We tracked down 10 car reward winners to learn the fate of their wheels and see if they believe in the ultimate reality TV jinx.

Survivor car curse victims reveal what actually happened to their vehicles

We tracked down 10 car reward winners to learn the fate of their wheels and see if they believe in the ultimate reality TV jinx.

By Dalton Ross

California Dreams was better than Saved by the Bell. There, I said it.

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Published on August 13, 2025 10:30AM EDT

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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?

Colby Donaldson, winner of a Pontiac Aztek on Survivor: The Australian Outback

Jeff Probst and Colby Donaldson on 'Survivor: The Australian Outback'.

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

How he won the car

Colby Donaldson and the final four of *Survivor: The Australian Outback* had no reason to expect a new car would be given away when they showed up for a reward challenge on day 37 of the game. That was for the simple reason that at that point in the franchise’s run, with only a single season under its belt, *Survivor* had never given away a new car at a challenge. “They didn't give away a car on season 1, so it was completely unanticipated in every way,” Colby tells EW.

Unanticipated, but very welcome. “I had never owned a new car at that point,” he recalls. “I'd always just owned old stuff.” That included Colbys’ first auto, a 1959 Chevy Stepside pickup truck.

The second chance competition for an overnight sleepover in the back of a new Pontiac Aztek is one that would be repeated in many car reward contests to follow, and featured elements from past challenges over the course of the season. In this case, Colby and the others began blindfolded and shackled while clipped on to a rope course they had to navigate their way through.

After finishing that section, players could remove their blindfold and then complete a puzzle which gave a key that unlocked their shackles. Finally, they would have to transport buckets of water over a balance beam and then build a fire that would burn through a rope and light a fuse.

Colby Donaldson's Pontiac Aztek on 'Survivor: The Australian Outback'.

For his part, Colby liked what he saw. “I was already heating up in terms of my momentum and the challenges. And so I was feeling pretty good at that point, and I thought I had a good shot at winning.” But trouble stuck early when Colby’s carabiner used to clip into the rope course malfunctioned. “There was a glitch in the challenge course,” Colby remembers. “So I got hung up and I couldn't get out of it. And it wasn't self-induced.”

Jeff Probst then yelled what he always yells to contestants in such rare occurrences of mechanical failure: “STOP!” The host, producers, and a network standards and practices representative examined the situation while the contestants waited.

“Everybody froze,” Colby says. “None of us took our blindfolds off. And then they came over and inspected what was going on with my carabiners and where I was in the course and all of that. And they deemed it necessary to just run us back and start the whole thing over.”

A broken carabiner was the only thing that could have stopped the Texas rancher that day as he cruised to an easy victory. In a weird quirk, Colby would not get his reward immediately. Instead, the getaway would be on the following night, which gave Tina Wesson and Elisabeth Filarski (now Hasselbeck) time to present Colby with a new car warming gift of flowers.

Perhaps even a bigger surprise than winning the bright yellow Pontiac Aztek was when Colby looked up at his food server during the reward, only to realize it was his mother. It was a tender reunion… which soon turned awkward for viewers.

Jeff Probst, Colby Donaldson, and Colby's mother on 'Survivor: The Australian Outback'.

“You know, a Pontiac Aztec converts into a tent,” Colby points out. “And if you're a guy that's married or in a relationship, you invite your girlfriend or your wife over as your loved one visit. Holy moly, you get to shag in the back of a Pontiac Aztec with your partner! Unfortunately, my loved one was my mother.”

Which resulted in reality TV’s first (and, hopefully, last) mother and son sleepover in the back of a car. “At the time, I didn't think it was weird, but watching it back everyone's like, ‘Damn it, that's so weird!’” The player certainly did himself no favors by taking the opportunity during a confessional interview to compare the sleepover with his mother to a prison conjugal visit.

Looking back now, Colby can only laugh. “This was the 25-year-old from West Texas who had never traveled, didn't have a passport, probably not the most well-versed in vocabulary or articulate competitor that had ever played the game. I'll never regret saying anything on national TV more than that line.”

So what did he *think* he was saying? “I didn't know what a conjugal visit was. I knew that was someone visiting someone in prison for a very short amount of time, and then that person was then removed from the prison. [Laughs] This predates social media, thank God, but I caught enough grief in 2001 and it's not a phrase I would ever use again in any context to reference my mother.”

Which is why any talk of the Pontiac Aztek can’t help but make Colby daydream about what could have been. “That's what I remember from that damn car is that I wished I had a wife or a serious girlfriend at the time. And I wish that female was my loved one visit so that we could fully enjoy the winnings of a vehicle that converted into a tent for an overnight visit.”

Colby Donaldson and Colby's mother on 'Survivor: The Australian Outback'.

What happened to the car?

*The Australian Outback* was not only the most-watched season of *Survivor* ever, it was also the most watched show on television in 2001. So the Dallas Pontiac dealership was not just going to hand keys over to Colby without making a big show of it. “I go up there and it's sort of a press event and an autograph signing. They were excited to hand me the keys to this Aztec. It wasn't actually the yellow one that I had on the show. It was maroon, which would be my last color of choice, but that was the one they were wanting to give me.”

The combination of car and color left something to be desired for the driver, but like any good *Survivor* strategist, he had a plan. “When the event was over, I said, “’Okay you're not only a Pontiac dealership, but you're also a GMC dealership. Can I trade this thing in for a GMC?’ And he said, “Well, sure, Colby.’”

