Elvis Presley didn’t just dominate the music world — he had an equally legendary obsession with cars. Throughout his life, the King of Rock and Roll owned well over 100 vehicles, with Cadillac being his brand of choice above all others. He didn’t simply collect them, either. Elvis bought cars on impulse, gifted them to friends, handed them to strangers on the street, and drove them in his movies. His passion for automobiles was as outsized as his fame itself.
Long before Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces, Elvis’s car story started with something far more modest. His very first car was a 1942 Lincoln Zephyr Coupe, photographed outside his family home at 462 Alabama Avenue in Memphis.
Not all of Elvis’s early rides were American-made. In the mid-1950s, he got behind the wheel of a 1955 Messerschmitt KR 200 — a tiny three-wheeled bubble car built by a German aircraft manufacturer originally known for building warplanes. Elvis didn’t hold onto it for long. He traded the quirky little car to Guy Lansky of Lansky Brothers in Memphis in exchange for a three-hour shopping spree.
By 1956, Elvis was a full-blown star, and his cars reflected it. He was photographed with a 1956 Cadillac Eldorado during a Hollywood shoot in 1957, and also owned a 1956 Lincoln Continental around the same period. These were serious luxury cars that announced his arrival wherever he went.
One of his most talked-about Cadillacs from that era started life as a plain white car. According to legend, Elvis walked into a Houston dealership holding a bunch of purple grapes and told the customizer that was exactly the color he wanted for the car. The result was a grape-purple 1956 Cadillac Eldorado that perfectly matched the fruit he had brought in his hand.
Also from 1956, this photo was snapped outside the Audubon home after Elvis returned from a tour. You can still see the band’s gear strapped to a car in the background — and his famous Pink Cadillac is parked just behind him. The Pink Cadillac became one of the most iconic symbols of Elvis’s early success.
When the U.S. Army drafted Elvis in 1958 and deployed him to Germany, he didn’t stop driving in style. He leased a white BMW 507 with a red interior — a sleek, low-production sports car that turned heads across Europe. He was photographed with it alongside local TV personality Uschi Siebert while stationed there.
Back home, Elvis’s love of Cadillacs only grew deeper. He was frequently photographed at Graceland posing with his cars for fans and cameras alike, often behind the wheel of his 1956 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. In 1961, he purchased a pair of Phantom Rolls-Royces, which were photographed outside the Graceland mansion.
Perhaps the most extraordinary car in Elvis’s collection was his 1960 Cadillac Series 75 Fleetwood Limousine, widely known as the “Gold Cadillac.” It was fitted with a telephone, refrigerator, record player, tape deck, swivel TV, and a shoe buffer. On the outside, the hubcaps, grille, and headlights were all plated in 24-karat gold. There was nothing subtle about it.
Elvis’s cars also played a major role in his film career. For his movies, he drove everything from sporty roadsters to Jeeps. In 1961’s Blue Hawaii, he appeared in a 1960 MG MGA. He bought a 1962 Ford Thunderbird Sports Roadster in Memphis for $6,284, which members of his entourage drove out to California so he could use it while filming. For 1964’s Viva Las Vegas, he was filmed behind the wheel of a 1962 Elva Mk. VI.
On set for 1965’s Tickle Me, Elvis played an unemployed rodeo bull-rider named Lonnie Beale. Here, he posed with actress Jocelyn Lane, who played his character’s love interest Pamela Meritt, as she sat behind the wheel of a blue Jeep. The following year, the 1966 film Spinout featured Elvis in a press shot alongside a 1966 AC Cobra 427 — one of the most powerful American sports cars of the decade.
His 1967 musical Clambake featured a cherry-red 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Racer — and sharp-eyed viewers will notice it came equipped with one of the earliest car phones ever seen on screen. By 1970, Elvis had added another showpiece to his personal collection: a Stutz Blackhawk, photographed in a press shot on October 9th of that year. His final years saw him driving a 1975 Lincoln Mark IV, a grand American luxury car that suited his status as one of the most recognizable men in the world.
Today, 20 of Elvis’s most prized vehicles are on permanent display at the Elvis Presley Auto Museum in Memphis, giving fans a firsthand look at the machines that once carried the King across America and around the world.
