Man who featured on Pimp My Ride revealed what they actually did to his car once MTV's cameras had gone
Published on Jul 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Jul 24, 2025 at 9:02 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
People who featured on MTV hit show Pimp My Ride revealed what actually happened to the cars once the cameras had gone.
Back when the show aired, the notion that reality television was actually not always real was a bit foreign.
As you can imagine, Pimp My Ride was not 100 percent genuine either.
But the truth beneath the surface is interesting.
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Pimp My Ride was (in part) staged
A lot of what was going on on Pimp My Ride was fake.
Shocker, we know.
Jokes aside, the MTV hit show everyone loved in the early 2000s was, at least in part, staged and scripted.
No one knew at the time, then people began suspecting years later, and now everyone knows.
The show, hosted by rapper Xzibit, ran for six seasons and used the help of West Coast Customs to take people’s vehicles from drab to fab.
It also went went global, with spin-offs in Europe, Indonesia, and Brazil.
But a lot of what we saw on screen remained, well, on screen.
Justin Dearinger from season six, for example, had his 1997 Toyota RAV4 pimped by MTV.
He revealed that even though it looks like it only takes a couple of weeks in the shop to pimp your ride, Justin was left without a car for five months.
They also added stuff they removed later.
After filming ended, the team actually removed some of the coolest parts of his car, like the ‘pop-up champagne’, because they were unsafe or illegal.
This was not a one-off, as several guests on the show shared very similar stories.
Now the audience knows
Remember the movie i, Robot starring Will Smith?
Most cars featured in the movie were Audis, including the supercar driven by the protagonist portrayed by Will Smith.
Back then, people would have called it an amusing coincidence whereas now, everyone knows that’s called product placement.
In the early days of the internet, the audience mostly believed that reality shows were 100 percent genuine.
Now, everyone’s aware most things are scripted, in the same way most people know Apple’s ‘No Villain Clause’ is not a hoax.
That’s why it would be difficult to make Pimp My Ride work in today’s television.
Because people would probably just assume most of it is fake anyway.
Pity.
Alessandro is an automotive journalist with 10 years of experience covering supercars, automotive history, emerging vehicle technology, and luxury transportation. He wrote the first article published on SupercarBlondie.com when the website launched in 2022 and has since built a reputation for insightful reporting across the automotive and transportation industries. His expertise is grounded in hands-on experience. Alessandro has driven every Tesla model ever produced, from the original Roadster to the Cybertruck, and regularly covers the latest developments in electric vehicles and automotive innovation. His passion for transportation extends beyond cars, he has even flown a Boeing 787 Dreamliner simulator in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His reporting spans everything from classic American muscle cars and rare automotive discoveries to luxury yachts, private aircraft, high-end watches, and cutting-edge vehicle technology. Known for his deep knowledge of automotive history and ability to uncover the stories behind iconic vehicles, Alessandro brings readers a blend of historical context, technical expertise, and first-hand experience.
