The Worst Car(s) Ever Offered As Prizes on Game Shows

[PYLdude]

Personally, I'd love to see any Price is Right ep where a Catera or a Cimarron would be offered. So I can laugh at it. XD

Wish granted. Today's batch of TPiR episodes has a Golden Road playing for a $14K Cimarron! It looked really dinky in front of the rainbow backdrop:

Man, that’s just lazy on GMs part. It looks like they just pulled the bow tie logo off a Cavalier and stuck the Cadillac...crest...on it.

It’s like they realized at this point they weren’t fooling anyone and just said “okay, let’s stop lying to ourselves and just make this look as generic as possible, no more point in gussying up this turd.”

[Sodboy13]

Yep, that is a generic GM box, all right.

[JakeT]

Man, that’s just lazy on GMs part. It looks like they just pulled the bow tie logo off a Cavalier and stuck the Cadillac...crest...on it.

Give GM some credit...this was genius on their part...they took a piece of crap car, slapped a fancy label on it and got the label whores to spend thousands more than the car was worth just for the brand name...

JakeT

[BrandonFG]

Man, that’s just lazy on GMs part. It looks like they just pulled the bow tie logo off a Cavalier and stuck the Cadillac...crest...on it.

Give GM some credit...this was genius on their part...they took a piece of crap car, slapped a fancy label on it and got the label whores to spend thousands more than the car was worth just for the brand name...

JakeT

As a kid I had a bit of a fascination with GM's cars of the 80s/90s, and how they all had the same body and guts, with a different badge. Anyway, I remember coming across a magazine ad for the Cimarron, a $12K Cavalier/Sunbird that was supposed to give BMW, Mercedes, and Audi a run for the money, by being a few thousand cheaper.

IIRC, a friend's mom had one, and confirmed that it was indeed an overpriced Cavalier.



/Forgot all about the flop that was the Catera

[JakeT]

As a kid I had a bit of a fascination with GM's cars of the 80s/90s, and how they all had the same body and guts, with a different badge. Anyway, I remember coming across a magazine ad for the Cimarron, a $12K Cavalier/Sunbird that was supposed to give BMW, Mercedes, and Audi a run for the money, by being a few thousand cheaper.

I had a fully-loaded 1986 Buick Riviera, complete with the 5" b&w touchscreen controls...it was, I believe, identical to the Cadillac Seville of that model year...

Man, was it a money pit once it started to fall apart...

JakeE

[trainman]

My grandfather was loyal to Cadillac, and a Catera was the last car he bought (either a '97 or a '98). He never drove it that much, especially after he went into a retirement home -- I think there were less than 10,000 miles on it when he died in 2010. My dad inherited the car, and used it as his daily driver up until last year, when it finally became impossible for his mechanic to get parts.

[mparrish11]

I remember Classic Concentration offering a 1987(?) Yugo.  I can’t imagine anyone being excited for that pile of crap.

[johnnya2k3]

Nissan Micra on The Price is Big W (aka the 2012 reboot of Aussie TPIR), and only during the Showcase.

LMAD 1980 at one point also had the Oldsmobile Omega, and yes, Pontiac Fieros were being offered up the wazoo, especially on Love Me, Love Me Not.

/The Pontiac 6000 STE was always my '80s dream car anyway (they were the Kia Optima/K5 of its day)

[mystery7]

The $100,000 Pyramid seemed to have plenty of Fieros on offer as Mystery 7 prizes...I guess a nice upgrade from the Chevette you'd get on the $25,000 Pyramid.

Anything (except a Yugo) would be better than a Vega: the little car that does everything well...except stay together. Since we're taking requests, any Classic Concentration contestants ever deliberately lose the bonus round to avoid winning a certain car?

[Kevin Prather]

Since we're taking requests, any Classic Concentration contestants ever deliberately lose the bonus round to avoid winning a certain car?

If they did, I doubt they'd have the balls to admit that on the air. Even "I wanna win more prizes" sounds less douchy than that.

[BrandonFG]

Not quite. Chevette went until 1987, with production ending in December '86. Chevy sold the Chevette, Sprint, and Spectrum concurrently in the mid-80s, along with the Nova.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevette#Model_years_(1976%E2%80%931987)

[johnnya2k3]

Not quite. Chevette went until 1987, with production ending in December '86. Chevy sold the Chevette, Sprint, and Spectrum concurrently in the mid-80s, along with the Nova.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevette#Model_years_(1976%E2%80%931987)

And the Chevy/Geo Spectrum was basically a souped-up Isuzu I-Mark, but the Escort (with no air conditioning, being that it was Alaska!) was our family car at the time.

/Was FM radio optional on the Chevette (it still had AM according to the LMAD description)?

[calliaume]

And the Chevy/Geo Spectrum was basically a souped-up Isuzu I-Mark

Actually, it was basically a Toyota Corolla--they were made at the same factory.

We bought a five-year-old 1986 model--it wasn't the best car on the road, but it got the job done for a few years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevy_II_/_Nova

[PYLdude]

And the Chevy/Geo Spectrum was basically a souped-up Isuzu I-Mark

Actually, it was basically a Toyota Corolla--they were made at the same factory.

We bought a five-year-old 1986 model--it wasn't the best car on the road, but it got the job done for a few years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevy_II_/_Nova

The Nova was the Corolla. The Spectrum was indeed the I-Mark.

But oh, those legendary collaborations of the 1980s. Like the NUMMI cars. And the Diamond Star partnership, which brought us a lot of the cars sold as Eagles with maybe one exception (?, that being the originally Renault-branded Premier).

Speaking of the Chrysler-Mitsubishi partnership, was there ever a Colt Vista offered on any game show? I don’t seem to remember ever seeing one and it’s one of my favorite cars. (Why I couldn’t tell you; they just fascinate me)

[BrandonFG]

Speaking of the Chrysler-Mitsubishi partnership, was there ever a Colt Vista offered on any game show? I don’t seem to remember ever seeing one and it’s one of my favorite cars. (Why I couldn’t tell you; they just fascinate me)

Family Double Dare offered them a few times.