This Day In History, 2004: Everybody Gets A Car

It was 15 years ago:

📺On September 13, 2004, ‘The @Oprah Winfrey Show’ gave each unsuspecting audience member a brand new Pontiac G6: a total of 276 cars pic.twitter.com/OGro3djUGV

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) September 13, 2019

Here's how that episode is described in an article at Oprah.com, dated yesterday and titled 15 Years Ago Today, Oprah Gave Away $28,500 Cars to Her Entire Audience:  

They don’t make 'em like this anymore.

Across 25 seasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show brought us tear-jerking human interest stories, plus some of the most memorable celebrity interviews in television history. (Who can forget when Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch back in 2005?

But the show also become unforgettable thanks to the generosity of its host. Episode after episode, Oprah managed to give back to Americans in some way—even if it was simply with a book recommendation she thought could change your life.

Of course, the most epic giveaway happened back in 2004, when Oprah surprised an audience of 276 people by gifting them brand-new Pontiac G-6 cars that reportedly retailed for $28,500 during her “Wildest Dreams Come True” season. The event is now known as “Oprah’s Ultimate Car Giveaway,” and it’s been exactly 15 years since she brought endless amounts of joy to her live guests and the folks watching at home.

In case you forgot, the episode will always be remembered not only because, you know, she gave away free cars, but because of Oprah’s delivery. After teasing the audience by suggesting only one person would win a vehicle, she proclaimed—at the top of her lungs—“You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!” (Read the article here.)

"... the generosity of its host." 

"Oprah managed to give back to Americans in some way"

"... she brought endless amounts of joy to her live guests and the folks watching at home."

Wow. That's some serious sucking-up by author Jonathan Borge, and it's also a serious distortion of what really happened.  

Those cars were not personal gifts from Oprah to her audience members and they weren't paid for by the show either. Not even close. Pontiac provided all 276 cars as a promotion, meaning that the entire episode was really a Pontiac commercial. Here's how Forbes described it in a retrospective article in 2016:

While it felt like the best.gift.ever for members of the audience, the car wasn't really a gift at all. The cars were part of a promotion for Pontiac (now defunct, but previously a brand of cars under the General Motors umbrella) to promote the G-6, a car introduced that same year as a replacement for the Grand Am. The moment, which was paid out of the car manufacturer's advertising budget, was named #4 of the Top 25 Oprah's Show Moments out of 4,000 episodes by TV Guide (because I know you're wondering, it was passed by the wagon of fat, Tom Cruise jumping on a sofa and the flash mob dance featuring the Black Eyed Peas). Frank Brady, chairman of the mass communications department at St. John's University in New York, called it "one of the great promotional stunts in the history of television."

The free car was a hit for ratings, but some audience members claimed a bigger hit: to their wallets. It turns out that free isn't always free. While General Motors handled the state sales tax on each of the new cars (around $1,800 per car), plus licensing fees, audience members were tasked with paying federal and state income taxes on the value of their new vehicle. To keep things simple, for reporting purposes, General Motors issued forms 1099-MISC to the recipients. 

While actual taxes payable varied based on individual tax brackets, estimates settled around $7,000 per car. That was hard to swallow for many in the audience - especially when Oprah had reportedly asked her staff to seek out audience members who were in need of a car. Those weren't taxpayers who were likely to have an extra $7,000 or so laying around. (Read the article here.)

I'm not always a fan of Oprah, and this is an example of why.