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Jeep Grand Cherokee that was Obama’s first new car goes up for auction

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Jeep Grand Cherokee that was Obama’s first new car goes up for auction

Jeep Grand Cherokee that was Obama’s first new car goes is expected to fetch more than $50,000 at auction – 19 years after he purchased it as an Illinois state senator

  • Vehicle that Obama purchased while a state senator will be auctioned June 26
  • He has reminisced fondly about purchasing the new Grand Cherokee
  • Prior to that he drove old used cars without such amenities as electric windows
  • The auction lot includes notes and other items left in the glove compartment

By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:48 EDT, 22 June 2019 | Updated: 12:03 EDT, 23 June 2019

A 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was former President Barack Obama‘s first new vehicle is going up for auction.

The Cherokee, which has at least 133,000 miles, will be auctioned off on June 26 by University Archives in Westport, Connecticut, and is expected to bring at least $50,000.

Obama has spoken fondly of the vehicle, which he purchased while he was an Illinois state senator living in Chicago.

‘The first new car I ever bought was a Grand Cherokee,’ he said in a 2010 speech to workers at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit that built the vehicle.  

This 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was former President Barack Obama’s first new vehicle is going up for auction on June 26

The car has at least 133,000 miles, but for the past decade it had been kept in a showroom

Obama, seen in 2004, purchased the vehicle while he was a state senator in Illinois

In the glove compartment was found a handful of Obama’s campaign cards for US Senate, and a card for his office as Illinois state senator

‘Up until that point, I had some old beat-up used cars,’ he continued. ‘I still remember walking into that showroom and driving out with that new car, that new car smell, everything worked, everything was electronic – and I had to roll up my windows up until that point. So I got some good memories of that car.’ 

Obama sold the car several years after he purchased it, and it ended up at a used-car dealership in the Chicago area.

In 2004, a woman named Liz Murphy purchased it, and recognized the name on the title: Barack Obama, who was running for U.S. Senate at the time and had recently delivered an electrifying keynote at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Murphy had the foresight to make a copy of the title before the Cherokee was transferred to her name, but continued to drive it as her everyday vehicle.

In 2010, after Obama had been elected president, she auctioned the vehicle off.

It was purchased for $26,437.50 by John Reznikoff, a renown history buff, collector and the owner of University Archives, who then sold the car later in 2010. 

Obama reminisced about the vehicle in this 2010 speech to workers at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit that built the vehicle

Liz Murphy, who purchased the Cherokee at a used-car dealer in 2004, had the foresight to copy the title when she noticed the name of then Senate candidate Obama

The auction lot includes a lunch order in Obama’s handwriting (left) and a note from the former Elmhurst police chief (right) hoping to speak about a racial profiling law

Nearly nine years later, the current owner is offering the car once for sale again through the University Archives auction.  

The auction also includes several items found in the car’s glove compartment:

  1. A handwritten note from John Millner to Senator Obama: ‘.. I wanted to discuss a few ideas about the profiling bill … I would like to see it work .. Please give me a call at your convenience. …’ 
  2. Notes in Obama’s hand of a lunch order.
  3. Six Obama for Illinois Senator Cards.
  4. One Barack Obama business card as State Senator. 
  5. Six business cards from people and places of interest to Obama mixed in with his other business cards. 
  6. Two plastic cards for the Grant Park Underground parking garage, three paper card receipts for the Grant Park South Parking lot at 325 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago IL, one Valet parking number, and one parking receipt for the Parking Plaza Garage at 1 Convention Center Plaza in Springfield, IL.
  7. Two paper receipts, each for $20 Economy parking at the Chicago Midway Airport, both dated from 2003, while Obama owned the car.

Two paper receipts, each for $20 Economy parking at the Chicago Midway Airport, are both dated from 2003, while Obama owned the car

The lot includes two plastic cards for the Grant Park Underground parking garage, three paper card receipts for the Grant Park South Parking lot at 325 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago IL, one Valet parking number, and one parking receipt for the Parking Plaza Garage at 1 Convention Center Plaza in Springfield, IL

The first item seems to be in reference to an anti-profiling law which Obama helped pass as a state senator in Illinois. 

At the time Millner was Chief of Police of Elmhurst Illinois, and signed the note with the notation Elmhurst PD.

Millner would later he serve as Illinois State Representative for the 55th district from 2003 to 2005, and became the Republican member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 28th district from 2005 to 2013.

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