What Really Happens When You Win A Car On The Price Is Right, According To Past Winners

"It's ... a brand new car!" For more than half a century, CBS' fan-favorite game show "The Price is Right" has been making winning contestants jump for joy by handing out shiny sports cars, SUVs, and assorted novelty vehicles. But what actually happens to those cars on stage when the studio lights go dark?

According to several past participants, if you do win a car on "The Price is Right," you certainly won't be driving your dream ride out of the studio. As is often the case with big TV prizes, winners are required to pay taxes before accepting their prize, and don't actually get to take it home right away. Contestant Debra Field told the Asbury Park Press that once filming wraps, "you fill out a form and it explains exactly what you won and that you have to pay California income tax on your prizes." Next, you'll have to pay the show's accounting department with a certified check and pick up the car at a local dealership.

Shawn Allen, another player who won nearly $40,000 in cash and prizes in 2015, explained in a Reddit AMA that "California takes 7% before you receive your prizes" and winners must also pay federal taxes on whatever shiny new toys they take home. According to a 2012 ABC piece, Showcase Showdown-level prizes on "The Price is Right" can bump some people up to an entirely new tax bracket, and despite all the excitement in the moment, winners have been known to turn down a portion of their winnings to spare themselves the accounting headache.

Of course, it's hard to say no to a grand prize, especially when winners aren't always stuck with the sometimes quirky models advertised on the CBS showroom floor (Looking at you, Sebring CitiCar). After TikTok star Kate Steinberg won a Nissan playing the "Price is Right" classic Money Game last year, she revealed in a video that she ultimately was able to choose a different option that suited her better. Four months after her episode aired, Steinberg filmed herself picking up a white Toyota RAV4, which she promptly decked out with a Snoopy toy and a license plate frame declaring, "I won this car on 'The Price is Right.'"

"What happens is, when you win a car on 'The Price is Right' — I won a Nissan Versa — you can keep that car, or you can take that credit and get a new car," Steinberg explained, adding, "And that's what I did." Despite the flexibility, the show's biggest prizes are not to be exchanged for cash, as Shawn Allen told Redditors, though he said he did receive the cash equivalent of a few of his prizes in lieu of the real thing.