First cars of the stars

It's hard to imagine a time before Polo shirts, but Ralph Lauren was once a no-name businessman who rewarded himself with a 1971 Mercedes 280SE. He bought the convertible soon after starting his own fashion label, and his investors weren't happy with such a big purchase. Today the men's clothing icon has one of the world's rarest car collections, which includes the McLaren F1, Lamborghini Reventon, and multimillion dollar beauties such as the 1938 Bugatti Atlantic.

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On screen, Jon Hamm plays the suave, dapper Donald Draper on the TV series "Mad Men." Draper is so successful that he drives a brand-new Cadillac, a huge statement in the show's 1960s-era plot. But before the real Hamm began his acting career, he was a high-school teacher with a beat-up 1986 Toyota Corolla that was prone to overheating. Hoping to strike Hollywood fame, Hamm drove the Corolla from St. Louis to Los Angeles, occasionally sleeping in it along the way.

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Unlike some of the young stars on this list, we can actually relate to "High School Musical" star Zac Efron, whose grandfather gave him a gray Oldsmobile Alero sedan before he started signing big-time movie deals. High school parking lots are still filled with affordable General Motors sedans such as the Alero. Efron was extra lucky, however, to also receive his grandfather's DeLorean and 1965 Ford Mustang.

View Slideshow:  Young stars and their cars

Jay Kay, also known as the "cat in the hat" for the video of his single U.S. hit, "Virtual Insanity," leads the U.K. funk band Jamiroquai. The singer's car collection is even more insane, including a Ferrari Enzo, Mercedes Pullman limousine and a rare Maserati Frua coupe that was auctioned at Pebble Beach. Kay still garages his first car, a simple-looking BMW 1602 coupe (an earlier, less powerful version of the famous 2002) right next to his Mercedes 300SL roadster.

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Years before playing basketball for Miami, LeBron James took plenty of heat for his first car. While a high school student in Akron, Ohio, James was forced to sit out the rest of his 2003 basketball season after state athletic officials ruled he had taken gifts, including a custom Hummer H2. Later, his mother provided loan documents to show that she had bought her son the truck, although James was still barred for accepting sports jerseys. He's now rocking an all-white Camaro SS, among many other cars.

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Despite his billionaire status, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg flaunts modesty. His last-known current car, an Acura TSX, isn't a huge upgrade from his first, a Subaru Forester (often called the state bird of New Hampshire for its undying popularity in New England). If Zuckerberg does own a fleet of exotics, he's certainly kept them a big secret, which on Facebook is no easy task.

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After discovering Justin Bieber on YouTube, R&B singer Usher signed the 15-year-old Canadian to his new record label in 2009. A year later, Usher gave newly licensed Bieber a full-size Range Rover. While Range Rovers are a classic celebrity choice, Bieber seems to have forgotten it, perhaps because he has become more environmentally aware. He now cruises in a chrome-plated Fisker Karma EV.

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Nicolas Cage, who at one point bought nine Rolls-Royce Phantom sedans, has a lively history of owning expensive cars, making movies about them and then going broke. He auctioned his very first car, a 1973 Triumph Spitfire, at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in 2002. Old Triumphs might be thrilling, open-air rides, but they're usually in the shop rather than being gone in 60 seconds.

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Rap producer Swizz Beatz, who worked with automaker Lotus to create a special-edition Evora, bought one of the best 2-door coupes of the 1990s: a Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. While making money as a disc jockey in high school, Beatz showed up to class in his Z, where it was known as "the spaceship." But Beatz couldn't go too fast. It was also his first time with a manual transmission, and through lots of trial (and error), he burned through several clutches.

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When country sweetheart Taylor Swift entered the music scene, her record label surprised her with a hot pink Chevrolet Silverado pickup on her 18th birthday. She wisely decided to donate the truck to charity (wouldn't anyone with a paint job like that?). Today, Swift is more at home in sports cars such as the Audi R8.

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Scarlett Johansson's first car was a BMW Z4, although she ended up crashing it into "a million pieces." The actress, who has been featured in several Woody Allen flicks, said the car was "too fast and too wild." We're not sure if her car was the now-discontinued Z4 M, which packed 343 horsepower in a light, rear-wheel-drive chassis. If so, we understand.

View Slideshow:  Stars and their convertibles

If your parents gave you a Porsche as a first car, wouldn't you say extra-nice things to them? When 16-year-old Miley Cyrus was handed her mom's old Cayenne, the actress and singer wasn't jumping for joy like her bubbly Hannah Montana character. "I didn't get the one I wanted, but I got the old car which wasn't so bad because it was a Porsche. It was a pretty good hand-me-down." Tough life.

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Sharon Osbourne, TV co-host of "The Talk" and wife to drugged-out rock musician Ozzy Osbourne, took a yellow Triumph Stag as her first car. An hour later, she crashed it. That might have been cheaper than maintaining it, because the Stag, like many British sports cars of the 1970s, was horribly unreliable.

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According to the classic-car magazine Hemmings, we now know Whoopi Goldberg's first car was an old Volkswagen Beetle. The original Beetle, like the Jeep Wrangler, is one of those automotive cultural icons that transcend class and wealth. In its heyday, the Beetle was a reliable toy for the young and spirited children of the 1960s, despite being extremely unsafe.

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We're not exactly sure how Kim Kardashian makes a living, but she certainly lives the high life with boyfriend Kanye West. While she's often spotted riding in West's 12-cylinder Lamborghini Aventador (which she gave to him as a 35th birthday present), Kardashian started out in a 4-cylinder BMW 318, an entry-level Bimmer that was often sold as a hatchback during the 1990s.

Bing Images: Kim Kardashian cars

Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, who spends her days as a fashion designer and occasionally pimps out the latest Range Rover, got a used Fiat Uno from her parents at age 17. Millions of these subcompact Italian hatchbacks were sold all over Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s.

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Clifford Atiyeh has spent his entire life driving cars he doesn't own. Based in Boston, he is the senior news editorfor MSN Autos, and contributes to The Boston Globe, Car and Driver, and other publications.