Jay Leno almost passed on his now-famous McLaren F1 twice, calling the roughly $800,000 asking price ‘crazy’ before coming back two weeks later and buying it anyway. That car is worth north of $20 million today, and Leno has turned down offers to sell it — proof, he says, that buying a classic because you love it beats buying one purely as an investment. It’s advice that applies whether you’re shopping for a hypercar or a muscle car.
1979 Pontiac Firebird trans am by cricket ground in UK, 2000. (Photo by National Motor Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
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Jay Leno tells a story about almost walking away from what would become one of the most valuable cars in his collection — twice. He thought the asking price was crazy, said no, and went home. Two weeks later he came back and bought it anyway, a decision that turned an already expensive purchase into a fortune few could have predicted at the time. The car in question wasn’t a garage-queen investment piece either; Leno still drives it today, decades after the deal nearly didn’t happen. So what actually changed his mind after he’d already walked away?
Talked Himself Out of It, Then Back In
Leno recalls McLaren asking close to $800,000 for the F1 — about what it had cost new — and his first reaction was that the number was “crazy” for a car that should have depreciated. He left without buying it, but came back two weeks later and completed the purchase anyway, becoming just the second owner of the car after Ben Pon Jr.
Buy It Because You Love It, Not Because It’ll Pay Off
That McLaren F1 is now valued north of $20 million, and Leno has reportedly turned down offers in that range to keep it — a decision he ties directly to how he chose the car in the first place. His stated philosophy is straightforward: buy classic and collector cars because you love the engineering and the experience of owning them, not as a financial play, since chasing investment returns tends to backfire while loving a car means you keep it regardless of what the market does. He also treats the F1 as a driver rather than a static display piece, regularly taking a multimillion-dollar hypercar out on the road instead of locking it away — advice that applies just as well to buying a $30,000 muscle car as it does a supercar.
Provenance Matters as Much as the Sheet Metal
Leno’s F1 wasn’t just any example — it mattered that he was only the second owner, with a clean, traceable history back to the car’s original sale. That same principle applies at every price point in the classic car market: a well-documented ownership history, complete with service records and a paper trail, tends to hold value far better than a car with unexplained gaps, because buyers are effectively purchasing certainty along with the machine itself.
Numbers-Matching Isn’t Just a Buzzword
For muscle cars especially, whether the engine, transmission, and rear end still carry their original factory-stamped numbers can swing a car’s value dramatically. A numbers-matching example of a desirable model routinely commands a premium over an otherwise identical car running a period-correct but non-original drivetrain, since matching numbers are the closest thing the hobby has to a birth certificate.
Buy the Best Example You Can Afford
Collector car wisdom has long favored spending more upfront on a well-sorted example over saving money on a project car that needs everything, since restoration costs routinely balloon past what a buyer expects going in. A car that’s already been sorted mechanically and cosmetically lets an owner actually enjoy driving it immediately, rather than spending years and a second car’s worth of money chasing a bargain that wasn’t really one.
Get a Pre-Purchase Inspection From Someone Who Isn’t You
Even seasoned collectors like Leno rely on independent inspections before major purchases, because emotional attachment to a car you already want to buy makes it easy to overlook rust repair, filler, or drivetrain issues that a specialist would catch immediately. A marque-specific mechanic or appraiser who has no stake in the sale is worth the inspection fee on any car serious enough to be a real investment of time and money.
Drive It, Don’t Just Display It
Leno’s own approach — regularly driving a car worth tens of millions of dollars rather than trailering it to shows and locking it away — reflects a broader philosophy that plenty of classic car owners eventually arrive at: a car that never gets driven is a car that stops being fun to own. That mindset applies just as well to a budget-friendly project as it does to a seven-figure hypercar.
Watch for Rust in the Places Sellers Hope You Miss
Frame rails, floor pans, trunk floors, and the lower edges of quarter panels are the classic hiding spots for rust repair on any car built before the widespread use of galvanized steel. A flashlight, a magnet, and a willingness to get under the car matter more on a pre-purchase inspection than a glossy paint job ever will, since bodywork can mask structural rust that only shows up later.
Set a Budget for the Car You’ll Actually Own, Not Just the Purchase Price
The sale price is only the starting line. Insurance, storage, routine maintenance on decades-old mechanicals, and the inevitable parts hunt for a discontinued trim piece all add up over years of ownership, and buyers who only budget for the purchase itself are the ones most likely to end up selling in frustration a year or two later.
The Community Around a Model Is Part of What You Are Buying
An active owners club or forum for a specific model can be as valuable as any tool in the garage, since fellow owners are usually the fastest way to source a hard-to-find part, verify whether a modification is period-correct, or get a second opinion before a big repair. That support network rarely shows up in a listing, but it can make the difference between a rewarding ownership experience and a lonely, expensive one.
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_ This may well get considered by people …
How to buy a classic car? Have a lot of money in your pocket.
– That could well be taken up by people _
Cody Funk