Celebrities Who Had Their Prized Cars Repossessed

Luxury cars are often utilized as the ultimate symbol of wealth and social bearing. There's a reason why many a music video begins with a swanky, pimped-out ride pulling into the driveway: These vehicles signify prestige, status, and essentially serve as a way of telling the world, "I've made it." Be they Bentleys, Ferraris, or the smooth contours of a Lamborghini, there's nothing quite like having a swanky motor to one's name. The acquisition of them, therefore, is a dream come true for many — especially those who did not grow up with material riches.

Sometimes the rich and famous don't treat their cars with the care befitting a motor that costs more than most people will see in a lifetime: Ever the billionaire renegade, Elon Musk, for instance, wrecked his $1 million supercar. But there are many stars who cherish their wheels as much as they would a member of their family. That's why it's all the more devastating when those cars are towed away by the repo guys.

For celebrities renowned for their lavish lifestyles and the vehicles that go with them, repossession can be a truly humiliating experience. Sometimes leasing snafus lead to cars being seized; in other cases, once high-flying A-listers find themselves doing a financial U-turn. One minute a star is hopping in a sweet ride; the next thing they know, they can't afford a Ford. Let's put the pedal to the metal and give the deets on the celebrities that had their prized cars repossessed.

Tyga is perhaps as famous for his rides as his rhymes. The rapper loves a posh vehicle or two, or three. "There's something about cars... When I get a car, I get so excited," he told Rain Mag. "It's like being a kid again."

As reported by TMZ, Tyga had his beloved Ferrari repossessed in 2016. To make matters worse, the car was seized in front of his then-girlfriend Kylie Jenner, which likely made for some juicy tea-spilling over the KarJenner dinner table that evening. The rapper was shopping for Bentleys when his prized ride was repoed. According to sources, he had missed out on his repayments. The unfortunate incident occurred at a financially precarious time in the star's life; per E! News, he had been recently forced to pay out a whopping $186k to a landlord from whom he was renting premises for his side hustle, Egypt Last Kings Clothing.

In 2019, Tyga was still embroiled in the car drama. TMZ reported that the rapper was being sued over lack of repayments on two of his other cars, a Ferrari and a Rolls Royce, with debts mounting to $128k. To cope with the ordeal, the rapper decided to treat himself — to a brand new ride. Per TMZ, he bought a Rolls-Royce Cullinan to satisfy his car cravings. What's more, he was also spotted eyeing up a new Lamborghini, despite the big bucks owed on the previous vehicles. Tyga would likely argue he's still got it.

Nicolas Cage loves appearing in an action-packed motor movie, from "Drive Angry" to "Gone in 60 Seconds." But little did the A-lister know that his own personal car collection would soon be gone in 60 seconds. Much like the memed man himself, Cage's financial woes have become the stuff of legend. Despite being an Oscar-winner whose filmography gets updated on a seemingly daily basis, he has fallen on hard times. His outlandish expenses include German castles, a dinosaur skull, and a pyramid tomb, per CNBC. He also developed an insatiable appetite for cars. Unfortunately, however, his finances didn't quite align with his assortment of automobiles.

In 2009, he faced financial ruin after one too many exorbitant purchases. As reported by CNN, two of his homes were repossessed as a result. But then they came for his garage. Cage's prized cars were his classic Rolls Royces. GQ notes that he once owned a staggering nine Roller Phantoms. But as with his properties, two of Cage's beloved Rolls Royces were repossessed during his year of financial turmoil. Per TMZ, the leasing company then sued Cage since the lease hadn't ended on either vehicle when they were repossessed, meaning he owed over $241k altogether. 

Cage attributed his financial downfall to his business manager, Samuel Levin, but Levin said Cage only had himself to blame, per CNN. With his ever burgeoning IMDb profile, Cage may have the roles, but he has no roller.

