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

[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?