Less agreeable were the terms. “They offered me a fraction of what that thing was worth to trade it in because they said, ‘Dude, we can't sell these things. Nobody wants 'em. Nobody wants a Pontiac Aztec!’ This thing was marked down 40 percent. It had zero miles on. It hadn't even left the parking lot, and they're giving me the price of a two-year-old car. He said, ‘You gotta understand it's supply and demand. We can't get rid of it!’”

Colby took the deal (“It was a gift, I was appreciative”) opting for a black GMC Yukon Denali instead. “I was fortunate to win the Aztec because I could never up to that point have afforded a brand new vehicle. And the GMC Yukon Denali was something completely out of reach for me if not for the Pontiac Aztec to trade in.” He ended up keeping the Yukon for a good “four or five years.”

'Survivor' star Colby Donaldson with his GMC Yukon Denali and a motorcycle given to him by Tina Wesson after she won 'The Australian Outback'.

But the story of the Aztek was not over. Shortly after spurning his conjugal love tent vehicle, Colby received a call from Pontiac with a proposition. “He said they had parking lots full of Aztecs all over the country that weren’t selling. The gig was a nationwide endorsement tour in a high visibility campaign effort to help generate sales for the universally unpopular and aesthetically hideous Aztec."

Colby’s response? "‘If you want me to peddle Pontiacs for ya, you better have a warehouse full of ‘77 Bandit Trans Ams tucked away somewhere.’”

Much like his first outing on *Survivor*, Colby was motivated by something other than money. “They would've paid me a handsome fee to do so, but based on my principles as a car guy, I couldn't do it. I just traded in the one you gave to me to begin with, and they wouldn't give me any money for it because it's not worth anything. The last thing I'm going to do is go around the country and try to promote this thing. That's a dud.”

Apparently, America agreed. The Pontiac Aztez was discontinued in 2005. “They just stopped making them because it was such a terrible vehicle.”

Colby Donaldson and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor: The Australian Outback'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

It’s a difficult question for Colby — who came in second place in a jury vote to Tina — to answer considering he had no idea there was even an alleged curse to begin with until informed by fellow car curse victim Burton Roberts in the process of reporting for this article. “What is the curse?" Colby asks. “What does it mean?”

Upon being told that no player who won the car reward ever won the season, Colby considers the question. “It’s sort of this similar mindset to when it becomes known that someone's ultra successful. But I don’t know, because that Aztec didn't play into me winning or losing the season. It was so many other factors. So I'm gonna say no. I think you could easily still win the game after you won a new car if you played the game worthy.”

Colby Donaldson and Colby's mother on 'Survivor: The Australian Outback'.

What Colby is up to now

Still living in Texas, the** **51-year-old** **Colby will be seen in 2026 on a little show called *Survivor 50.*

Lex van den Berghe, winner of a Chevy Avalanche on Survivor: Africa

Lex van den Berghe on 'Survivor: Africa'.

How he won the car

While his body may have been bruised and battered by day 35 of *Survivor: Africa*, Lex van den Berghe’s mind was still sharp, as evidenced by the reward challenge that earned him his car. The contest was to find 12 Swahili words in a word scramble, with each word intersecting with at least one other word. Players than had to take the intersecting letters and unscramble them to make one English word, which would end up being the name of the car they were playing for: Avalanche.

“I was an English writing major in college” says Lex. “I love writing. I love letters, I love words, but those puzzles are all about just stepping back and looking for patterns.”

And it seems finding those patterns was not too difficult for him. “Honestly, it felt to me much easier than it ought to have been. It seemed just kind of pretty elementary. I was so focused, I wasn't even paying attention to anything that anyone else was doing.”

And that focus was not simply about scoring himself a new ride. “It wasn't even about winning the car. I'm pretty pathologically competitive. I just wanted to win the challenge and I wasn't thinking about the fact that it could end up biting me in the ass later on. I wasn't thinking about the fact that there'd be dissent and people thinking that I should go because I won this thing. I just wanted to win the competition. It was kind of as simple as that.”

Not only did Lex win the vehicle, but he then got to drive in his new ride with Probst through the savannah to deliver medical supplies to a local hospital. “It was an opportunity to really get to know Probst as a human, because up until that point, our experience with Jeff was that he was at Tribal Council and he was at the competitions, but you never really got to just sit down and shoot the s---.”

Even better was Lex’s drive back. Before parting ways for the return journey, Probst had a gift for the drummer. “He knows that music is my passion and my happy place and it's my therapy, and he said, ‘Do you want to hear some stuff? I've got some of my own favorite music that I listen to while I'm out here on location.’”

And then the host handed over the holy grail. “He gave me a mix CD. It was probably one of the banner moments in the whole game, as simple and as silly as that might sound. But being able to hear music for the first time in weeks really put my head in a space where I wasn't obsessing on strategy in the game. I could surrender myself to just rocking out to some good music. It was like being invited to drink at a well in a beautiful oasis.”

Jeff Probst and Lex van den Berghe on 'Survivor: Africa'.

What happened to the car?

“*Survivor* and CBS were gracious enough to basically let me pick the Avalanche I wanted and outfit it with whatever I wanted,” says Lex. And Lex knew exactly what he desired. “They had the Chevy Avalanche North Face Edition. It came in this incredible olive green but with metal flake in it and it was made for adventuring, so it was ultra heavy duty. It had all the stuff on it.”

