subjects via email for comment. We will update this story if they respond.
In the comments section of the video, viewers reacted to the idea of Tom Hanks driving a lime-green Ford Fiesta to work every day.
“When I think of him I think of Forrest Gump,” wrote one person. “And he’s runnniiing!”
“Why would he do that, though?” a second person asked.
“Christian Bale drives a 2003 Toyota Tacoma,” a third person stated. According to the Drive, Bale actually bought the truck used in 2003, but the point stands.
Another person addressed the larger argument about whether wealthy people generally drive older vehicles. “I live in a wealthier area and I see your occasional super car, but most around here are driving Toyotas or, like, Hondas. And they are all a few years old. They know cars are depreciating assets.”
There is actually a fair bit of material online on this subject. In 2020, Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were photographed riding in what appears to be a late 2010s or early 2020s Land Rover Range Rover.
He is also a noted car collector, as detailed in this article about a 2021 auction that featured his 1992 Airstream Model 34, 2011 Ford F-450 Super Duty Crew Cab Lariat, 1980 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser, and 2015 Tesla Model S P85D in British Racing Green. A year later, Hanks auctioned off the extremely rare Polski Fiat 126p gifted to him by a city in Poland.
The answer is apparently both. According to the White Coat Investor, only about a quarter of millionaires surveyed owned a brand-new car. The explanation for that is pretty simple: It’s cheaper to buy and maintain a used car in many cases.
In this Reddit thread posted to r/bogleheads two years ago, a person weighed in on the question. “It probably has something to do with them just having frugality and investment-mindedness engrained into them as a personality trait. After all, cars are huge money pits and are for the most part depreciating assets.”
Another person said, “It’s a statement. I have a CEO friend driving a 30-year-old BMW 3 series. It says more than driving a new car.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motor1.com?
– The Motor1.com Team