Where are they now? - the used car edition
"Where are they now?" It's always fun to do a little research and see what happened to obscure celebrities after they faded from the spotlight. Yet this game doesn't solely work with people. It's also interesting to track down some of history's most famous vehicles and see where they ended up.
MSN recently looked at several vehicles that became famous for one reason or another. Some ended up in the hands of collectors while others just narrowly avoided the scrapheap.
O.J. Simpson's infamous televised getaway brought the phrase "White Ford Bronco" into the public lexicon. So what became of the vehicle after the trial? The news source notes that the car was not actually owned by Simpson, but instead by his friend and former NFL player Al Cowlings. Reportedly, Cowlings sold the used Ford for a whopping $75,000 to a private buyer - but the sale was not without controversy. Cowlings was sued by a celebrity memorabilia company for allegedly reneging on a deal he had in place to sell the vehicle to them.
Even decades-old used cars can still resurface from time to time. Al Capone outfitted a 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan with bulletproof glass and 3,000 pounds of steel armor. After he was captured, the U.S. government impounded the car, only to later use it as part of Franklin Roosevelt's security detail. It was later sold to a Texas car collector, whose estate still owns it today.
The Dodge Charger shot to fame thanks to its use in the TV series "Dukes of Hazard." The story of the actual "General Lee" used on the show is pretty complicated. Multiple versions of the car were used in order to handle all the stunts, but the original model, known as "LEE 1," was salvaged from a junkyard by John Schneider, who played "Bo" on the TV series.
After restoring the car and holding onto it for a number of years, he eventually put it up for sale on eBay. It first looked like the car sold for close to $10 million dollars, but the bidder later withdrew that amount and it was sold in a second auction for an undisclosed sum. Collectors value other models used in production at between $200,000 and $300,000, according to AutoBlog.
One of the more recent examples of a car shooting to fame was the Cadillac Escalade driven by Tiger Woods on the night of his accident. That car was actually loaned to Woods by GM, who seized the vehicle after the incident. The news source reports that GM will use the car for internal purposes after repairing it, but will likely eventually sell it.
"These kinds of vehicles almost always go through a formal auction process," Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell told USA Today.
Although it's likely that any of these vehicles would fetch a high price tag at a used car auction, drivers interested in saving money shouldn't discount the auction format. Bidding on a used vehicle can net a driver big savings as opposed to negotiating with a dealer on a traditional lot.
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