Can anybody tell me which presidents had which cars? Who had a Hudson? Who had a Packard? What does George Bush drive? I’d like this for a match-em-up trivia contest. If any of them owned a Corvette even better.
Obviously George Washington did not drive a car. His horses seemed to be named Nelson and Blueskin and not Toyota Corolla. Now if I can find the presidents that had horses named Gremlin, Hummer, Cavalier, Fury, Corvette being the best. Or presidents that had a Colt or Pinto or Mustang. Or a president that had a pet Jaguar or Impala…
William Howard Taft was the first president to use cars for transportation on a regular basis. He equipped the White House fleet with White steamers, and also with Pierce Arrows.
When WWII broke out, there was no armored limousine in the White House fleet for FDR’s use. As a result, federal officials utilized the armored Cadillac limo that had been seized from Al Capone when he was arrested on tax evasion charges. (An interesting footnote is that J. Edgar Hoover, the paranoid head of the FBI, already had an armored limo, purchased at govt. expense, even though one had not been purchased for the President.) When FDR was at home in Hyde Park, NY, he drove a Plymouth roadster with special hand controls.
Harry Truman bought one of the Lincolns from the White House fleet to take back to Missouri when he left office. Prior to becoming President, he owned a Chrysler sedan.
LBJ favored Lincoln convertibles on his Texas ranch, and he drove the Secret Service nuts by driving these Lincolns on dirt roads, at high speed, after imbibing alcohol.
When George W. Bush was campaigning in vain for Congress many years ago, he drove an Olds Cutlass.
Bill Clinton had a Mustang convertible in his pre-politician days.
1 Like
LBJ would also escape at night when at the ranch and take of in his twin engine aircraft as a joke. This would not only drive the Secret Service crazy, but would force the Air Force to launch aircraft from nearby bases for his portection. A joke that had a very high cost.
Looking for more info on the armored limo you mention J.Edgar Hoover had available for his use @ the start of WW2. Pretty sure it still exists and I know where it is.
Are presidents even allowed to drive cars anymore? It’s a job you couldn’t give to me. The president is essentially a prisoner of the White House. Everywhere he goes has to be carefully arranged and planned in advance. He can’t just hop on a motorcycle and go for a ride to wherever on the spur of a moment like I can.
Certainly not while president. Cars and Coffee did a riff on this by showing Obama trying to drive a Corvette out of the White House gate. Secret Service shut him right down.
I recall LBJ used to take guests around his ranch in his Amphicar, which of course few people knew what it was. He’d get it barreling down a hill toward a pond and start screaming that the brakes didn’t work. It’d shoot into the pond and his guest would panic, assuming he was about to drown. 
Perhaps Ted Kennedy needed one of those Amphicars.
1 Like
I believe Bill also had an El Camino