A renowned rapper and actor, Method Man can bring the pain on his impressive discography. But he's just as adept at breaking our hearts as Cheese on "The Wire" (he also scared the bejesus out of Key and Peele in "Keanu"). Due to his impressive estimated net worth of $14 million, the rapper can afford a luxury ride or two. Or so it seemed.

Method Man's pride and joy was his 2008 Lincoln Navigator. Sadly, the repo guys raided his garage and seized his treasured ride in 2009. This was due to the fact that the rapper owed over $52k in back taxes, per the New York Post. He revealed that he forgot to pay his taxes because he was too high. "Because I got high, I forgot to pay. It was stupid," he told the Post, citing his marijuana use. As reported by The Guardian, his woes didn't end with having his SUV confiscated: he was soon charged with tax evasion. The rapper was found guilty, but was spared jail time on the condition that he kept on the straight and narrow, per Billboard.

These days, Method Man isn't too keen on splashing the cash on flashy motors. In an interview on the "My Expert Opinion" podcast, he admitted, "I ain't even got a car. My kids got cars. Wife got a car... That sh*t is nice, but I don't even have a car, man!" Undoubtedly, there's a method to his madness.

Formerly known as the mononymous Jordan, glamour model turned TV personality Katie Price is famed in her native U.K. for her out-there stylistic sensibilities. Her aesthetic, which can best be described as Barbie-meets-bling, naturally extends to her car collection. In typical OTT Price style, she owned two pink cars, but sadly lost them both. The first to go was her pastel pink VW Beetle, which was repossessed in 2019 after she failed to pay a toll fine two years earlier. Per The Sun, the penalty was initially a mere £2.50 ($3.10), but due to Price's failure to pay, the debt (including eventual towing) mounted to £1,300 ($1,622). Price's reps claimed she had no idea that the fines had increased over the past two years.

Just a few months later, she lost her second car, a bubblegum pink Range Rover complete with furry fuchsia seats. Sadly, the car was repossessed when the star had to file for bankruptcy. As reported by the Daily Mail, Price owed a whopping £2.1 million ($2.6 million) after falling on hard times. A year earlier, she puked in the vehicle when arrested for driving under the influence.

Per The Sun, the joke was ultimately on the car dealership in whose possession the Range Rover landed, since they struggled to sell off the Bratz-esque ride. Accordingly, the asking price had to be reduced by £10k when the rosy Rover sat in the dealership for more than a month without an interested buyer.

Mischa Barton has fallen on hard times since her days of being the Queen Bee of "The O.C." While the characters of the much-loved Fox teen dramedy drove some flashy cars and had very little to worry about in the money department, the same cannot be said for some of the show's stars.

In 2015, the repo guys came for Barton's swanky new Audi Q3 after she completely neglected repayments. As TMZ reported, she owed an eye-watering $40k on the fancy wheels and she was warned to pay up or get repoed. The seizure came at a particularly difficult point in the erstwhile Marissa Cooper's life. She had just begun legal proceedings against her mom amid claims that she stole her money, per Page Six. "While Barton was busy perfecting her craft and turning her acting dreams into reality, her mother, defendant Nuala Barton, was secretly scheming to exploit Barton's bourgeoning career for her benefit," the lawsuit stated, perhaps explaining why Barton had to be subjected to repossession.

The motor saga continued the following year when her Volkswagen was facing repossession. This time, she owed over $25k on the car, per TMZ. Accordingly, VW ordered the actor to give up her vehicle and her dough. Thankfully, Barton has now taken control of her life, having detailed the pitfalls of teen stardom that led to her personal struggles in an essay for Harpers Bazaar.

During his tween stint as Lil Bow Wow, he may have warned us, "Beware of Dog," but it was the repo guys who put him in the doghouse. In 2012, TMZ reported that Bow Wow had his Lamborghini Murcielago repossessed during a spell of financial turmoil. But the ordeal didn't end there. The rapper was forced to foot the costs of the repo job, meaning he owed $25,000 to the bank. Additionally, he quit paying up on his other vehicle, a Ferrari, resulting in a $283,000 debt.

