Driver whose Nissan Maxima appeared on 'Pimp My Ride' revealed how long his car actually worked after filming

A man who had his 1989 Nissan Maxima modified on Pimp My Ride has revealed how long his car continued to run after he got it back from the show.

Seth Martino gave away his precious car to the wild and wacky MTV show, hoping that it would return as a rejuvenated and functional vehicle.

But, when it comes to Pimp My Ride, it would be fair to say that all that glitters is not gold.

Martino might have gotten a cotton candy machine in the trunk of his car, but he got more than he bargained for, too.

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Pimp My Ride wasn’t exactly as it seemed on the screen

Pimp My Ride ran on MTV from 2004 to 2007 and was famously fronted by rapper Xzibit – who later had some pretty strong words to say about his time there.

The show took banged-up cars and transformed them into glistening impractical beasts with fancy paint jobs and increasingly bizarre accessories.

But we’ll get to all of that in good time.

While Xzibit was the face of the operation, the guys who actually did the work were the no-doubt-talented specialists at West Coast Customs.

They could take even the most clapped-out car and turn it into a modded masterpiece that would make even Snoop Dogg blush.

However, as several contestants have later testified, the cars weren’t necessarily built to last, and some of the modifications were only for the cameras.

Take Seth Martino, for example.

Martino brought his gnarled old Nissan Maxima to the show, hoping for it to be given a second life.

In the build-up, he mentioned to them that he was a big fan of the Transformers series, so – of course – they incorporated that into the design.

He got a back seat that transformed into a sound system, as well as a glitzy coat of paint and even a cotton candy machine in the trunk.

But all these additions were made to a struggling vehicle, and Seth would have preferred a working car to a pimped-out ride every day of the week.

In a 2012 Reddit AMA [Ask Me Anything], he revealed:

“I will say that most people believe that PMR takes the car and gives it back in like a week or something.

“That’s what I thought was going to happen, too.

“But in actuality they had my car for roughly seven months, with filming done in stages.”

Martino also revealed that after the show, his car ran for a month before he had to start saving up for a new engine.

To be fair, the show is not called Fix My Ride, is it?

The Nissan Maxima could make fairground snacks, not tracks

Sure, Martino might have had the ability to knock up sugary treats in his trunk, but his Nissan Maxima was ultimately worthless if it couldn’t drive.

On Reddit, he added:

“I wanted to be on the show to have a nice-looking car, but more than that, I wanted a car that worked,

“I didn’t get that from them. There are episodes that got new cars, and some were completely overhauled, but I wasn’t one of the lucky ones.”

What’s more, he only used his car’s unique feature once.

“The cotton candy machine didn’t have a protective hood that fit, so if I tried turning it on, it would get candy strands everywhere. Very messy. So I never used it again after the shoot,” he explained.

Let that be a lesson for us all – if something seems too good to be true, there’s a good chance that it is.