Update: Gone. Please delete.
Non-working condition. Not mine.
https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/d/yucaipa-steve-jobs-1984-mercedes-sec-500/7429093911.html
Non-working condition. Not mine.
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Steve Jobs' Mercedes on Craigslist
- Thread starter mi7chy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I didn't see the ad, any actual evidence it was really Jobs'? He was infamous for getting Mercs on 6-month lease, so he never had to put license plates on them. And I can't imagine the Mercedes dealership would violate his strict terms and reveal to the buyer of the lease-return who the prior owner was.
Someone else posted details of the now-pulled CL ad on Twitter.
These are two photos from there, and these would support the case that this car was owned by Jobs, possibly as a company car, at the time of the original dealer purchase (although the actual delivery date, owing that it was a leap year, was probably on the 29th or the 1st):
Was it owned by Steve Jobs the Apple guy or Stephen Jobs the dentist?
Okay, a *REALLY* old one - I was expecting a somewhat recent one. But really, it seems mighty fishy. Jobs wasn't a "rockstar" tech person at that time, there wouldn't have been a huge compelling reason for someone to keep that warranty card all this time. (That said, a little digging, and there is a Mercedes-Benz dealership that has been at that address since at least 1980.
It's not unusual for documentation to be saved for a car over time, regardless of whether or not the owner was famous.
Smythe European was the Mercedes-Benz dealer at this location in 1984. They were also selling Volvo there at the time.
delivery date?
30 february 1984 ?
Obviously a mistake. Maybe they meant 1-30-84 or 3-30-84? Who knows?
Occam’s razor, folks.
The above car, in all probability, was owned by either Steve Jobs or by Apple, on behalf of Steve Jobs, as a company car.
For those of y’all who weren’t alive or old enough to remember the Zeitgeist of around 1983–1984–1985, one need not be a rockstar to order an executive car as the Mercedes-Benz S-class (a 500SEC) — just a well-paid executive who needed to get around whilst appearing the part for the job, which Jobs very much was during early 1984. The draw to something like a Mercedes-Benz for someone like Jobs would have been the straightforward, intuitive, and bluntly Teutonic engineering which went into the vehicle.
None of this is surprising when one factors the way Jobs, during his second run as Apple’s executive, worked with Ive to draw heavily from the industrial design of Dieter Rams’ Braun products. This aesthetic even resonates in the design of the NeXTstation and NeXTcube during his interstitial years of running NeXT.
A silver Mercedes-Benz C126 luxury coupé is very much in keeping with his well-known aesthetic tastes and the ideal vehicle at the time to evince his design values in the form of rolling stock. I would have been highly sceptical had the car listed as once being driven by Jobs on CL been a staid, old-money rig like a Jaguar, a Bentley, or a Cadillac. A Mercedes-Benz or a BMW, though? Absolutely.
As for the registration card date, it was probably the day after 29 February 1984, and the person jotting down the date forgetting that February usually doesn’t have more than 28 days, with “the day after the 29th” almost always being the 30th. It’s also prudent to remember that people didn’t have digital handheld devices telling them the date at every moment, nor did everyone use digital wristwatches. An analogue wristwatch with a date indicator would simply show “30” when, in fact, it was March 1st.
Further to this, a car dealership in 1984, even one selling Mercedes-Benz models in San Jose, California, probably didn’t have more than a handful of desktop computers running something like DOS on an IBM PC XT. And DOS applications of the time weren’t really known for always showing the current date and time on the monochrome CRT. And those computers were probably not in a salesperson’s office, but in the accounting office and maybe the dealer manager’s office.
I would even hazard a guess that the car itself stayed with Apple after Jobs was sacked in ’85, and subsequently didn’t get a lot of corporate use. And at some point, the company probably sold the car to a private individual, after which it probably changed hands a few times. Given the above region where the car was listed on CL recently, it’s probable the car has mostly remained in central and northern California throughout its entire existence.
The above car, in all probability, was owned by either Steve Jobs or by Apple, on behalf of Steve Jobs, as a company car.
For those of y’all who weren’t alive or old enough to remember the Zeitgeist of around 1983–1984–1985, one need not be a rockstar to order an executive car as the Mercedes-Benz S-class (a 500SEC) — just a well-paid executive who needed to get around whilst appearing the part for the job, which Jobs very much was during early 1984. The draw to something like a Mercedes-Benz for someone like Jobs would have been the straightforward, intuitive, and bluntly Teutonic engineering which went into the vehicle.
None of this is surprising when one factors the way Jobs, during his second run as Apple’s executive, worked with Ive to draw heavily from the industrial design of Dieter Rams’ Braun products. This aesthetic even resonates in the design of the NeXTstation and NeXTcube during his interstitial years of running NeXT.
