Seth Martino's car seemed to be particularly low quality. "There were plenty of things wrong with it," he told HuffPost, including television screens never working again after filming. As Martino recalled, some things that didn't work on the car included the LED lights that were put in the seats. "They would get really hot if left on so I couldn't drive with them on," Martino said. "They took the gull-wing doors off because the pistons used to lift them kept them from putting seat belts in the back which was highly dangerous." A cotton candy machine they installed was fit into the trunk without leaving enough room for the dome top to keep the cotton candy strands "from flying all over the place."
Apparently, Mad Mike would try and help out when cars would have problems. MTV also had flatbed tow truck driver on call according to Larry Hochberg. "The people who had cars that appeared on the show would call me, and I would leave my desk, run to meet up with the flatbed tow truck and go help them," he said. Hochberg also said the cars would occasionally have wiring issues, which he would coordinate in getting back to the West Coast Customs or eventually the GAS shop. At least it seems for the serious issues, MTV attempted to reconcile problems. "I made sure that things were fixed on cars that needed fixing," Hochberg said. But speaking of the root of those more serious issues ...
Although the cars were visually pimped, the insides were seemingly given far less attention.
From the onset here, it should be noted that Larry Hochberg says that "it's not accurate to say that we didn't work on the mechanics of the cars" and that the contestants on the show had a misconception of what had happened with their vehicles. As Hochberg explained to HuffPost, "Some of the cars were so old and rusted that they would have mechanical issues no matter how much work you put into them [and] the production team and the car shops worked their butts off to get parts for these cars." In one instance, MTV even sent someone all the way to a desert junkyard in Arizona just for a replacement hood on a car. A lot of these cars were almost spent and this wasn't a show about saving cars from breaking down, it was a show about pimping. That said, as mentioned before, the cars did break down.
Jake Glazier, who felt "there were a lot of problems" with the mechanics, sold his car after just about a month. He was then told by the new owner that it had already blown out. Glazier told one example of what he felt was shoddy work: the car needed a muffler, and so a fake exhaust pipe was installed to make it seem as if that's what the car was supposed to sound like, "even though it was just lack of a muffler."
"There wasn't much done under the hood in regards to the actual mechanics of the vehicle," according to Seth Martino. "For the most part, it needed a lot of work done to make it a functioning regular driver, which they did not do." Martino said he had a hard time even driving the car home. "They added a lot of extra weight but didn't adjust the suspension to compensate so I felt like I was in a boat, and every time I hit a bump the car would bottom out and the tires would scrape inside the wheel well." According to Martino, that the car would only run for about a month. Then he had to save up his own money to replace the engine.
This happened many years after the show -- and after extensive outside work -- but one car exploded into flames.
Apparently, Mad Mike would try and help out when cars would have problems. MTV also had flatbed tow truck driver on call according to Larry Hochberg. "The people who had cars that appeared on the show would call me, and I would leave my desk, run to meet up with the flatbed tow truck and go help them," he said. Hochberg also said the cars would occasionally have wiring issues, which he would coordinate in getting back to the West Coast Customs or eventually the GAS shop. At least it seems for the serious issues, MTV attempted to reconcile problems. "I made sure that things were fixed on cars that needed fixing," Hochberg said. But speaking of the root of those more serious issues ...
Although the cars were visually pimped, the insides were seemingly given far less attention.
From the onset here, it should be noted that Larry Hochberg says that "it's not accurate to say that we didn't work on the mechanics of the cars" and that the contestants on the show had a misconception of what had happened with their vehicles. As Hochberg explained to HuffPost, "Some of the cars were so old and rusted that they would have mechanical issues no matter how much work you put into them [and] the production team and the car shops worked their butts off to get parts for these cars." In one instance, MTV even sent someone all the way to a desert junkyard in Arizona just for a replacement hood on a car. A lot of these cars were almost spent and this wasn't a show about saving cars from breaking down, it was a show about pimping. That said, as mentioned before, the cars did break down.
Jake Glazier, who felt "there were a lot of problems" with the mechanics, sold his car after just about a month. He was then told by the new owner that it had already blown out. Glazier told one example of what he felt was shoddy work: the car needed a muffler, and so a fake exhaust pipe was installed to make it seem as if that's what the car was supposed to sound like, "even though it was just lack of a muffler."
"There wasn't much done under the hood in regards to the actual mechanics of the vehicle," according to Seth Martino. "For the most part, it needed a lot of work done to make it a functioning regular driver, which they did not do." Martino said he had a hard time even driving the car home. "They added a lot of extra weight but didn't adjust the suspension to compensate so I felt like I was in a boat, and every time I hit a bump the car would bottom out and the tires would scrape inside the wheel well." According to Martino, that the car would only run for about a month. Then he had to save up his own money to replace the engine.
This happened many years after the show -- and after extensive outside work -- but one car exploded into flames.