And he means *all* the stuff. “It even came with a couple of North Face duffle bags that matched the interior. I told the dealership, “Just put *everything* on it. The only thing I don't need is the engine heater. I live in California, I don't need that.”

A few months later, Lex got the call to pick up his new car, and it ended up coming in very handy for his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. “The band I was in at the time, we traveled with it and played shows. It was awesome because it was large enough to carry all of our gear, but it had seating for five people so we could all just jump in the truck and it took us all wherever we need to go. I also took it on road trips. Like I said, I just enjoyed the hell out of it.”

As much as he loved the new ride, Lex kept thinking about another new car… for another person. “I already had a beloved vintage 1970 Chevy C1 pick-up truck that I adored and it just didn't make sense for me to have two trucks. I gave it some thought, and realized my wife sacrificed way more than I ever did to play *Survivor*, and I wanted to figure out some way to pay her back and thank her. She had never gotten her own new car of her dreams, and I knew that the only way that I could pull it off financially at that time would be to sell the Chevy Avalanche.”

So one year after winning the truck, Lex listed the Avalanche for sale so he could buy his wife a new Volkswagen Beetle convertible. “And, of course, I sold the truck with the full disclosure that it was my *Survivor* truck, because I knew that I'd be able to get a little bit of extra cabbage by doing it that way.”

The eventual buyer was a yacht builder/*Survivor* fan from Southern California, and the sale included a day spent with a *Survivor* legend. “He made a very generous offer, and I told him, ‘Come out to Santa Cruz and I'll pick you up at the airport in your new truck and we can spend the day together. I can tell you stories, we can go surfing. Let's go have lunch. Whatever you want to do!”

There was one special request on the part of the buyer. “He asked me if I could sign the truck and I'm like, “I'm not going to put my Sharpie signature autograph on this beautiful truck.’ He's all, ‘Well, I really want your autograph on there.’ So I said, ‘Okay, let's bring down the passenger side sun visor and I'll sign the inside of it. That way you don't have to look at it if you get tired of it or if you ever decide to sell it. It's not a big old glaring autograph on the driver's side door of this truck.’ And he took off and was happy as a clam.”

Lex van den Berghe on 'Survivor: Africa'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

“I've never been superstitious,” says Lex, who was voted in out in third pace. “I don't really hold much stock in those things, but I do think that winning a high dollar item on a show where people get to decide if you stay or go is risky. So I see it less as a curse and more of careful-what-you-wish-for and careful-what-you-win, because it's going to put you square in the crosshairs. I just grabbed a gigantic f---ing three-ton cinder block and added it to my backpack when I won the Chevy Avalanche. So I think it's less of a curse, but you're adding to the long list of reasons that people can vote you out of the game when you win a $50,000 vehicle.”

Jeff Probst and Lex van den Berghe on 'Survivor: Africa'.

What Lex is up to now

The 62-year-old drummer retired from the technology sector a year-and-a-half ago after a 35-year career of working 60 to 80 hours a week. “I'm living an absolutely glorious lifetime of Saturdays now and I couldn't be more stoked about it,” revels Lex. “I get to do whatever the hell I want. I'm the CEO of my own calendar!”

He’s since been “bartending part-time at a couple of local pubs” and playing in several different bands such as AUTOS, the Shimmers and the GripTides. “We're releasing records, we're playing gigs out, and touring soon. Most of the bands I'm playing in now, they're all half my age. It keeps this old man real young.”

Sean Rector, winner of a Saturn Vue on Survivor: Marquesas

Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien, Neleh Dennis, Sean Rector and Vecepia Towery on 'Survivor: Marquesas'.

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

How he won the car

For Sean Rector, winning a Saturn Vue on *Survivor: Marquesas* was the exclamation point to a conversation with tribe mates a few nights before. “We were all sitting around the campfire talking about our lives and the usual bonding that goes on,” says Sean. “Neleh and Kathy and Pappy — all of them are talking about cars, and I'm sitting there like, ‘Damn, all these people, they're talking about driving to work. I'm sitting here broke as hell. I don't have s---!’”

But the *Survivor* gods would soon provide. Like many car reward challenges, the contest was a compilation of previous stages from previous competitions, including a stilt walk that Sean could not originally master. “I went into that challenge knowing I was not going to lose. My mindset was that whatever the challenge is, I got to win. But I didn't know that the car challenge was a series of prior challenges. So in my mind I'm like, ‘I got this s---.’ But then Jeff starts explaining each challenge that I previously failed and I'm like, ‘We ain't win that… I sucked at that… and so on.’ The only thing I won was the opening the coconut challenge.”

Sean Rector and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor: Marquesas'.

And that’s exactly where Sean passed leader Vecepia Robinson on his way to car glory, dominating the field and leading to a very boisterous celebration and hug with the host. “When I looked at Jeff during the hug, he was like, ‘This motherf---er stinks!’ I know with my breath and my underarms I must have just smelled like every homeless dude in the Port Authority at that time during the hug. But it was like the universe was conspiring to make sure my Black ass had a car. That was pure joy for sure.”