The dire situation was aggravated by the rapper's failure to pay his taxes in 2006, 2008, and 2010, per TMZ. Moreover, the outlet reports that he was struggling to pay child support; the payments amounted to $3,000 a month, yet the rapper insisted he was only earning $4,000 a month at Cash Money Records. Wow, Bow.

Unfortunately, it appears the former child rapper hasn't bounced back from these money woes: his approximate net worth stands at a (comparatively) modest $1.5 million. However, he has been able to replace his prized Lambos and Ferraris. As Newsweek reports, he acquired a Polaris Slingshot in 2022. Regarding his past repossessions, he told the outlet that experiencing immense stardom at such a young age led to him coveting luxury vehicles. "I gave [the dealership] my American Express Black card because I would always hear that it never declined, you could buy a building with this card," he mused.

Rapper and music exec Jermaine Dupri is famed for penning the hip-hop classic "Jump" by Kris Kross. But it was the repo guys who made Dupri jump — in horror. Dupri has always had an eye for a snazzy ride. In his memoir "Young, Rich, and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul," he detailed his car collection, noting that after years of having to depend on bikes and public transportation, he lived it up once he began bringing in big bucks. However, it didn't take long for the proverbial wheels to fall off that car collection. 

In 2002, MTV News reported that the IRS came knocking on Dupri's door and confiscated a number of rides from his beloved car collection, as well as his furniture and personal items. The exec owed a staggering $2.5 million to the taxman, meaning his motley motors had to suffer. Following these wheely hard times, Dupri decided to downsize. As he wrote in his memoir, "At one point I had 15 cars. I used to like 'em flashy or sporty... Lately I've scaled back my car collection to nine." Unfortunately, that didn't stop one of those nine vehicles from also being repossessed.

In 2011, Dupri found himself in hot water again when he was sued for failing to make the repayments on his snazzy Lamborghini Murcielago. Per TMZ, he owed a whopping $79,095 on the Italian sports car, and it was subsequently seized.

Katy Perry is one of the biggest names in music. The songstress' various gargantuan hits, as well as her high-profile stint as an "American Idol" judge, have generated a jaw-dropping estimated net worth of $330 million. But before she was partying with Hillary Clinton and making babies with Orlando Bloom, Perry was in a dire financial situation. Subsequently, she had not one, but two cars confiscated by the repo guys.

"I had two cars repossessed, tons of debt," she told Glamour. "I had a horrible job [critiquing music demos] that was damaging to my soul." Speaking at a Grammys event, she likened this difficult era in her life to existing as a "walking overdraft fee of $38." Her managers were once advancing her rent money, Forbes noted. With strength and determination, however, she was able to kick off her music career and financially take charge. The repo guys can put that in their tail pipe and smoke it.

Thankfully, the "Dark Horse" star has bounced back from the pain of having her rides repossessed and has been spotted driving some impressive vehicles: a Mercedes vintage convertible, an Audi A5, and others. The former walking overdraft has certainly come a long way and shown 'em what she's worth.

Sean Kingston can't catch a break. In 2014, TMZ reported that, in the space of a week, two of the singer's luxury vehicles had been repossessed. Having failed to keep up with payments for his swanky Mercedes Benz G-Class, the car was snatched from the "Beautiful Girls" star. Meanwhile, his Bentley was repoed as he stepped into the Mondrian Hotel, leading to a furious public outburst. Then, a third car was repoed, his Lamborghini Aventador, per Houston Style Magazine.

Kingston recalled the unpleasant ordeal to "Hollywood Unlocked," but claimed that the deets were blown way out of proportion. "I lease my cars... I don't care what nobody want to say, buying a car is the most dumbest thing ever," he explained. The musician said that his Lamborghini was repossessed because he didn't want to pay $4,000 a month for the car, seeing as he'd already dished out a down payment of $120,000.

