Survivor car curse victims reveal what actually happened to their vehicles

Survivor car curse victims reveal what actually happened to their vehicles

Everybody wants to win big on Survivor. But what if you could win big and lose big at the same time? That is the fate that befell 12 different people between seasons two and 14 of the reality competition franchise.

In that early era of the show, Survivor put contestants through a product placement challenge every season (except Survivor: Cook Islands) with the reward of a new car. But, incredibly, the individual who won the vehicle never went on to win that season and the million dollars that came with it. That’s even more remarkable and unlikely when you consider that the car giveaway took place late in the season when only four to six players were left in the game. A Survivor car curse was born.

While much has been made about the Survivor car curse and its victims — because the car reward challenge stopped with season 14 (Survivor: Fiji), it will never be broken unless the show brings the competition back — another less-celebrated mystery remains: Whatever happened to the cars themselves?

It might not surprise you to learn that some of the stories of what occurred with the vehicles off the island are just as wild as the things that went down on it. Because nothing is ever simple when a Survivor player is involved.

We tracked down 10 of the 12 car reward challenge recipients to look back upon how they won their keys, find out what happened to the automobiles after they got back to the U.S., and ask one simple question: Do you believe in the Survivor car curse?