Joe Biden Was Hesitant to Give Up Driving His Beloved Corvette

If you become a president of the United States, you’ll have to give up driving your favourite car. That’s what happened to President Joe Biden, who’s only been able to drive his Corvette three times since 2009.
Written by Milly Haley
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Sep 20, 2021
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What do Joe Biden, Colin Powell, and Jay Leno have in common? They all own
Chevrolet
 Corvettes. Leno has a 1957 C-1 and Powell has a more modern 2015 model. Biden owns a 1967 Stingray, but he can't drive it right now.
In fact, he’s only driven it a few times since 2009. U.S. presidents and vice presidents aren't allowed to get behind the wheel. Even though Biden doesn’t drive his car a lot, he still has to keep up his
car insurance
 policy. When he got to drive it a few years ago, he had a friendly race and smoked his tires.
Sadly, you can't drive around a car if you're the president | Twenty20

Why aren’t presidents allowed to drive?

Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, new rules were made. While Kennedy was not driving on that day, he was riding in a convertible that allowed him to be targeted. His death led to a new rule that presidents can’t drive on public roadways until at least six months after they leave office, according to
Car and Driver
.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the last president to enjoy driving his own vehicle while in office. Johnson owned a 1961 Amphicar, one of about 4,000 built, according to
HowStuffWorks
. He enjoyed taking friends for a ride on his ranch and acting as though the brakes were failing and driving into the lake. Of course, his car could travel on water.

What’s special about the 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray?

MORE:
Another State Just Made a Big Step Toward Banning Gas-Powered Cars
Joe Biden’s father owned a Chevy dealership. Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, received the 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as a wedding gift from Biden's dad. The Corvette has been with him for close to 55 years.
The Corvette had a lot of sentimental value for Biden’s whole family. Sadly, Car and Driver reported that Biden has only been allowed to drive his Corvette three times since he took office.
As mentioned on
HowStuffWorks
, there were close to 23,000 Corvettes built in 1967. The majority, around 14,436 of them, were convertibles like Biden's. The convertibles started at a price of around $4,240.
The 1967 Corvette Stingray was the last Corvette of its generation after five years of design changes and improvements.

Joe Biden got permission to have a Corvette race with Powell

In October 2016, Powell was asked to appear with then Vice President Biden on Jay Leno's Garage. The segment was filmed on secured property in Washington D.C. allowing Biden to give Leno a brief ride. Biden also had a short race with Powell in each of their Corvettes which were nearly 50 years apart in age.
Biden's Corvette is a true
classic car
. You can find 1967 Corvettes listed for over $100,000 if they’re in pristine condition. If you decide to buy a used classic car, you’ll want to make sure you have good insurance coverage.
You can use
Jerry
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