The official *Marquesas* car winner was considerably less thrilled when the entire cast was *also* presented with Saturn Vues by Rosie O’Donnell at the live reunion in Central Park. “I was pissed,” recalls Sean. “My inner reaction was like, ‘Yo, this is f---ed up.’ But I'm on national TV. If you don't win the million, the car is the second-best thing to win. So I'm like, ‘Why make this a challenge, and then everyone gets the same s--- that I just busted my ass for?’ And it was the same exact car! So now it diluted my win.”

That wasn’t the only surprise when it came to the second car.

Gabriel Cade with Rosie O'Donnell during the full cast car giveaway at the 'Survivor: Marquesas' live reunion show.

What happened to the car?

Sean was told to go to his local Los Angeles Saturn dealership, where he picked up his fully paid-for car (color: burnt orange) and drove it off the lot. “So I come home one day with the first Saturn. I'm already like, ‘Damn, I'm showing up on the block with a new car!’”

A few weeks later, he got another email, this time to go pick out his Rosie O’Donnell gift. Next thing Sean knew, “I have *two* brand new Saturns parked in front of my little crowded-ass Hollywood neighborhood. I'm like, ‘Yeah, I'm getting robbed.’ So this is getting kind of f---ed up.”

A new plan was put into place, which involved throwing one of his vehicles into a garage. “I paid for monthly parking. I drove one of the new cars there, put a tarp over it and just kind of left it there.” And there it stayed for a month until a new realization was made.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I got to get rid of this s---,” Sean recalls. “I wasn't savvy in getting rid of *Survivor* memorabilia or getting rid of s---. So after about a month, I sold it back to a dealership. And I didn't know s--- about appreciation, depreciation, whatever *shun* you mention.”

In this case, it was depreciation. “It was like a $30,000 car, and I think I may have gotten 12 or $13,000 back, but I just was like, ‘F--- it.”

Sean Rector on 'Survivor: Marquesas'.

However, there was another problem, this one involving Uncle Sam. “I'm still not thinking about taxes. I'm just thinking, ‘Okay, I got money for the car.’ And then towards the end of the year when I got that tax bill, I was like, ‘Oh s---! This is for *two* Saturns, and the money we earned on the show, and my teaching salary, and the money from selling the car!’”

That pain would end up being extensive. “I owed so many goddamn taxes to the government because of those cars that they garnished my wages for a good two years! As a teacher, I got paid once a month, and they would garnish more than two-thirds. I remember one time having maybe a couple of hundred after they took my whole s---. There was no negotiating.”

But what ever happened to the *first* car, the one that Sean actually won in the challenge? “I kept it and drove it,” Sean says. “I had never gotten a new car, so I was happy while it was cool. And then after about a year, s--- started to break down and the Saturn Vue started to have a lot of recalls, so I had to take it back and forth to the dealership. I don't even think they lasted that long on the market.”

And then came the seatbelt that broke the Saturn Vue’s back. “The seatbelt broke,” Sean explains. “I didn't get the seatbelt fixed for a year. I think literally the only time I would pretend to wear it is when we drove past police. It just started to fall apart and I used to have to spend a lot of money on repairs.”

After “two or three years,” Sean traded the car in for a Mitsubishi Montero, but forgot a very important *Survivor* memento in his old ride. “I sold the Saturn, drove off, went home, and realized I left my *Marquesas* buff that I wore in the game on the headrest. So I called the dealer, I was like, ‘Yo, there's a *Survivor* buff there. Hold it for me, I'll be back.’ I drove back and got it, and I've had it on the headrest in every car since.”

Sean Rector and the cast of 'Survivor: Marquesas' with his new car.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

“I don't know,” says the man who was voted out in fifth place immediately after winning the Saturn. “Because I feel like obviously since no one's won, it gives validity to this myth. But when you look at each season, the circumstances are unique to the person winning the car. If you won the car, that means you're in the top five. So the stakes are usually higher. There's a lot more wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, and outside of the million, winning the car is the biggest prize. So you now have a huge target on your back because a lot of people are hating on you. So I don't know, I'm mixed on it. I mean, the data shows that it's true, but I believe that you can still win both.”

Sean Rector on 'Survivor: Marquesas'.

What Sean is up to now

Sean — who turns 54 on Aug. 20 — remains the president/CEO of the grass roots nonprofit T.Y.M.E. Foundation (Teaching Young Men Excellence), which started after filming *Survivor: Marquesas* in 2001. “We're still here. 20,000 kids here in the greater LA Carson-Long Beach area have benefited doing school elective-style classes. We do a lot of cultural pedagogy that's not taught in regular during the day since the focus is on a lot of the other subjects.”

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Burton Roberts, winner of a GMC Envoy XUV on Survivor: Pearl Islands

Burton Roberts with Jon Dalton on 'Survivor: Pearl Islands'.

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

How he won the car

Burton Roberts’ car win is somewhat unique in *Survivor* lore, seeing as how he had no idea he was even playing for it. That’s because Probst only told the players before the day 34 reward challenge that they were competing for an overnight camping trip. “Jeff's like, ‘You guys get to go camping over on the mainland,’” recalls Burton. “And I was like, ‘Is there not going to be a car in this?’ I was so disappointed.”

That disappointment did not stop Burton from dominating the second chances contest, which ended with him unscrambling the pirate term *Jolly Roger* before any of the other players could even get out of their previous stage jail cells. “As long as the challenges were fair from the standpoint of there's not chance or luck or something outside of my control, when I got down to the final five, I felt pretty confident in myself that I would hold my own.”

