Mother Jones: “The Weird Story of Ohio Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno’s $3.4 Million Car”

Columbus, OH – New reporting found that Bernie Moreno used a taxpayer-funded police escort of “at least three police cars” to take his $3.4 million Aston Martin – worth “90 times Ohio’s median per capita income of $37,729” – on a joyride on closed public roads. Moreno failed to reimburse the North Olmsted police department for the expenses and services associated with his special treatment and lied about how the car was imported, showing Ohioans he doesn’t think the rules apply to him and that he’s only out for himself.

Mother Jones: The Weird Story of Ohio Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno’s $3.4 Million Car
Abby Vesoulis
May 3, 2024

To say the Aston Martin Vulcan is a luxury vehicle would be like saying Jeff Bezos is well-off. In other words, a vast understatement… And beginning in 2015, Bernie Moreno—now a Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio—was the proud owner of one of them for a period of time.

He didn’t just want to have the Vulcan, which he purchased for $2.3 million. He also wanted to drive it. With at least three police cars providing an escort down busy streets that were partially closed for the occasion, Moreno cruised down Lorain and Stearns roads in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted, at times reaching 60 miles per hour, the Plain Dealer reported.

Public records requests processed by the city of North Olmsted and obtained by Mother Jones did not return records indicating Moreno paid the city for its services.

Driving the Vulcan on the street may have violated federal regulations. 

In a 2016 video, Moreno discusses the import process more broadly. Instead of shipping the Vulcan as a completed vehicle, he said that the steering wheel—worth $20,000 on its own—was delivered separately. “Nobody’s here from the EPA, right? Good,” Moreno says. “The car’s actually not legally allowed to be in the United States. It is now, but it wasn’t back in October when we got the car. So we shipped it in as car parts.”

Aston Martin confirmed it imported the vehicle and said that the vehicle was approved for import by the EPA before it was shipped. Contradicting Moreno’s 2016 comments, a spokesperson for Aston Martin said the car was not imported “piecemeal.”

In 2016, the Cleveland Aston Martin dealership, which Moreno then owned, listed the Vulcan for sale for $3.4 million—the cost equivalent of 14 new Ferrari Romas, nine Rolls Royce Ghosts, or 90 times Ohio’s median per capita income of $37,729.

Before running for Senate, Moreno was once the largest luxury car dealer by volume in the Midwest, selling Porsches and Bentleys, in addition to Aston Martins.

Financial disclosures include wide ranges of asset values rather than exact figures, but the reports suggest Moreno’s net worth could exceed $100 million.

It’s unclear what Moreno is driving these days. Brown, whom Moreno is running against, drives a Jeep Cherokee assembled in Toledo by union members.

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