12 Cars That Billionaires Really Want As A Daily Driver

Ask most people to imagine what the life of a billionaire is like, and they might picture beachside mansions, Michelin-starred restaurants, and a fleet of supercars. However, the reality can actually be quite different, as some of the world's richest people prefer to live a more regular life. In fact, those with the most wealth are often the least flashy, especially in their car-buying habits. Some might have one or two expensive cars in their collection, but when it comes to daily drivers, the cars of many billionaires are surprisingly unremarkable.

They're often the kind of car that would be easy to walk past in the street without noticing, and sometimes, that's a deliberate choice. After all, those who keep a low profile prefer to avoid attracting unnecessary attention while they're just going about their daily lives. But, often, the primary reason for driving what they do is that they simply aren't bothered about having anything flashy. As long as their car gets them from A to B, they simply aren't fussed about having the luxury features or prestigious badges that many less wealthy individuals will splash the cash on. These 12 cars are all daily drivers for the world's richest people, and yet just by looking at them, you'd probably have no idea.

Azim Premji is India's second-richest man, with a personal wealth of around $31 billion at his peak. He's now given around two-thirds of that fortune away to charitable causes, reports Yahoo Finance, but he's still worth north of $10 billion. His wealth came from his leadership of Wipro, a company that was founded by Premji's father and originally produced vegetable oil. After his father's unexpected death, Premji dropped out of his Stanford University degree to go back to India and run the company, eventually transforming it into a technology and computing business.

Despite his high-flying business career, Yahoo Finance reports that Premji has always preferred to lead a normal life outside of work. He still takes flights in economy class, prefers rickshaw rides to chauffeured limousines, and has only ever owned regular cars. Over the years, he has reportedly owned a Ford Escort, Honda City, and a Toyota Corolla, but his most recent purchase is a Mercedes-Benz E-Class that he bought used off one of his employees.

He might not be quite as high-profile as Bill Gates, but Steve Ballmer was instrumental in building Microsoft during its early years. According to Forbes, he joined the company in 1980, rising through the ranks until he was made CEO in 2000. He left Microsoft in 2014 and used his wealth to buy the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2 billion that same year. At the time, his net worth was an estimated $19.3 billion, but since then, it has shot up to around $91.4 billion in total. That makes him the 9th richest man in the world in 2022.

Ballmer's father was an executive at Ford Motor Company, and he has always remained loyal to the brand. In 2009, Ballmer was presented with a new Ford Fusion Hybrid, which was the one-millionth vehicle delivered with Ford's SYNC technology. Ballmer reportedly used it as his daily driver for years after, and it's thought that he still owns the car to this day.

Michael Bloomberg is the founder of the eponymous Bloomberg LP, a financial information and media company of which Bloomberg still owns 88%, according to Forbes. He got his start on Wall Street at an investment bank called Salomon Brothers, but after he was fired, he founded the company that made him his fortune. At present, he's worth an estimated $82 billion, a sharp increase from 2021, when he was only worth around $59 billion. In addition to his career on Wall Street and his success with his own business, Bloomberg was the mayor of New York City for 12 years.

During that time, his car of choice was a Chevrolet Suburban, which could often be seen in a high-security motorcade transporting Bloomberg around the city. His dislike of traveling in a hot car meant that he insisted that his Suburban was cooled before he got into it. But, with New York's laws only allowing cars to sit idle for three minutes, his team had to think of an alternative way to prepare the car to just the right temperature. Their solution: build a specially-adapted air conditioning unit that could be stuck through the window of the SUV before Bloomberg arrived, much to the amusement and confusion of passersby.

Alice Walton is one of the richest women in the world, with a net worth of roughly $61.2 billion according to the latest estimations. Her fortune comes from her father, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. Alice is his only daughter, but unlike her siblings, she has not been active in running the family business, preferring to curate art from the likes of Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko. She opened a museum to show off this collection in her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2011.

Sam Walton was famously frugal with his money, and it seems like he instilled the same values in his family, as all of the Walton siblings drive unremarkable cars. Alice's daily driver is a 2006 Ford F-150 King Ranch, according to NBC, which she has owned from new. Her father reportedly drove a 1979 version of the same truck until he passed away in 1992, aged 74.

Richard Branson's Virgin Group deals in everything from cell phone networks to spacecraft, in a history that spans around 50 years. His personal worth is roughly $4.2 billion, and apart from his businesses, he's probably best known for living on a private island in the Caribbean, which he bought for $180,000 in 1978. Despite that, he's generally very frugal with money, even turning his home into an investment. In the early 2000s, he offered fellow billionaires the chance to rent out his island, which came with 31 staff, for £10,000 a day when he wasn't living there. That's roughly $18,000 per day in today's money, accounting for inflation.

In a 2015 interview, Branson claimed that he only owned one car, a classic Humber Super Snipe that he kept "for special occasions." The car is very rare but not that valuable, with a similar example recently selling for £8,600 ($10,310) at auction. Instead of a car, Branson's main set of wheels is reportedly now a Scott E-Aspect 720 electric bike, which he uses to get around his island. Before he reduced his car collection down to just a single classic Humber, Branson also owned a Range Rover. In his interview with The Sunday Times, he claimed the car saved his life after he got into a bad accident in it.

A long-time favorite of millionaires and billionaires across Silicon Valley, the Toyota Prius is perhaps the most predictable car to feature on this list. Google co-founder Larry Page is particularly fond of his, and according to CNBC, fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin also uses one for daily driving. Both Page and Brin made their fortunes developing what would become the world's dominant search engine, with Google's parent company Alphabet now bringing in over $200 billion in revenue per year. Page owns roughly 3% of the company's shares, boosting his net worth to around $99 billion.

Page retired from his role as Alphabet's CEO in 2019, but he remains a board member and shareholder. Alongside his stake in Google, he's also invested in a startup that's developing flying cars, called Kitty Hawk. The startup plans to begin testing for its cars in 2023, so if it goes well, perhaps Page's next car will be a little more unusual than his current daily driver.