Jay Leno has seen just about everything in his decades as a car collector, but one phone call stands out above the rest. During a recent appearance on ‘Cars and Culture with Jason Stein‘ on SiriusXM Business Radio, the comedian and automotive enthusiast recounted the story of a Massachusetts widow who called him wanting to sell her late husband’s Ferrari for far less than it was worth.
“She said my husband bought a Ferrari in ’72 and he just passed away and I want to sell it,” Leno told host Jason Stein. “I said what do you want for it? She said I want $350,000. I know it’s a lot of money but I think it’s worth it.”
Leno, who was being recognized at the Automotive Hall of Fame at the time of the interview, immediately saw that the car was worth far more. The vehicle was a Ferrari 275 with an alloy body and twin cam engine, a model that draws serious attention among collectors.
Rather than take advantage of the situation, Leno told the woman he would give her the $350,000 she was asking. But he also leveled with her.
“I said, do you know how to cook? Can you bake cookies?” Leno recalled. “She says yes. I said okay, if I can get you close to 4 million for that car, will you bake me some cookies?”
The widow was skeptical.
“She said, why? It’s not worth that much,” Leno said. “I go, it’s worth that much. You can sell it with the $350,000 you want, but I don’t want to take your car.”
The Ferrari sold for $3,750,000. Leno got his cookies, and the two became friends.
The story reflects something Leno says he encounters often.
“You know what I hear from the most? I hear from widows who just don’t know what to do,” he said. “Most car guys are kind of quiet. Their wives, girlfriends don’t have any idea.”
Leno said he tries to steer people in the right direction, advising them to contact collector clubs and check publications like Hemmings to gauge what their car is actually worth.
He was direct about where he stands on those who take advantage of such situations.
“I don’t like it when I hear people tell me a story about how they screwed some old guy out of a car,” he said. “I hate those kind of stories. I like these kind of stories.”
The widow’s husband had purchased the Ferrari in 1972, when the cars were exotic but within reach for the right buyer. She had simply picked a number she thought sounded reasonable, with no sense of what the collector market had done to the car’s value over the decades.
Her husband, Leno noted, “wasn’t a wealthy guy,” just someone who had the good fortune of buying an exceptional car at the right time.
