Bill Gates, known as the founder of Microsoft, is currently worth $129.4 billion.
He became very rich in a very short time, something that immediately put his family in the danger zone for kidnappings and the like.
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Family comes first
Bill Gates is widely known as a big fan of German cars, not least Mercedes and Porsche.
He is known, for example, to have passed a law change in the United States, just because he wanted to import a specific car, specifically a Porsche 959.
In the late 1990s, he went to a Mercedes dealership in the exclusive suburb of Bellevue in Santa Rosa, California and wanted to order a station wagon – specifically, a Mercedes-Benz of the generation S124.
However, Bill Gates made a very specific requirement – the combination would be armored for the sake of his children’s safety.
The inquiry went on to Stuttgart where one can imagine a large group of German Mercedes lawyers and economists divided over whether it would be possible.
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Mercedes said no
After five days, Mercedes returned with a message.
– We do not intend to do that, the risk is far too high, was the answer from the Germans.
The reason was simple – Mercedes did not want to end up in a situation where they promise Bill Gates a bulletproof car that will protect his children in case something actually happens.
Legally, it would have been devastating for the German brand.
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Volvo moves in
Opposite the aforementioned Mercedes dealer was, by chance, a Volvo dealer. Bill Gates tried there too and placed an order for a Volvo 245 DL, with the request that it be armored.
Volvo said “yes” and shortly afterwards delivered an armored Volvo 245 DL, which must have been the safest car of the time.
Rumor has it that the window motor broke once a month when the new windows were so heavy.
The car helped Bill Gates to lie very low, while his family could get around without risking their lives. No one knows where the Volvo 245 DL in question is now.
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