It's a rare car indeed: The Duesenberg, Model J Luxury Roadster was manufactured in a quantity of just 470 units between 1928 to 1937. Jay Leno was awfully lucky to get one of these cars. At least he was lucky, until the estate of the car's deceased owner got wind of it and filed a lawsuit to reclaim the car.

It seems that some questionable tactics are alleged to have been used in executing a "sham" auction through which Jay Leno came to take possession of the highly prized automobile. Bloomberg.com reported that the car's owner, John Straus, had at one time refused an offer from Jay Leno to purchase the car. Subsequently, Leno paid $180,000 for the car at auction, a mere fraction of its true value.

The garage which was storing the car had allegedly seized it, and had it sold to pay some delinquent parking fees. At this time, it is questioned whether or not those parking fees were even righteously delinquent. The plaintiff indicates that repeated attempts to pay outstanding parking fees were rejected, misdirected, or misapplied. The Bloomberg article stated: "Straus's parking account, which the garage claimed was in arrears, was credited $39,709 as a result of the sale."

It's becoming even more expensive to own a car in London. A new survey shows that the city is the most expensive for parking in the entire world, with an average of $68.07 per day, or $1,166.87 a month. Actually, two London spots were top on the list -- the top rate for the financial district and a slightly lower rate of $1,135.76 monthly for the West End. When you add the rising cost of gas, which in London is around $9 a gallon, and all sorts of commuting taxes and surcharges that the city keeps trying to add, it may become hard for Londoners to maintain their vehicles.

A kind of distant third on the list was Sydney, Australia at $774.76 monthly, followed by Hong Kong and Perth. Elsewhere in the survey by Colliers International of 64 downtown areas in North America and 74 cities in Europe, parking was high in Stockholm, which was second in Europe and Santiago, Chile was tops in South America. Tel Aviv and Dubai were the highest in the Middle East and Africa. And the lowest rates were in Jakarta, where monthly parking is just $26.07, and Delhi, where the daily rate is just $1.75 for the day.