This is how much it cost Steve Jobs to buy an identical car every six months to fulfill strange habit
Published on Nov 02, 2025 at 5:09 AM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Oct 29, 2025 at 10:09 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
Steve Jobs changed his car every six months for years.
He did it because he was exploiting a loophole in California law that allowed him to drive his car without a license plate, because the state gave you that long to get one.
It was a strange habit, and a very expensive one at that.
California has since changed this law, which means no one can do that anymore.
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Why Steve Jobs changed his car every six months
Even though he was worth around $10 billion, Steve Jobs wasn’t particularly tight when it came to money.
But he did like nice cars.
For a while, Steve Jobs leased a brand-new black Porsche 911 every six months.
Years later, he switched cars and replaced his Porsche 911 with a Mercedes-Benz SL 55.
He changed his car but never changed his tactic.
For years, he continued leasing an identical car every six months because that meant he could always drive it without a license plate.
And that’s because back then, California gave you six whole months to get a plate for your new car. If you always had a new car, you never needed a plate.
An interesting trick, but it cost him a lot of money.
How much would this cost today?
Leasing a new car every six months is cheaper than buying one, but still quite pricey.
Back then, Jobs paid between $2,000 and $3,000 a month to lease his car, which means he was spending around $30,000-$40,000 per year.
Interestingly, that’s roughly the same amount you’d need to lease a new 2025 Mercedes-AMG SL 55 Roadster.
It would cost you $2,324 per month, plus $7,500 at signing, which you’d have to pay twice per year.
So that also works out to around $30,000-$40,000 per year.
Even though anyone is obviously free to lease a new car every six months if they want to, it still wouldn’t be enough to do what Jobs did, and that’s because California changed the law.
And the fact that high-profile car owners somewhat ‘popularized’ this law was part of the reason why the state made this decision.
