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John F. Kennedy Jr.’s dark green 1994 Saab 900 SE three-door coupe, VIN YS3DN35N6R2037122, with a light beige leather interior, manual transmission, center-console ignition, glass sunroof, and rear spoiler. The car retains its Saab badging and silver-colored Saab wheel covers, and is fitted with a black roof rack featuring distinctive turquoise-green padded coverings marked “MAIN BEACH.” The car's odometer reads 30,650 miles, and the interior shows evidence of age and use, including wear to the leather upholstery and areas of soiling to the carpeting; the exterior likewise exhibits scattered marks and wear. Included is a printed photograph of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy beside the Saab, with its distinctive roof rack visible.
For a man born into one of America’s wealthiest and most famous families, Kennedy’s choice of a Saab was notably modest. He purchased the new 900 SE from Zumbach Sports Cars in Manhattan in the summer of 1994 for $29,841.21, equipped with such everyday conveniences as a CD player and phone hookup. The practical Swedish hatchback suited the understated, slightly unconventional style Kennedy cultivated as an adult, far removed from the ostentation his wealth and celebrity could have afforded him. He drove it regularly around New York, and the intensely photographed nature of his life made the Saab a recurring backdrop to his final years: numerous period images show Kennedy, and later Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, with the car, sometimes attempting to make their way through the paparazzi who followed them through the city. Even its distinctive turquoise-padded roof rack became recognizable enough that it was recreated decades later for the 2026 television series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.
The Saab ultimately became Kennedy’s last automobile. On July 16, 1999, five years after purchasing it, Kennedy departed New Jersey in his Piper Saratoga with Carolyn and her sister Lauren Bessette for a flight to Martha’s Vineyard, with plans to continue to Hyannis Port for his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic, killing all three aboard. In the days afterward, Kennedy’s Saab remained at the Larchmont home of his friend Kevin Hynes, still holding ordinary remnants of his life in its hatchback. Photographs taken there on July 23rd documented a football, soccer ball, rope, automotive fluid, a March 1999 issue of Rolling Stone, and a Piper baseball cap among its contents. Items recovered from the Saab’s trunk have subsequently appeared at auction, offering collectors fragmentary glimpses into Kennedy’s everyday life; the car itself remained intact, passing from his estate to Hynes in 2000 and surviving as the automobile Kennedy drove during the final five years of his life.
Extensive documentation accompanying the Saab provides a detailed record of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s ownership and the car’s subsequent transfer after his death. A Saab Certificate of Origin dated May 26, 1994, identifies the car by VIN and records its initial transfer from Saab Cars USA to Zumbach Sports Cars in New York. Period insurance cards, registration, inspection receipts, and Zumbach service records repeatedly associate the same VIN with Kennedy, while a New York Certificate of Title names John F. Kennedy as owner.
Following Kennedy’s death in July 1999, the Saab became part of his estate. A September 24, 1999, Certificate of Letters Testamentary confirms the appointment of Timothy P. Shriver as executor of the Estate of John Kennedy, Jr. The car was subsequently sold to Kennedy’s friend Kevin J. Hynes. In a two-page letter dated June 6, 2000, the law firm Battle Fowler LLP explicitly states that the enclosed documents were being provided “to transfer the 1994 Saab, Model No. 900, Vehicle Identification No. YS3DN35N6R2037122 from the Estate of John F. Kennedy to you, as purchaser.” The letter identifies the title signed by Shriver as executor, a bill of sale, and the Letters Testamentary, and directs Hynes to remit $6,000 to Kennedy’s estate as the purchase price. On July 19, 2000, Hynes sent the payment to the estate’s attorney, writing: “I am enclosing a check in the amount of $6,000.00 which represents the purchase price for John’s 1994 Saab, Model No. 900.”
The car remained with Hynes for several years. In a signed provenance letter dated August 31, 2006, Hynes states that he had purchased the Saab from Kennedy’s estate “shortly after his death” and inventories the documentation he received with the vehicle. Hynes states that Kennedy’s original 1994 Retail Certificate of Sale and New Vehicle Invoice were discovered in the Saab’s glove box after the car was towed to his house in the week following Kennedy’s death. He identifies the Retail Certificate of Sale as bearing Kennedy’s signature and a July 29, 1994 date. The letter accompanied Hynes’s subsequent $12,000 sale of the Saab to Michael Esposito in 2006.
Additional personal and automobile-related materials preserved with the car include an E-ZPass transponder, a handwritten telephone-message sheet, an Airborne Express receipt associated with the 2000 estate transaction, and a DeWitt Stern Group envelope addressed to “Mr. John F. Kennedy” and marked “PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL.”
