Jay Leno Is a Nice Guy, Part Four Million and Six

Seems everyone has some kind of Jay Leno story, and they’re always positive encounters.

Jay Leno car guy fixed a guy's car on Sunset Blvd.
Dwayne Henry

Beverly Hills real estate agent Dwayne Henry was out driving his 1953 Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet A on Sunset Boulevard, “a couple blocks from the Playboy Mansion,” when the car started bogging down.

“Just one month ago I’d had the brake master cylinder rebuilt, and I had some other braking stuff done, and the car's been in my garage and I decided to take it out for a little exercise,” Henry said. Hey, everybody has to go buy groceries and you might as well do it in a 1953 Mercedes Cabriolet A. “And 35 minutes into driving, my car just felt like it wasn't really moving.”

So he pulled off of Sunset at Charing Cross Road and popped the hood.

1953 Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet A
Dwayne Henry’s 1953 Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet A.
Dwayne Henry

“I saw smoke coming from the right front tire and I go around on that side thinking, ‘Wow, this is the area that my mechanic was working on. I can smell brake pads, I can smell all this stuff going on. I said, ‘This is brake-related, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.”

His girlfriend was with him and they figured it wasn’t something they could fix right there, so he called AAA and asked for a flatbed and called a friend to get a ride home.

“So we're both standing outside of the car, and all of a sudden this blue Tesla pulls up and Jay hops out.”

As happens in LA.

“He's like, ‘Hey, are you guys all right?’ And I’m like, ‘Jay, what's up, man? What's going on?’ And he goes, ‘You tell me, I’m checking up on you!’”

Henry said he thought the Benz's problems were brake-related.

“He goes, ‘Well, let me take a look.’ He can smell the brake pads. He goes, ‘Yeah, I definitely smell brake pads.’”

By this time the tow truck had arrived and his friend had arrived and famous talk show host Jay Leno had his head buried under the hood of the Benz near the master cylinder.

“So now we got a little party out there, with everyone practicing safe social distance, so I let Jay Leno go ahead and work on my car.”

As happens in LA.

“Jay asked the tow truck driver for a wrench. The tow truck driver gives him a wrench. And he takes this screw off that holds my brake fluid to release the pressure.”

Leno had the problem narrowed down.

“He told me he's pretty sure this is what the problem is. I'm like, ‘OK, I'll run that by my mechanic and make sure to focus on that area and see what's going on.”

Then they talked just like regular car guys, about the car, and how rare it is and how hard it is to find parts.

“It’s just really, really hard finding parts, and Jay knew that. So he was a fan of that in my car, and he was just totally awesome. I mean, he's a well-known guy, obviously, but he's very approachable and he's a nice, standup guy. Those who know him, they know that of him. He's a standup guy.”

Then Jay and his wife got back in their car (which was a very-LA Tesla), Henry and his girlfriend got into Henry’s friend’s car and the tow truck driver got in his flatbed and took the Mercedes away. And everyone was once again swallowed up by the City of Angels.

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