Speaker A
You're at a house. It's not my house; it's a staged house. And the contestants' houses weren't the only thing Pimp My Ride lied about. The reactions were staged and retaken multiple times. Certain upgrades were taken off as soon as the cameras cut. It's for a boat. He goes, "It's a GPS for waterways. It will not work in your car." And disappointingly, even Xzibit himself had no real interest in cars. Soccer moms coming up to me, telling me about their husband and every car that he had since the '60s, and I was like, "Stop talking to me about this. I know as much as you do." Asked if the show was fake, a former contestant replied with a single word: "Correct," which isn't surprising as the show even lied about who the contestants were. For example, in season 2, episode 10, Brooke was introduced as a 22-year-old film lover working hard to go to grad school, which had been fabricated by the producers as she was actually a 25-year-old cocktail waitress planning to move back to New York. The reason for this, as explained by Jake from season 3, was because Pimp My Ride only picked people in their early 20s. There was a strict age limit of 20 to 22 years old, confirming that the show was lying about contestants' details before filming had even started. In the first 30 seconds of each episode, Xzibit emphasizes that each contestant doesn't know they're about to get picked. "He has no idea I'm about to pimp his ride." Yet this was strange as the contestant always answered the door, always had a microphone on them, and even had their windows blacked out as if they didn't want cameras seeing inside. Well, it turns out Brooke, the supposed 22-year-old film lover, had been pre-selected by a friend to appear on the show, and as a result, she'd state when Xzibit showed up at my house to tell me I'd been chosen. Not a surprise. What was a surprise was when the producers made me react and react and then react again to Xzibit showing up, finally coercing me into doing a cartwheel. And she wasn't the only contestant who'd had this experience. They post you on how to say it and what to say and everything like that. The show didn't have an actual script, but they did steer the dialogue in a direction that they wanted. If I said something they liked, they would have me repeat it over and over on camera. This had been commented on by Seth, who appeared in season 5, who was also well aware that Xzibit was coming to his house, stating, "They told me I was in the running for my own episode, but it was between me and two other people. When I was sitting in the house waiting for a knock at the door, they said that it was either going to be Xzibit or a producer telling me I didn't win." Thinking back on it, that was all, but it did make the surprise genuine, which was the same experience as Aon from season 4, episode 2. She was one of three contestants; one of them would be chosen. Someone came and knocked at the door. If it was Xzibit, they won. Contestants were at least somewhat aware that they'd be getting a knock on the door because, well, the homes they were in were actually owned by Pimp My Ride. A Huffington Post article clarified these houses were oftentimes not the contestants' homes. Instead, each dwelling had been rented by MTV. For example, when Jake from season 3 was asked, "Did the film crew show up and stage the whole surprise as part of the episode?" he'd respond by stating, "It wasn't my house; it was a place owned by one of the crew members." Similarly, Seth from season 5 stated the house was rented from Craigslist because I lived in an apartment and they needed a house with a big open driveway for filming, which is certainly reasonable. Although sometimes the house was part of the person's story. In season 2, for example, Eric's car had supposedly been beat up in the rough streets of Compton, in Compton, a no street lights in Compton. However, judging from a quick look at Google Maps, it seems the episode was filmed in a much nicer neighborhood. So if Eric's story was inconsistent and Brooke's story from earlier was downright fabricated, then who else's stories were exaggerated for the sake of the show? Well, it seems pretty much all of them. In season 3, Jake's Buick had been bought from his grandma, who smoked, and as a result, the show threw an extra few dozen cigarette butts in the car to make her just look like a totally disgusting person. On top of this, the show interviewed Jake's girlfriend toward the start of the episode, yet MTV apparently questioned me having a girlfriend and suggested I dump her because it was better for my desperate dude with a car image. A producer later responded by stating, "Why would we want a kid to break up with his girlfriend? How would that have helped the show?" So while Jake's claim about his girlfriend was somewhat questionable, the cigarette story was confirmed by Seth, who had a similar experience. "I know I'm fat, but they went the extra mile to make me look extra fat by telling the world that I kept candy all over my seat and floor just in case I got hungry." However, it seems the fakest story was Jan's in season 6. His front bumper had supposedly fallen off in a car crash. Here is a result of a three-car pileup right here. Although according to a 2010 tweet, my friend Justin was on Pimp My Ride on TV. He said his Rav4 was involved in a three-car crash. "No, it wasn't. Dude beat his car up with a bat." The same Justin then clarified what he told me was that MTV suggested to him that he and his friend should do more damage to the car, which was confirmed by Justin himself, who added, "Yes, they removed my front bumper, used aircraft remover, and enhanced the dent on the side of my car." Whilst introducing the episode, Justin stated, "One of my crazy excursions actually threw nail polish on my hood." Although when he was asked, "Why are all your ex-girlfriends so angry?" Justin revealed, "It was just something I made up." While Aaron from season 4 was also encouraged to make her car look bad. "They asked to leave trash in the car. We went to In-N-Out, and so they told me to leave it in the cup holder, so I did." It seems the only real part of the show's intro was Xzibit's improvised dialogue because it wasn't scripted. "I could say whatever I want to say." And when Xzibit drove the car to the shop, Xzibit did actually take the cars and drive them away, with the exception of a few that were too broken down, and then they made it look like he did. Although this segment created even more problems. Most people believe that PMAR 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 took my car for roughly seven months, being a massive inconvenience for some of the show's contestants, and they make it look like they're moving really, really fast, but in reality, they weren't. When asked, "For the five months they had your car, did they supply you with a replacement car?" Justin from season 6 replied, "No, they gave me $2,000 to rent a car, but I was 19 at the time. I rented a car for a month, and it cost me $11,000," forcing Justin to find his own transport for the remaining four months. Seth from season 5 had a similar experience, being forced to go to a really small shady company off the freeway by LAX because they were the only ones willing to rent to me because of my age. "It sucked having that rental car because they wouldn't take payments over the phone, so once a month I had to drive all the way from West Covina to LAX just for them to swipe my card." Although the rental situation was better for other contestants. "They had my car for about six months. In that time, I had the rental car for six months as well," with Jake from season 3 adding, "They gave me a really nice Mitsubishi Lancer to drive for the time they had the Buick." In the meantime, the crew began to plan how the rides were going to be pimped, although according to a former production staffer, this was also somewhat staged. The boardroom scenes with the WCC crew took a long time to shoot. They often had to be fed line by line. Some of those guys never really got used to being on TV. Some of the lines in the shop probably s—