On that fateful night at the Mondrian, Kingston explained, he was eating dinner with a date when he stepped outside and got the shock of a lifetime. "I see the tow truck making a U-turn, I'm like, 'Yo, my car is on the back of the tow truck!'" he recalled. When the story broke, he was deeply embarrassed, mainly due to fabricated tales of his financial instability. "So you mean to tell me I can't afford the Lamborghini Aventador, but I got all these other cars... That don't add up, right?" he added.

Danniella Westbrook is an actor turned reality TV star in the U.K., best known for her role on long-running British soap "EastEnders." Unfortunately, her life has often mirrored plotlines from the aforementioned soap opera. Westbrook has faced multiple hardships, including losing the tip of her nose to drug use and chronic illness, for which she has had to undergo numerous surgical reconstructions.

In 2014, she tweeted that her car had been stolen. However, it didn't take long for cracks to develop in her story. Due to her financial turmoil, it turned out that the repo biz had come knocking on Westbrook's door. She later confessed that her car was actually repossessed after she struggled to make her repayments. "I forgot to set up a direct debit, so didn't realize that the payments were not being made," she insisted to The Sun (via the Daily Mail), adding, "Had the hire company wanted the car back, all they had to do was ask." The loss came at the darkest period in Westbrook's life. In an interview with "This Morning," she declared, "I think this year has been the worst year I've ever had in my life. Just losing one thing after another, after another."

Four years later, things appeared to be looking up for Westbrook when she purchased a £65k ($80.6k) Land Rover following an extended period of abject poverty, per the Daily Mail (though she has continued to struggle with health issues).

The original "Queen B****," Lil Kim loves a swanky motor, having showcased her impressive Benz on Twitter. Unfortunately, life wasn't always a smooth ride for Kim. In the mid 2000s, she began experiencing a career decline, leading to fiscal instability. Per The New York Times, she was sentenced to a year in jail and fined $50,000 for perjury after lying to protect her pals who were involved in a shooting. And the turmoil was far from over.

In 2008, the New York Post reported that her $250k Bentley had been repossessed when the leasing company failed to receive any repayments for months. Although the car was apparently given to her as a gift, she was nevertheless distraught when it was towed away. "She didn't wanna cooperate," repo guy Cyro Miranda told reporters, according to BallerStatus. "Basically, she told us to get off the property. We were hoping that she'd give us the keys, being that it'd be the right thing to do. It's not her vehicle."

TMZ (via NBC4 Washington) then reported that the car was repossessed because it had been stolen. In a shady move, music producer Scott Storch, who was also facing his share of severe money woes at the time, gifted Kim the Bentley, but unbeknownst to her, he had stopped making the repayments. Per MTV News, Storch was arrested for grand theft auto the following year due to leasing violations with the Bentley. As noted by the Sun-Sentinel, the lease was for a staggering $85,000.

MMA superstar Derrick Lewis is one of the most respected fighters of his generation, having helped to popularize the sport for mainstream audiences. Despite this esteemed status, things haven't always been so victorious for the mixed martial artist.

Lewis revealed that he once had his car repossessed — by none other than boxing legend George Foreman. It turns out that Lewis began his career as a boxer thanks to Foreman, who began training him, as Lewis revealed in 2018 on "The Rich Eisen Show." Big George gifted Lewis a car and was soon setting him up in an apartment. But when the champ found out that the budding athlete had no desire to embark on a boxing career, he rather cruelly had the ride repoed. "I told him I don't want to do boxing, just stick to MMA... and so they took the car away from me!" he laughed. 

During an appearance on "Weigh-in Show," Lewis looked back on the experience with good humor. The athlete joked that he made sure he got a decent amount of mileage out of the vehicle prior to giving it up for the repo guys, even purposely driving over speed bumps. "I said, 'You come pick it up now,'" he quipped. Lewis revealed that he has had an upgrade since the Foreman Buick debacle, telling Eisen that he now drives a Mercedes GTS and was on the hunt for a second luxury ride.