Pimp my ride

This show picked young car owners living in Los Angeles or elsewhere in Southern California and customized their vehicles at no cost to them. An episode of Pimp My Ride generally began with the participant showing their car off, and convincing MTV why it needed to be "pimped". After this segment, the host (normally rapper Xzibit, but occasionally guest hosts such as Chamillionaire) arrived at the participant's house, inspected the car himself, made wisecracks about the particular things that were wrong with it, and promised the owner a complete makeover of the vehicle.

After examining the car, the host takes it to the custom body shop West Coast Customs (WCC) in Seasons 1–4; (replaced by Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) starting Season 5), where the shop team generally replaced most of the components and rebuilt the interior and exterior from scratch, and in special cases the engine too.

Each car was custom modified, tailored to the personalities and interests of the owners. For example, a Need for Speed: Underground fan had his car painted to look like one specially customized in the Need for Speed: Underground 2 game, while a bowler had a ball spinner installed in his trunk, and a surfer got a clothes dryer in the back of his Volkswagen Bus. Work usually includes new paint and accessories (such as racing car seats, a spoiler, short shifter, Weighted Gear Knob, LED head lights and tail lights, etc.), chrome, tires and wheels, as well as internal electronics (DVD players, video games, and large TFT screens). While most changes were only cosmetic, and mechanical work was generally only done to enable the car to run, the show sometimes replaced engines. Both WCC and GAS are well known for putting their own whimsical touches in their work, such as the aforementioned dryer, or an electric fireplace in the trunk of another vehicle. There was a lot of humor involved from the body shop team and Xzibit himself, much of it self-deprecating. A typical conversion takes about 12 days.

At the end of the show, the car is revealed to its owner, as well as all the details of the renovation and the custom features; in addition, the participant is usually given a gift somehow related to the car or the owner's hobby.