King of Cars – Ugly Truckling (02×06)
If someone came up and told me that one of the most entertaining reality series on TV would be based on at car dealership in the Nevada desert, complete with a blue genie, I’d have sold them some of my ocean front property here in Phoenix, but after viewing select episodes from the second season of King of Cars, its no lie.
King of Cars takes place at the aforementioned car dealership, Towbin Dodge, in Las Vegas where diligent owner, Chop, who is featured in DUB magazine via a photo shoot in the opening of “Ugly Truckling,” one of the second season’s episodes, takes running a dealership to an unheard of level. We’ve all bought cars before, whether new or used, it is a daunting, and sometimes terrible, experience depending on the dealership, but just about everyone who has had a bad experience may need to flying into
While you have to expect some playing up for the camera, the sales team at Towbin provides a two fold experience for the viewer, it goes behind the scenes to show you, as a consumer, how deals get down in a dealership, and may give you some insight into the cut-throat world of selling cars, and the incentives that go with them. In “Ugly Truckling” a team of two is tasked with bringing together contestants vying for $1000 by having the most ugly, deplorable truck on four wheels. The episode itself whisks by its 22 minute runtime leaving you wanting more because the on-the-lot experience is just ripe with material to be filmed.
In fact, it’s surprising that so much material can be turned out from a car dealership to fill a reality show, but the charismatic personality of Chop and his staff makes for great, sometimes excellent, TV.
Chop himself may be the “star” of the show, filling out the cheesy, yet entertaining, opening credits wonderfully, but the sales team he has constructed and the positions he puts them in is what creates the material for these episodes.
The second episode we were able to review focuses on the promotion of one employee and a back-stabbing competition to fill his former position which is ultimately decided by a basketball game when both contestants closed the same number of deals during the work day. This episode, in particular, really focuses in how hard car salesmen work to close that deal and help you out, while also having them work for something behind the scenes. The competition really brings out the great relationships between the sales staff, even in an environment such as this.
The show’s editing also makes it a point to not always show the happy endings, with some sales falling through at the last minute, and shots of utter disappointment on the face of both customer and salesman. It’s a tough job, and King of Cars shows the good and bad aspects of it, but the good is the focus of the show and the humor really brings that out.
You may have never heard of King of Cars before, but its definitely one of the most entertaining shows on cable, and this half-hour series would be a great edition to your viewing or DVR habits.
