Fabled talk show host and car icon Jay Leno has cast his vote for the ‘best car ever’, and it’s a shock American vehicle that ‘blows anything from Europe away.’
When you think of the ‘greatest’ car of all time, the discussion ranges from the OG Benz Patent Motorwagen and Ford Model A up to the fastest supercars of the modern day like the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport.
With hundreds of thousands of models to filter through, there’s one that stands tall above the rest for car mogul Jay Leno.
In his eyes, the undisputed best car is the Duesenberg Model J.
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You would do extremely well to find someone more informed to make a judgment on the best cars ever than Jay Leno.
The legendary car lover has gotten behind the wheel of everything from 1913 supercars with 9.6-liter engines to $10 million hidden gems, and modern-day masterclasses like his beloved McLaren W1.
There’s only a handful of cars out there that he hasn’t tried, and if he hasn’t, it probably wasn’t worth considering anyway.
So, what the heck is Duesenberg, and how on earth has he ranked the Model J as the best car ever?
Well, this 1928 behemoth vehicle was the highlight of engineering for decades, and if it wasn’t for the Great Depression, they’d likely still be the best brand on the road now.
Made in Indianapolis, the Duesenberg Model J is American royalty, and 100 years down the line, it still matches up to modern-day luxury cars.
The Duesenberg Model J features a 7-liter engine and was capable of a top speed of 116MPH – a remarkable feat considering its year of inception.
Leno has been inside a Duesenberg as recently as last year, posting a video cruising along in the ‘Twenty Grand’ Model J pictured above.
It was nicknamed Twenty Grand for its price tag, which translates to just shy of $500,000 today when adjusting for inflation.
When asked about what the best car ever is, Leno instantly put forward the old American vehicle, claiming it’s still a feasible car to drive today and blows anything else away.
“I’ve driven all of the European stuff from the ’30s and used to think that they were so much better than the Americans. No. You can’t even compare the Duesenberg,” he said in a recent Q&A.
“You can drive that 75-80MPH on the freeway, and it’s like a normal car. It’s probably one of the few cars from the era that you can drive.
“It wasn’t until the hemi engine of the 50s that beat the Duesenberg for power output.”
The Model J even pioneered four-wheel hydraulic brakes.
Unsplash | Nationales Automuseum The Loh Collection
So, there we have it. Despite having a soft spot for everything McLaren and even trying out new prototypes like the 2026 Tesla models, this era-defining American car holds Leno’s crown.
Of course, there might be a Ferrari out there that could rival the stature of this legend, but Leno hates them all.
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