King Charles's Car Fleet Includes Vehicles Gifted to His Mom. That May Be a No-No.
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It's well-documented that King Charles has a love of collecting cars
What's apparently less well-documented is which cars in the collection are his versus which are property of the state.
The Guardian attempted to investigate this, and found it's quite complicated.
Ascending to the throne at the wisened age of 74, King Charles is heading into his coronation with a very well established, and very publicly known, personality. His likes and dislikes, fine points and foibles, have all been extensively covered in the tabloids long before his coronation day. But with the ceremony approaching on May 6, these well-known habits have gotten an extra bit of scrutiny from the more mainstream press as of late, and some questions of impropriety have been raised.
For example, it's well known that King Charles loves to collect cars. Now, this isn't a particularly unusual habit amongst the rich and famous. After all, on this side of the Atlantic, Jay Leno has been collecting cars for ages, and no newspapers have ever called for an investigation of Jay's garage. Then again, as far as we know, Jay Leno never tried to claim personal ownership of any cars that were technically property of The Tonight Show or NBC, while it sounds like Chuck might have done something comparable.
As The Guardian kicks off their coverage of the King's car collection:
"The royal family have the use of a fleet of luxury cars, including vintage Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Jaguars and an Aston Martin. But untangling which vehicles are owned privately, which are held by the sovereign in right of the crown, and which are leased from the manufacturer is no simple task."
Yes, it appears that the Royal mews at Buckingham Palace contain an array of cars worth millions, including several that were gifted to Queen Elizabeth II in such a manner that might technically make them property of the state, or even ones that should have been returned to the manufacturer after their use. But The Guardian's reporting suggests that while these vehicles aren't technically owned by King Charles, it sure seems to some like they're being treated as his property.
The Guardian attempted to get clarification, both from Buckingham Palace and from some of the manufacturers of the cars, like Bentley, all to no avail. This wouldn't be the first time the line between personal gifts and official gifts has been blurred within the Royal family, however, and conversations around the legality of how Buckingham Palace makes use of these gifts is not entirely clear.
So we don't know exactly how the King Charles reign will handle the gifting situation, and how firm they'll be about the divide between personal and official gifts. But based on the reports coming out so far, it's giving this vibe:
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