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Jan 4, 2002
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Oprah Winfrey Gives Cars to Audience


CHICAGO (Sept. 13) - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey celebrated the premiere of her 19th season Monday by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.

Winfrey poses outside Harpo Studios with audience members after giving each of them a new Pontiac G6.

"We're calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off," Winfrey said.

Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car - a Pontiac G6.

She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a twelfth car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.

"Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!" Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.

The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other - then followed Winfrey out to the parking lot of her Harpo Studios to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.

One woman stepped up onto the frame of a driver's side door, put her head on the roof and hugged the vehicle.

Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car. One woman's young son said she drove a car that "looks like she got into a gunfight"; another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
 
My wife told me about this when I came home from work. Man, they do give away some cool stuff on that show.
Anyone know if they ever gave away an iPod or other Apple product?
 
Last year (not sure when), they gave away 3G 15GB (I think) iPods to the entire audience. Not sure if they've given any other Apple stuff away.
 
mactastic said:
Personally I'd prefer the iPod.

You're not alone - the funny thing is that there's probably more metal in the iPod than there is in the POSontiac.

Interesting how Pontiac and Plastic have the same number of letters. Coincidence? I think not...
 
That's awesome. If I lived in Chicago I would go everyday to the show if they would let me. If I had won that car I would turn around and sell that beast, MSRP on that car is about 21 grand. That would be some nice spare change.

iJon
 
Mudbug said:
You're not alone - the funny thing is that there's probably more metal in the iPod than there is in the POSontiac.

Interesting how Pontiac and Plastic have the same number of letters. Coincidence? I think not...
I was under the impression that Pontiac is named after a Native American Indian chief to Ottawa and had nothing to do with plastic.
 
mactastic said:
Personally I'd prefer the iPod.

I'd prefer the car.


She may be rich, but I didn't think she was THAT rich. She should have chosen a better car. I don't mean more faster or more expensive, but maybe something that was more reliable, used less petrol, or ..... something.
 
Abstract said:
I'd prefer the car.


She may be rich, but I didn't think she was THAT rich. She should have chosen a better car. I don't mean more faster or more expensive, but maybe something that was more reliable, used less petrol, or ..... something.
It's marketing. The car just came out and I'm sure Pontiac gave her an excellent deal in exchange for the advertising it will receive. Plus how can you say it's not reliable. The car just came out. Now you may be comparing it to other Pontiacs, which it will most likely act the same but we won't know for sure.

iJon
 
iJon said:
That's awesome. If I lived in Chicago I would go everyday to the show if they would let me. If I had won that car I would turn around and sell that beast, MSRP on that car is about 21 grand. That would be some nice spare change.

iJon

I'm not sure if getting a gift like that is the same as winning on a game show, so I can't say if you have to pay Uncle Sam taxes on it or not. If you did, and you sold it for $20,000, you'd have around $14,400 left. You could get a pretty smoking Apple set up for $14,400.
 
The cars were donated by Pontiac, and Pontiac will also cover options the new owners choose to have installed. Pontiac is also covering all taxes, and has valued each car at $28,000.
 
It is a win win situation fro General Motors Pontiac Division. They get advertising and a tax deduction. The audience will end up paying the taxes. That would be the downer for me. I agree powermac666, would sell the car. Then get a Power Mac G5 2.5 with 30" Cinema Display. Would use the rest on my house.
 
I would sell it, but wouldn't buy a Mac. I have a Mac that I like already. :)

If I oh so desperately "needed a car" like all those people in the audience, I'd use the money to buy another car.

And who writes to Oprah to tell them how much their mom/friend/brother/etc needs a new car? Its like begging or something.

"Hi Oprah, I'm a big fan of yours. I love your show and watch it every day. Anyway, my brother's car is trash! ..... "
 
Elan0204 said:
No, Pontiac is covering all the taxes, so that the cars can be truely free.

yeah, I don't think Pontiac or Oprah would give them a gift that will cost them thousands of dollars. I'm sure they thought of that already before giving them away. ;)

I wonder.....if you live in the city where Oprah is taped (LA, NY, Chicago?), there may be quite a few Pontiac G6s on sale for cheaper than MSRP because of this, so if you are actually in the market for a Pontiac G6, I'd be looking out for personal G6 sales, as you may save some cash. And maybe these people won't bother getting the best price possible, as they got them for free anyway. Prices between them may be very competitive. :)
 
Abstract said:
if you live in the city where Oprah is taped (LA, NY, Chicago?)

Oprah is taped in Chicago. I don't think anyone that got one of these cars will be selling them. First, they all needed the cars, and second, Oprah gave it to them. This was probably one of the happiest days in the lives of these people, and I don't think you can put a price on that.
 
Lol, I was wondering what people were pointing at, then i noticed the "e" instead of the "a." My bad.

iJon
 
munkle said:
I thought that title belongs to Alice Walton of Wal-Mart fame?

I believe so as well.

Oprah is probably the richest self made woman. Alice Walton is #7. I am not sure why the Waltons are listed separately but Karl and Theo Albrecht (founded Aldi, the German version of Walmart) are lumped together.

Oprah is #427 of both male and female with a billion. There are a number of women above her not sure how many made their own money
 
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