Newsweek said that Obama and his wife Michelle own a single car, a Ford Escape Hybrid, which was dubbed by Gettelfinger as a "green machine" emblematic of a future generation of US vehicles.

Following a campaign rally, the lengthy convoy of police outriders, Secret Service cars, staff vans and press buses ground to a stop behind Obama's black-tinted SUV outside "Penny's Flowers."

The vintage rail car in which Obama rode dates to 1939.