After validating that confidence and winning, Burton selected Jonny Fairplay to go with him on the overnight trip, so the two players then joined Probst on a speed boat to Panama City for their getaway.

Even on the boat ride, the host kept up the no-car ruse. “It's off camera, but we even asked Jeff on the boat, ‘Are you guys not doing a car this year?’ And he was like, ‘Sometimes it just doesn't work out putting it together with manufacturers and all that.’ We were like ‘My God, that sucks. That's a bummer!’”

Jeff Probst, Burton Roberts, and Jon Dalton on 'Survivor: Pearl Islands'.

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

Which then led to some confusion once the three got on land to see a red GM Envoy sitting in a parking lot. Instead of telling Burton he had won the car, Probst just handed him the keys and said, “Let’s catch ourselves a ride. Unless, of course, you’re digging *that* ride.”

“He's like, ‘That's your ride!’ That kind of made me be like, ‘Wait, is it *mine* or is it the *ride*?’ So it totally caught us off guard.”

Turns out it was both, and while the new car winner and his companion enjoyed cruising through the streets of Panama City, they unfortunately were not allowed to have a soundtrack. “Jon kept turning on the music, and then finally they stopped us and were like. ‘You guys, we can't play anything with music. No more music.’ We were trying to have some sort of an outlet. But yeah, it was pretty neat doing that.”

The other thing that was neat was that since Probst did not reveal that the challenge was for a car, none of the other players back at camp knew that Burton had won it. “One or two of them asked, and we were like ‘No, no, there wasn't a car.’ I felt like I could trust Jon a little bit, and so we kind of played it out as if there wasn't. I don't think everybody was fooled, just as everyone wasn't totally fooled on Jon's grandmother lie.”

Burton Roberts on 'Survivor: Pearl Islands'.

What happened to the car?

While Burton loved the Envoy, there was one thing in particular he was hoping to change for his ride. “You never want to be ungracious for something you get, but I was like, ‘Do I get to choose a color or is this the actual one? How does that work?’”

The way it worked was he was allowed to choose his color (silver) and “a handful of configurations” and then had the XUV delivered the family ranch in Texas. While Burton was living in Los Angeles at the time, he would use it on trips back to the Lone Star state, with his parents otherwise doing most of the driving while he was away.

“I kept it down there at the ranch for a long time and loved using it and took it on hunting trips and whatnot,” says Burton. That included one big ride with buddies to San Antonio “flying down the road” that may or may not have broken a few laws: “You can see for miles on these roads down there, and if there are speed limits, nobody's paying attention to 'em.”

In fact, Burton loved the car so much, he thought about getting it back on TV. “I always wanted to reach out to GMC like, ‘Man, let's make a commercial about how I'm actually using this, because most people probably that get a car just drive around the city, but we've got Texas Longhorns and were really putting it to use.”

Alas, after “four or five years,” Burton traded the Envoy XUV in for another SUV. “It was a good time and a fun story, and a neat car,” he says. “A lot of times people win these cars, and it’s like, ‘How fast can I trade that in?’ But this was a great one.”

Burton Roberts back in America with the GMC Envoy he won on 'Survivor: Pearl Islands'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

“I don't really believe in curses,” says Burton, who was blindsided in fifth place after winning the Envoy. “But yeah, I won the car and didn't win the game. But I wouldn't do anything otherwise because you could not win the game *and* not win the car, which would be worse. Sometimes you see the cause and effect, right? Someone wins a car and you’re like, ‘Well, he or she won the car.’ It gives you maybe a little extra push for motivation to get rid of you. But they didn't know I’d won the car.”

And Burton did have a plan, had he made it to the final two. “If I did make it into the final, I thought that would probably come up at some point. And so I would probably just have to preemptively say, ‘Let's just get this out in the open. I *did* win the car, but it's not that big of a deal.’ I do remember Fairplay knew the game so well. He probably said there's a curse on it. And I was like, ‘I didn't even know I was playing for a car going into it!’”

Burton Roberts and Jon Dalton sleeping in the back of a GMC Envoy on 'Survivor: Pearl Islands'.

What Burton is up to now

The car may no longer be in Texas, but Burton is, living in Austin. The 53-year-old not only has twin 10-year-old daughters, but is also still teaming with *Amazing Race* season 2 winner Alex Boylan and producer Lisa Hennessy (who worked on Mark Burnett programs *Eco-Challenge, The Contender, Rock Star,* and *Pirate Master*) on *The College Tour*, which has 14 seasons and counting. “It's a TV show airing on Amazon Prime [or] any distribution platform you can find that helps prospective college students find the right college they want to go to. It’s a really fun project, keeps me in production, keeps me active and traveling a bit, and just enjoying life.”

Boston Rob Mariano, winner of a Chevy Colorado on Survivor: All-Stars

Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich with Jeff Probst on 'Survivor: All-Stars'.

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

How he won the car

According to Boston Rob Mariano, it didn’t matter *what* the reward competition was on day 34 of *All-Stars*. Once the prize of a Chevrolet Colorado was announced, it was his. “Jeff showed us what we were playing for before,” recalls the Robfather. “And I was like, ‘They're just going to give me a truck because there is no way I'm losing this.’”

