Instagram account documents 50 years of car prizes on 'The Price is Right'

Hit game show "The Price is Right" is celebrating its 50th birthday in 2022, and an Instagram account has started documenting the cars given away over the past five decades. Some models have become classics, while others have completely disappeared from American roads.

Spotted by Grassroots Motorsports, the account is called tpircars. It has 174 posts as of writing and they all follow the same basic format: Each one includes a screenshot of a specific car and lines from the show announcer's description. For example, the first car offered as a prize on the show was a Chevrolet Vega — a Kammback model, no less. It was offered in September 1972 and described by Johnny Olson as having "bucket seats, power steering, front disc brakes, an AM radio, and white-striped tires." He added that it "handles like a little sports car."

While the Vega Kammback was bit of an oddity, it's not the most eccentric car given away on "The Price is Right." Have you ever heard of an Opel Isuzu? No? Well, the person who won one in March 1977 probably hadn't, either. The show didn't shy away from oddball imports. It gave away a Mazda 808 sedan with "a four-speed syncromesh floor shift" in 1972, a Renault LeCar in 1979, and not one but two examples of the Fiat Strada (known as the Ritmo in Italy) in 1982. Both were presented as combining "superior handling and performance with great fuel economy," though no mention was made of superior susceptibility to rust. (Please don't send me angry emails; I own a 51-year-old Fiat).