pimpin' ain't easy

[rone]

So, if those people on "Pimp My Ride" can't afford to get a decent car to replace their piece-of-shit junkheap, what makes MTV think they can afford the insurance on the pimped-up vehicle?

Comments

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Insurance? We don't need no stinkin' insurance.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that they have to report much to the insurance company. Many years ago, a friend of mine dropped a very cool engine into a Toy Corolla. The insurance company didn't care and charged him the same rate as though he had the regular engine for that model.

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

AOPA Pilot Magazine, Sporty's Pilot Shop, the EAA, and several other organizations have annual give-aways where they take some clapped out airplane, do a whole hell of a lot of upgrading prominently featuring products that are advertised or sold by them, and then give it away. They'll often put $250,000 worth of work (which of course they don't pay full retail for) into a $75,000 airplane. And of course the "gift" is considered taxable income, at the full inflated price, not at their real resale value. Not surprisingly, most of the people who get these planes end up selling them to pay the taxes, and they sure as hell don't get $250K+$75 for it.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of Oprah's famous "You're getting a car!" giveaway, when she gave cars to hundreds of people in the audience. Also, I can't remember what kind of car, so HAW HAW to the marketing genius who thought of that one.

Anyway, most of those people were getting cars from Oprah because they had sob stories such that they could't afford a new car. By giving them all $36,000 cars, she was in some cases doubling their household income for that year, and someone figured that the average increase of a recipient's tax burden would be about $8000. You can be certain that most of those cars were sold. Heck, mark the sucker up if it has Oprah's fingerprints on it. Considering what people pay for lunch with Warren Buffett, you'd a car that appeared in the vicinity of Oprah would be worth a little over sticker.

So my question for you is this: How many cars can you buy with $8000 you save by not getting a car from Oprah?

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

Pretty much every option for insurance of a car like that will be cheap. Insurance for a restored car that's 20 years old or more, only driven on a few Sundays during the dry summer months, or in parades, costs like .008 cents per year.

If you have a restored car you drive regularly, most likely the insurance company won't let you take anything more than liability on it. A car over 9 years old or so will have really low rates, especially without comprehensive or collision coverage.

Some places will occasionally insure an older vehicle based on the stated amount and allow comp/collision coverage, but the value of the car is based on resale value, which is low. You can put $25,000 into a car but stated value is only $10,000 because that's all you can sell it for. With the value based on such a low amount, you get cheap insurance that way, but if you total your car you only get the stated amount, which sucks.

You shouldn't have asked this. I can hear you snoring already.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

I don't know how insurance laws work in California. In Michigan, you can drive a $300,000 car and have a near-nothing collision deductable If you're in an accident, your damages to the other vehicle are covered to a higher amount but coverage for your own can buy a small bottle of touch-up paint. A very small bottle.

The improvements in these shows are going to be considered cosmetic, and unless the winners pay extra to insure the built-in wide-screen TVs and eighty-speaker sound system, they're not going to get much if the stuff is stolen, and the loss won't really affect whether the car can get them to work and back.

If these people could afford insuring their car against theft before the customization job, I suspect theft insurance after them wouldn't go up much either.

[frosch.livejournal.com]

you haven't been around very much TV production, have you?

[andrewhime.livejournal.com]

I wondered that after watching the early Daihatsu Hijet episode, since I work in car insurance all day. But the truth is, those people probably only carry liability since the vehicles are essentially worthless before and even after.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

You watch Pimp My Ride?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

No, arian1 does.

[crankysysadmin.livejournal.com]

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/15/pimp_my_fahrrad.html