$130k service cost on 328 true?

I doubt anyone pressures Jay on his own channel. Jay likes to feature random people he meets and finds interesting when they have fun cars. Not too hard to see how Donny might end up there, I suppose; he does have an outgoing, fun personality.

 

Jay talked about it in his interview with @twinpalms. I think @robertcope's description is about right.

 

There's a lot Leno seems to genuinely appreciate about Ferrari, and he's had other Ferrari owners on the show with him discussing and driving their cars, and he sure looked like he was enjoying them.

He just doesn't want to own a Ferrari, for his own reasons. Somewhere there's an interview with him, I think in a Garage episode, where he explains it - I don't recall offhand what he said about it.

 

He didn't like the dealer experience.

 

I’m going to paraphrase as well, but it has to do with Ferrari’s allocation/hierarchy scheme for owners new to the brand, forcing them to work their way up the model ladder until they’ve proven that they “deserve” one of the more desirable models.
Would be interesting to know if his POV comes from personal experience.
- Dave

 

That's about what I remembered, but didn't recall what he specifically said about it. I wonder if he was well-known enough at the time that they tried to shake him down, after a fashion, making him decide that while he may appreciate the cars for what they are, he'd never be a customer. Pure speculation on my part, though.

 

It does, when he first moved to Hollywood they wouldn't sell him anything, not even the lowest model, so he bought a Countach and daily drove it for a couple of years while his career took off.

 

I'm sure the producer lined him up for the show, took his fake story, then filled Jay in on it in probably a minute or two right before filming.

 

It's shirt like this that makes me question my love of the brand. Not that I will ever be in the position to roll into a Ferrari store and pluck one off the showroom floor, but to even be tacitly associated with such antics is an embarrassment. My only solace? Everyone's got the right to run their business as they see fit. I mean they ran off possibly the most famous collector in the world and it doesn't seem to have hurt their business one iota. The other thing? I'm hoping my 70's 308 represents a time before all those retail shenanigans became Ferrari's M.O.
- Dave

 

FWIW, this anecdote about Jay (which might be apocryphal) may say more about the dealer than about the brand. It was also a long time ago.

I never understood the objections to Ferrari's approach. If you want a production car, you may have to be patient, but you can get one. The limited cars go to their most loyal customers, not to the highest bidder. Would people prefer the ADM shenanigans of their competitors?

I can imagine that some dealers make it feel transactional and slimy. Perhaps Jay had the misfortune of walking into such a place.

But that's never been my experience. My dealer (Miller) has always treated me with respect, and never pressured me. This was true before I became a customer and remains true today. When I request an allocation, I get one, or I don't. No games or quid pro quo. It's always felt fair, professional, and friendly.

 

It was the early 80s, so not that long ago and Ferrari dealers didn't have that reputation by mistake.

And yes, I would rather pay ADMs than the crap Ferrari was pulling....at least selling to the highest bidder is fair.

 

To each his own.

 

I am very familiar with the new purchase of my 1982 308 GTSI because I was there even though I wasn't the buyer. The original purchaser wanted to buy a 512 but he was told that there were more buyers than cars allocated so the best they could do was sell him a 308. Now its possible that this dealer could easily sell more cars than was allocated to them so I can't say. The buyer was a bit upset so decided to not purchase. A month later he decided he would take a 308. The dealer was out of 308's and ended up importing one from Canada. So why didn't he import a 512? My guess was that Ferrari was playing the game all the way back in the 80's.

 

Ferrari isn't the only on that does this stuff. I watched this video and it was pretty insightful.

At the end of the day these cars are toys. They are not regular transport. So it's really what they call a 1st-world-problem, which in my mind really is not a problem at all.

I too will never roll into a Ferrari dealership and buy a new car. I got my 308 for 30k and probably have spent double that getting the car right. But anything above is just out of my price range so I guess I don't weep for those that have tons of cash and can't get their ... whatever they want... car

 

The most recent IG post (Nov 6, 2025) by Donnie features Slash (of Guns & Roses fame) citing a high school relationship with him & later restoring a Corvette. Followed by a clip of him with Jay Leno on his show when he presented his Blanco Ferrari 308 GTB QV. That Jay appearance is a gift that keeps on giving.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQuX0RoERHr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

From 2 or 3 of my friends who have been on the show it's my understanding that Donald Osbourne is the one that mostly scouts and approves the people, although Jay has before, it's mainly Donalds doing.

 

It looks like AI. Also in quote Slash is called “Sal” and his name is “Saul.”

 

I have a friend that was in GNR. I'm going to send him this clip and see if it's legit.

If not... ooooh poor Donnie.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Donald points known cars and collectors to Jay and mainly his producers. However, Donald Osborne is a very busy guy who has a decades long standing appraisal business and is CEO of the Audrain Museum in Newport, RI. That alone comes with fundraising, curating, and running multiple large events throughout the year, let alone the media work with Jay and ancillary standard car industry stuff like collector auctions (which are tied to his appraisal business), and multiple concourse events around the country and world.

He seems like a very interesting guy.

It is really Jay's producers that are running the show. It's Hollywood. Jay is very busy doing comedy work and traveling and working on his cars with his team.

I still say for Donnie, he just managed to get on the show. You cannot hold any media personality responsible for his actions. Donnie tricked them into thinking he was good by treading them differently in a positive way to get what he needed out of them, to then take that creditably he used to coerce and steal from his customer base. It is both narcissistic and sociopathic behavior. And whether he started that way or turned to it is another question. It seems a lot like construction. Costs on jobs increase and then you start asking for large advances, padding work orders, and that's the new norm. Both industries are filled with very good and very bad actors.

I still follow Donnie on social media. He's definitely working again and his content is showing him acting with more bravado than he did before all this. He seems appear empowered. My thoughts are that he thinks he can beat the system. But now many people are watching much closer. And there are still avenues his victims (on here especially) can / are trying to pursue against him. If he is running the same game, though still at fault, I would put some minor ownership on his current and new customers to say they should do some due diligence on who they do business with. Everything is very public and searchable now.

 

Donald is no longer CEO of Audrain Museum. He was
demoted due to some “irregularities”.