Like many other car competitions, this contest featured stages from previous challenges, with a new twist:** **players would be eliminated along the way before resetting for the next stage. Rob placed first in every single stage, except for stomping a plank to send three items up into a basket, which Amber Brkich won with three straight shots.

But once the future husband and wife faced off in the final — which involved going up a rope ladder, across a rope bridge, and then racing down a flying fox to grab the car keys — it was all Mariano: “I felt like I had it on lock for sure.”

After winning, Rob was able to pick someone to join him and the host on a beach ride to a drive-in movie theater where they would watch *Lord of the Flies* from the back of the flatbread truck. (One guess whom he picked.) That led to a bit of reckless driving that can be seen in the episode.

Rupert Boneham, Amber Brkich, Rob Mariano, Jenna Lewis and Tom Buchanan on 'Survivor: All-Stars'.

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

“Probst was like, ‘You can take it into the water a little bit,’ and I took a *hard* turn into the water. And then when we got there, I took it right up, and the camera guy was right there and we stopped right in front of him. Probably a little bit reckless, but it made for a great one-take scene for sure.”

That wan't the only car the soon-to-be engaged couple won that day, as Probst led the pair around the corner, where a Malibu Max was waiting for Amber as well, sending both of the players into complete shock. However, Rob notes there was almost a *third* car the couple took home from the season.

“They were also going to give a car away to that winner that season,” he explains. “We both got a car, and the winner's going to get a car. But they flipped the script on us and they kind of f---ed us. Whoever the sponsor was, I guess it was Chevrolet, at the last minute, they were like, ‘Oh, we don't want just the two of them to get all of it.’ So at the last minute, live [during the reunion], they told Amber that she had to give the car away to someone because she already got a car.”

That led to some panicked discussion on the Madison Square Garden reunion stage once Probst, noting that “Chevy wanted to do something different,” asked for the decision on the air. “Amber turns to me right after we're engaged and she was like, ‘Who should I give it to?’ And I was like, ‘Give it to the person that you thought was a deciding vote.” So she picked Shii Ann and they gave Shii Ann the car. She sent Amber some chocolates and wrote her a nice note and thanked her. But yeah, it was kind of s---ty. Amber didn't get to get the car because she won.”

Amber Brkich and Boston Rob Mariano on 'Survivor: All-Stars'.

What happened to the car?

Unlike most contestants who picked up their vehicles shortly after the season, Rob says they did not receive their Colorado and Malibu for more than a year. Why? “We went right from *Survivor: All-Stars* to *The Amazing Race* a few months later. And right after *The Amazing Race*, we went right into shooting the wedding show. I think it was maybe 10 months later that they called and they were like, ‘You guys got to pick up these cars!’”

Rob picked out a black Colorado (unlike the orange one seen on the show) while Amber selected a gold Malibu Max. And what vehicle did the Colorado replace? The free Saturn Vue Rob received as a cast member *on Survivor: Marquesas!* “I drove the Saturn that Rosie O’Donnell gave me, and then when I got the Colorado, I gave the Saturn to my sister.” (Keeping it all the family, Amber gave her former car — a Mitsubishi Spider — to Rob’s parents when she received the Malibu.)

Although the dealership made a mistake and only gave Rob the two-wheel version of the truck (“They gave me the wrong one, and I didn't even make a big deal about it, but I remember every time it rained, it would fish tail all over the place”), the Colorado served the Mariano family well for “five or six years,” at which point two daughters had come along and the car seat would not fit in the back. And, if you can believe it, the story of the vehicle that replaced his Colorado is even weirder than winning a truck on a reality television show in Panama.

“I beat some guy out of a bunch of money in the poker game and he couldn’t pay me,” Rob explains. “He owed me like six grand, and I was like, ‘What are you going to do?’”

An agreement was quickly reached. “His mother-in-law had died, and they had this old minivan, and I had to go see his wife whose mother it was to sign the title over to me. I was standing there as she's signing it over, and he's like, ‘Oh, it's a good van. She doesn't drive it a lot.’ It was so awkward, dude. Her husband was a f---ing degenerate.”

If all this sounds crazy to you, consider the fact that there is yet *another* free car Boston Rob received from *Survivor*. “A lot of people don’t know about this, but CBS and *Survivor* did a side promotion with Pontiac, and we went around to a fair or something and we got a Pontiac Torrent from them. I didn't need it and didn’t even drive it, but they made us take it, so they delivered it and I sold it back to them for like half the money.”

Boston Rob Mariano and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor: All-Stars'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

The *All-Stars* runner-up — who went on to win *Survivor: Nicaragua* 14 seasons later — gives an emphatic “NO!” when asked if he believes in the *Survivor* car curse, and it is for one simple reason: He believes he and Amber broke it by taking home what should have been *three* cars and more than $1 million dollars on *All-Stars* between them.

“I told you, we broke it. We broke the curse. Nobody wants to admit it, but we broke the curse back in season 8. That's a fact. When we got to the final two, after I won the last challenge, and I knew it was going to be Amber, and I was like, ‘We broke the f---ing curse. One of us is going to win the show and we're going to break the curse.’ It was broken in the last minute. They changed it because they liked the story of the curse better. So that's the truth. You want the truth, come to Mariano. I'll give you the truth.”

Amber Brkich and Boston Rob Mariano on 'Survivor: All-Stars'.

