Film & TV3 min(s) read
Published 16:06 15 Jul 2026 GMT
Man who got Toyota RAV4 makeover on ‘Pimp My Ride’ shares truth about the show
A man who appeared on Pimp My Ride to give his Toyota RAV4 a makeover has shared some of the details of what happened off camera.
It’s probably not a massive spoiler to tell you that what makes it to the show isn’t exactly a reflection of reality.
Pimp My Ride was famous for bending the truth with car makeovers
Back in the halcyon days of MTV in the early 2000s, Pimp My Ride was one of the biggest shows out there.
They took regular old banged-up cars and filled them full of wacky paint jobs, even wackier gadgets, and - oftentimes - a heap of stuff that people didn’t really want or need.
In the years that have passed, the tech has long since, but the stories remain and keep appearing.
One such story comes from Toyota RAV4 owner Justin Dearinger, who featured on the show in 2007.
During the sixth season of the show, he appeared on the show to have his car tricked out.
Unfortunately, some years later the car went up in flames, with faulty wiring cited as the cause of the fire.
Now, that’s not necessarily the fault of Pimp My Ride, but what if we told you that there were fitted candles and a chocolate fountain added to the car at some point?
What did Justin say about his Pimp My Ride experience?
Justin took to Reddit to explain his story, starting out by saying that the car took five months to finish, and that he initially didn’t like what they did.
“I eventually got used to it,” he said.
What’s more, he eventually ‘redid the whole car’ at the cost of around $20,000.
He did open up on that wiring problem that eventually led to the car’s fiery demise.
That was - he claims - the work of another shop and nothing to do with the pimping of his ride.
Asked why he went on the show in the first place, he said: “By the time they were filming this season, they had already done minivans, Mercedes, a f***ing bus, and an ice cream truck.
“They have never had a RAV4 before, so they went with it.”
Still, at least he got an experience out of it - and a story to tell.
Even if his car did end up in flames.
Others have shared their own Pimp My Ride stories
YouTuber Tavarish bought a minivan from the show for $850 to see what had been done to it.
It had featured on the show back in 2004, but by the time it arrived in the present day it was… a little worse for wear.
First off, some secrets were revealed about the show.
Tavarish said: “A lot of times, the guys didn’t use the original car.
“They got cars that looked kind of like it, and then modified those.”
Of course, we all thought it was totally real...