Hendrick Goes Car Shopping

GM CEO Dan Akerson and Rick Hendrick's 1958 Corvette

You’d think a guy who owns more than 80 dealerships would know how to drive a hard bargain when it comes to buying a car.

Guess not.  Rick Hendrick dropped $270,000 on a 1958 Corvette Friday at the Barrett-Jackson classic car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., easily tops in class.  But there's a little more to the story. 

The car’s owner, Dan Akerson, also happens to be the CEO of General Motors.  Akerson was donating all proceeds from the sale to Habitat for Humanity and a project the organization is undertaking in the Detroit area.  Hendrick has a number of GM dealerships in his group and runs the lead Chevrolet Sprint Cup team in NASCAR, so he can be excused for perhaps overpaying for the ‘Vette (although in reality, probably not by much).  

He has a history of buying cars at the auction benefitting charities.  He bought another charity car earlier in the week and has spent more than half a million dollars this week with a couple days of auction still to go.  Hendrick – who was sitting with Reggie Jackson, a collector in his right – reportedly has about 300 cars in his private collection, more than half of them Corvettes.  With a recently introduced 2014 C7 Corvette C7 still on tap, he may not be done yet.