What Rob is up to now

While seemingly retired from *Survivor*, the 49-year-old Boston Rob is still all over the TV screen, starring on shows like *Secret Celebrity Renovation, The Traitors, *and *Deal or No Deal Island *(as well hosting the *DONDI* season 2 after-show). He and Amber are the proud parents of four children. All girls.

Eliza Orlins, winner of a Pontiac G6 on Survivor: Vanuatu

Amy Cusack, Chris Daugherty, and Eliza Orlins on 'Survivor: Vanuatu'.

How she won the car

Eliza Orlins did not appear primed to win a car on *Survivor*. The segment right before the day 32 *Vanuatu* reward challenge for a Pontiac G6 showcased just how emaciated the Syracuse student was with shots of bones sticking out of her back. “I was already so frail, so thin,” she recalls now. “Just starving.”

And the challenge itself was a very physical one, forcing contestants to swim out from the beach and race over a series of outrigger canoes, floating platforms, and balance beams, and then dive down and retrieve three flags that then needed to be brought all the way back one at a time.

Eliza didn’t even entertain the thought of taking home a Pontiac G6. “Winning the car was exciting, but the first, second, and third place finishers were going to get to go on an overnight trip at this beautiful resort with a shower and a bed and a steak dinner. And so all I could think about was that steak dinner. I was like: I don't have to win. I just have to come in the top three.”

Eliza Orlins, Amy Cusack, Chris Daugherty, and car on 'Survivor: Vanuatu'.

Amy Cusack immediately jumped into a commanding lead. “Amy is an extremely strong swimmer, so physically fit,” notes Eliza. “She's just really good at holding her breath, doing all this stuff. She's so strong and she's just solidly ahead of me. But I'm in a solid second.”

It would continue that way until Amy began returning with her third and final flag. “I go down for the third one, and I come up and I'm gasping for air,” Eliza recalls. “I am so dead, just dead tired at this point. And I'm still solidly behind Amy, but I'm in second and I am just thinking ‘Get that steak dinner!’ And we're all kind of woozy at this point. We're underfed. We're dizzy from diving under the water so many times. And Amy just loses her footing and falls off the outrigger. And I'm like, ‘Oh my God, she fell!’”

Even with the slip, Amy was still in the lead. “And before I know it, she falls in *again* and I'm like, ‘All right, I guess this is my chance to pass her!’ And that's when I passed her. I'm like, “GO! GO! GO!” And I go hang my third flag and I win the challenge. I literally fell down, just sprawled out on the sand because I was so dead from that challenge.” At least it got her a lot more than a steak dinner.

Amy Cusack and Eliza Orlins on 'Survivor: Vanuatu'.

What happened to the car?

As a soon-to-be Syracuse graduate that would be moving to New York City, the last thing Eliza needed was an automobile. “I definitely didn't need a car. I had a car, which I was already going to have to sell. It was my senior year of college, and I was moving to New York for law school.”

So Eliza engaged true *Survivor* mode and started scheming. “I asked CBS if they could just give me the monetary equivalent of the car. And they said, ‘No, this money doesn't come from us. It's a General Motors sponsorship. GM cuts the check. You cannot have the money.’”

Undeterred, the future “f---ing stick” holder moved on to plan B. “Me being me, I went to the local Pontiac dealership in Syracuse, New York, and I said to them, ‘Hey, here's my situation. I won this car. I don't even want to drive it off the lot, but I want GM to cut you a check for the most expensive souped-up Pontiac G6 you have here. And then I want you to cut *me* a check, and you should just take whatever amount you think is fair from that amount. If you want to take a certain fixed price or a percent, that's totally fine. I just don't want to deal with getting a title and license and you have to register it and get a license plate and all this s---. And then I drive it off the lot and it depreciates in value. I don't want to sell the car. I don't want the car.’”

But the local dealership had a counter-offer. “They were like, ‘That's totally fine. We'll give you the full amount. But we would love it if you would come down for a day and do a local TV spot and a radio spot for us being like, ‘I’m Eliza Orlins from *Survivor*. Come on down to the Pontiac dealership over on Genesee Road! Blah, blah, blah…’”

One TV and radio spot later, Eliza’s scheme was complete. “I did that, and they cut me a check for the full amount of $26,000. And that's the story of my *Survivor* car.’”

Eliza Orlins on 'Survivor: Vanuatu'.

Does she believe in the Survivor car curse?

“I don't believe it, no,” says the *Vanuatu* fourth place finisher. “Not in the sense that winning the car prevents you from winning the game. I think there are other things that might be a correlation, but not causation, for certain people.”

Amy Cusack, Chris Daugherty, and Eliza Orlins on 'Survivor: Vanuatu'.

What Eliza is up to now

Eliza has been a public defender for 15 years in Manhattan including a 2012 run for New York City District Attorney. The 42-year-old also keeps herself busy doing “a lot of content creation work, advocacy, and speaking gigs” while hosting a Substack called *Objection: Everything* as well as a *Survivor* Patreon.

Ian Rosenberger, winner of a Chevy Corvette convertible on Survivor: Palau

Tom Westman and Ian Rosenberger on 'Survivor: Palau'.

Bill Inoshita/CBS Photo Archive/Getty

How he won the car

Something felt off to Ian Rosenberger when he showed up on day 34 for a *Survivor: Palau* reward challenge. “We had not had a challenge at that location,” Ian recalls. “And that was strange.”