A silver Mercedes-Benz C126 luxury coupé is very much in keeping with his well-known aesthetic tastes and the ideal vehicle at the time to evince his design values in the form of rolling stock. I would have been highly sceptical had the car listed as once being driven by Jobs on CL been a staid, old-money rig like a Jaguar, a Bentley, or a Cadillac. A Mercedes-Benz or a BMW, though? Absolutely.
As for the registration card date, it was probably the day after 29 February 1984, and the person jotting down the date forgetting that February usually doesn’t have more than 28 days, with “the day after the 29th” almost always being the 30th. It’s also prudent to remember that people didn’t have digital handheld devices telling them the date at every moment, nor did everyone use digital wristwatches. An analogue wristwatch with a date indicator would simply show “30” when, in fact, it was March 1st.
Further to this, a car dealership in 1984, even one selling Mercedes-Benz models in San Jose, California, probably didn’t have more than a handful of desktop computers running something like DOS on an IBM PC XT. And DOS applications of the time weren’t really known for always showing the current date and time on the monochrome CRT. And those computers were probably not in a salesperson’s office, but in the accounting office and maybe the dealer manager’s office.
I would even hazard a guess that the car itself stayed with Apple after Jobs was sacked in ’85, and subsequently didn’t get a lot of corporate use. And at some point, the company probably sold the car to a private individual, after which it probably changed hands a few times. Given the above region where the car was listed on CL recently, it’s probable the car has mostly remained in central and northern California throughout its entire existence.
Last edited:
Again, if you weren’t around for 1983-1984-1985, then you might not be aware of how ”leasing” automobiles was not really a thing during that time — at least, not in North America. Cars generally were bought outright with cash, with a purchase order and paid-for invoice, or put on a payment plan with a lender (like a bank) which ended with the loan borrower being given the vehicle title at the end of the paid-off loan, thereby making the former borrower the outright owner.
As described already, this was likely a company car — then a routine concept — which Jobs himself picked out to his specifications, and paid for it with Apple’s corporate account, which would have been a routine exercise then. Indeed, the registration card shows ownership as ultimately Apple’s, whilst being ordered and used by Jobs so long as he was running Apple.
This means: so long as Jobs worked for Apple, he could use the car as his own, including using it to drive to work and drive home with it, parking it in his driveway. When he was sacked the following year, he would have had to return the keys and the car to Apple’s corporate possession, as Apple possessed the title to the car.
This isn’t rocket science, folks.
Whether leased or owned by Jobs or Apple, if it was registered to him and/or used by him that's what would matter to most Steve Jobs/Apple enthusiasts.
Leasing was definitely a thing by 1984 in North America, especially with luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and with company cars. Leasing had been around for quite a while but the high interest rates of the late 1970s to early 1980s helped to accelerate its popularity here. The number of independent auto leasing companies and banks doing leasing also grew during this time.
Given the threads subject matter, when I see comments like that referring to 'Steve Jobs/Apple enthusuasts' it always makes me think of an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Penny gives sheldon a napkin as a present, the napkin where Lenoard Nimoy wiped his mouth upon. Sheldon then screams in delight 'I possess the DNA of Lenoard Nimoy'. It gets me thinking that an apple fan is going to do the same with something that Steve Jobs owned and touched with the fan going 'I possess the DNA of Steve Jobs'!!! ?
It’s not that it was absent then but, as you noted, confined to niche circumstances such as luxury cars and fleet vehicles.
That said, were this vehicle leased (and thus owned by another entity, such as a lending company or bank), the warranty registration card above would not have listed “Steve Jobs — Apple” as the owner — supporting a case that this car was purchased by, or on behalf of, Jobs for use on Apple business (i.e., a company car).
This phenomenon exists all over the place, in all sorts of niches, by people with the means to acquire items which they elevate to a value beyond exchange or usage and into a “trophy” realm. I daresay it’s one kind of a hoarding phenomenon.
Compelling speaker and engaging promoter, and also a terrible dad and cruel boss.
Greetings. I wrote the book ‘The First Apple’ and I’m also a vintage car guy. My son Cameron Luther bought the Steve Jobs 500SEC after his friend Stephen saw the ad. We were later able to interview the original selling Mercedes sales rep, who sold Steve every Mercedes he ever bought. He told us the tales of Steve buying a car every six months was just a fable….he kept this car for just short of three years. Cameron will be a senior at McPherson College studying Auto Restoration and is excited to be sensitively bringing this car back to exactly how it was during Job’s ownership (correct wheels etc).
Bob Luther
Bob Luther
That’s pretty nifty, Bob.
If you don’t mind, feel free to bookmark and re-visit this thread with new photos once Cameron completes his restoration plans.
Everything was big in the 80’s. Even the month of February.delivery date?
30 february 1984 ?