Bill Gates once went into a Mercedes-Benz dealership with a very special request. However, the automaker told him his request was impossible to fulfill. So, he went next door and bought a Volvo instead.
Terry Haigh, former Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz of Bellevue, remembers that, in 1989, before he was hired by Mercedes-Benz, he worked for a dealership that sold Jaguars, Porsches, and Audis in Bellevue, Washington. The city was becoming a paradise for tech companies. Nowadays, Microsoft, eBay, Oracle, Meta, and eBay have satellite offices there. In the late 1980s, that is where the Microsoft was headquartered.
One day, an employee, Mark, came to him at 8:30 in the morning and whispered: Bill Gates was in the showroom, picking up a car. Bill was driving a 1986 Jaguar XJ6 in Champagne Gold. Gates asked them if they sold Porsches. Mark put an elbow in Terry's side and shook hands with the special customer, telling him that he was the one responsible for the task.
He knew exactly what he wanted. He was in search of a black Porsche 911 Convertible, told Mark the features that he wanted on the car, gave him his business card, and told him to call his assistant to inform her about the price and the moment of delivery. Bill Gates just turned around and walked away.
Years later, when Terry was working for Mercedes-Benz, Bill Gates' representative arrived at the dealership and asked for a station wagon. But he had one special request: he wanted the car to be bulletproof.
He wanted to transport his children in it and wanted to do it in the safest way possible. The nanny would drive the Benz, which should be as low-profile as possible.
The dealership contacted Mercedes-Benz and told them about the high-profile client and his bizarre request. A few days later, Mercedes called back and told the dealership they were not going to do it. They weren't going to take on that much responsibility.
Terry explained to Bill that they had the next best thing to bulletproof. So, he went across the road and bought himself a Volvo 240 DL station wagon, which was bulletproof.
Terry knows that the car stayed in the showroom forever before Bill Gates bought it. It featured an issue that just couldn't be fixed once and for all. The driver's window was so heavy that its motor kept failing. So they kept replacing it again and again.
Conscious about his environmental impact and owner of an eco-friendly house that he calls "the coolest," Bill Gates currently drives a Porsche Taycan and a Tesla Model X, but has been an avid collector of iconic models.
He owns the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren grand tourer, a rare Porsche 959, which was the fastest road-going car of its time, and was known to drive a Toyota Prius for years.
Over the years, a BMW 7 Series, a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, several Ferraris and Lamborghinis have passed through his garage. He also owned Rolls-Royce and Bentley luxury models.
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