US YouTuber buys $850 abandoned Pimp My Ride minivan and what he finds after inspection reveals a major secret about the show

US YouTuber Tavarish bought the infamous Pimp My Ride van, the Chrysler Voyager that featured in the show, and the inspection revealed something strange.

The van was not in good shape.

But not for the reason you might imagine.

And it has everything to do with the nature of these reality shows.

Reality shows aren’t real at all

In the early days of reality shows, viewers generally believed that everything they saw on screen was real.

But with the rise of the internet and, more importantly, social media, evidence that most things were staged came to light.

At that point, viewers felt a bit duped and assumed the entire genre was fake.

Now we’re probably somewhere in the middle.

Reality shows are still mostly scripted, but certain interactions and occasional bloopers are genuine.

But the fact that reality shows have scriptwriters is the indirect reason behind this van’s desperate condition.

The reason why the Pimp My Ride van was a mess

The legendary Pimp My Ride Chrysler Voyager van was bought by Tavarish, the US YouTuber who’s also trying to fix the flooded McLaren P1.

When he started working on the vehicle, he realized it was in horrible condition and explained why.

“A little secret that they probably don’t want you to know is the fact that a lot of times they didn’t use the original car,” Tavarish explained.

“They got cars that looked kind of like it and then they’ve modified those because the original cars were in really bad shape.”

The production team occasionally used more than one vehicle, which means that what we saw on screen definitely didn’t match the vehicle that ended up on the road.

This explains the long list of problems with the Voyager.

The body kit was damaged, the windshield wiper and drive belt were entirely missing, and both the engine and radiator were plagued with leaks.

Hold on, because there’s more.

The brakes were worn out, the upholstery was stained and moldy, and none of the Pimp My Ride-style entertainment components (monitors, speakers, etc) worked.

Still, there’s a silver lining.

Amazingly, Tavarish ended up selling the van to another YouTuber, Tyler Hoover, who actually sold it on for $1,300.

That is outstanding when you remember this van is quite beat-up, and even more outstanding when you learn he’d actually paid $850 for it.