Oprah & Pontiac Give Away $8 Million Worth Of New Cars (1 Viewer)

Heck of a publicity stunt for BOTH of these major corporations:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...rah_s_surprise

my wife loves oprah, so i watch it once in a while.

i will definitely say this. she is truly philanthropic and i absolutely admire her for it.

i've seen many shows where she does something really nice for a guest. she'll pay their taxes, fund their college expenses, get them out of debt, pay for their surgery ... whatever. hell, she even gave one guy a porsche.

yes, it's good pr for everyone involved, but she still doesn't have to do it.

Wow, that's great. Sure beats the incessant "who's your daddy" pregnancy shows on Maury!

Well, in this case it was Pontiac who footed the entire bill for the giveaway.

That's not to knock Oprah. She does seem to do a lot of good things.

Do the recipients still owe any of the taxes on the car? If so, could Oprah/Pontiac cover that expense as well, or would that just be something more the people would owe tax on?

Good gesture, but I can't help but thinking... great, that's all we need, 250+ more cars on the roads today.

Jay

james -

the article specifically states that pontiac will be paying for the taxes. otherwise, the winner usually pays.

250+ brand-new cars that meet all current emmissions standards. I'd bet that a lot of these will replace some pretty clunky gross polluters/gas hogs.

I wonder if they are paying the taxes on the money that they will owe for the money that they receive to pay the taxes?

Wrap your mind around that one for a minute

Doh, I didn't even check the article :b . I had heard thestory from some people at work and saw this thread, so I thought I would ask. Must....read....links....

I ended up watching the show. It was pretty crazy and a nice twist with how she gave them away. First gave away 11 cars. Then gave everyone in the audience a small box and told them that there was one more car to give away and in one of the boxes was a key. Everyone opened their box to find a key.

She did a few other things on the show as well. Gave one woman a full scholarship to any school she chooses plus a $10k wardrobe. Gave another woman $130K to buy her house which was going to be reposessed in a couple weeks plus got her nearly every gadget, appliance, and toy that Best Buy sells as well as new stuff from Crate & Barrel.

Overall a pretty crazy show. It was like watching that movie with Richard Pryor where he had to spend $20m without getting anything to show for it.

my wife said it wasn't going to be repoed.

the woman is a foster parent for eight kids and the home (that they were renting) was being sold. so oprah bought the house for the woman and furnished it. it takes a lot to be a foster parent, even more to do it for eight kids ... so kudos to her and oprah.

That's right, not repoed but they would have had to move out anyway.

It was a nice thing.

Sure, your wife loves Oprah and you only watch it once in a while.

good point. yikes, i think i watch it more then i realize.

this one came up specifically cuz i told her we were yappin' about it on geek-net (my affectionate term for this place...)

> the article specifically states that pontiac will be paying for the taxes.

In other words, license fees. The people will still have to pay income tax on the retail value of the cars. In some states they'll have a combined tax bill of about 40%, or $11,000. When they learn that, I predict a lot of these cars will get sold.

Agreed, wish more states had inspections.

Update.

Pontiac will benefit from all the maintenance costs in the future.