But as soon as he saw the final five would be rafting across a lagoon to retrieve bags of mileage markers at five different pontoons that would then have to be assigned to the correct cities of Sydney, Tokyo, New York, Manilla, and London, Ian’s spirits soared. “That challenge was custom-made for me,” he says. “Before the show, I was a canoeing instructor. That was the thing I did as a summer camp counselor, so the boat stuff was always something I was really into. And then with the geography stuff, I'm a total freaking nerd. So when it came up, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a winner. I can do this.’”

He easily beat the field to take home a bright red Corvette convertible, which he would drive to a barbeque feast at a mansion overlooking the island. Drama erupted on the show when Katie Gallagher unloaded on Ian for selecting Tom Westman to join him on the reward after he promised he would bring her.

Ian Rosenberger and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor: Palau'.

“Tom was my ride or die,” Ian explains. “I knew that he had my back. We had become buddies and we worked hard together throughout the show. I felt very strongly like we had controlled the game and we'd done a good job of it. I've since come to realize how Tom beat me psychologically as a 21-year-old kid and kind of played up the big brother thing.”

Although producers may not have necessarily been looking for a brotherly love reward stay at the mansion. “It was definitely the most romantic evening of my life,” Ian says, laughing. “And it had to be with Tom of all people! I think they had set that whole thing up for kind of a romantic thing, but Katie and I were never, ever romantically close. We were just buds.”

Tom and Ian still managed to have some platonic fun. “We got wasted. We ate until our stomachs were distended, and then we both made ourselves throw up and we ate more!”

Ian Rosenberger and Tom Westman on 'Survivor: Palau'.

What happened to the car?

Unlike some players, who got to pick out what color and features they wanted on their *Survivor* vehicle, Ian went to his local dealership in Ambridge, Pa., and was presented with the same red car he won on the show. And it was quite the event. “It was a big deal. There was a lot of people and a lot of energy around it. I remember signing autographs and stuff.”

Much of that energy stemmed from simple regional Pittsburgh pride. “In my community, Amber's from just down the street from me and Jenna Morasca is maybe 20 minutes away from me. Rafe had not been on yet, but we kind of had this pride of being a city that was turning out people that were on the show. So there was just a lot of energy around the car and the fact that I’d won it.”

But Ian was less energetic about the Corvette itself, and for a simple reason he discovered while out in Palau. “I’m 6-foot-8. I was never destined for that car. I remember the first time I got in it, my head stuck up above the windshield.”

Ian Rosenberger on 'Survivor: Palau'.

In fact, after taking possession of his reward back in Pennsylvania, Ian only drove the vehicle a single time — in a parade with his sister.

After letting the Corvette sit idle in the garage for a few months, Ian went back to the dealership and traded the luxury ride in for a more practical option — the Ford F-150 pickup truck. “The truck was great, because being a really big guy, it was awesome to have something to get around and that actually fit me. That was the best truck I've ever had.”

As for the ultimate fate of the red Corvette convertible? “I went back to the dealer and was like, ‘Look, If you guys can use this as the car that was from *Survivor*, you're welcome to it.’ I don't know what they did with it. I like to think that they just turned around and sold it to somebody else. I hope they didn't let it turn on a turntable in the showroom at all, but once I turned it in, that was it.”

Ian Rosenberger on 'Survivor: Palau'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

“I wish I could say yes,” says the player who famously volunteered to go out in third place so Tom could bring Katie to the end. “But no. I will say this: My eyes got bigger than my stomach that day. I remember I won it, and I remember feeling like, ‘Oh crap, maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe I should have thrown this one.’ Because there were other challenges where I was very cognizant of that. Tom was the strong one, and I was very happy with him being the strong guy because it meant that when there was a spotlight, eventually it was gonna rest on him and not me.”

But that thinking changed right before the car giveaway. “I remember thinking before that challenge, ‘Oh, I'm through all that, I'm among friends now. I know everybody here. I know how this is gonna go.’ And then afterwards being like, ‘Ah, crap, maybe I shouldn't have done that.’”

Tom Westman and Ian Rosenberger on 'Survivor: Palau'.

What Ian is up to now

“Life is great!” says the 44-year-old, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, six-year-old daughter, and three-year-old son. “I’m the age where Tom was when he won the show. Isn’t that crazy?”

Ian’s post-*Survivor* life includes a non-profit [Work] turned retail brand inspired by a fellow *Survivor*’s good deeds in Africa. “The earthquake in Haiti in 2010 led me down a path of going back and forth to Haiti, not dissimilar to what Ethan did with Grassroots Soccer. I got super involved in working with people in landfill communities at Port-au-Prince, and that led to landfill community work in Vietnam and Ghana and Honduras and Taiwan. I started a retail brand [Day Owl] and took all the plastic from those landfills and turned it into fabric and then into products.”

Ian also now has a boat captain’s license, and plans to use it to rent out a sailboat for his upcoming tenth wedding anniversary. His destination? Palau. “I can’t wait to see it. I haven’t even seen the other side of our island! I’m looking forward to going back.”

Cindy Hall, winner of a Pontiac Torrent on Survivor: Guatemala

Cindy Hall on 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

How she won the car

Cindy Hall got to take a wild ride before she rode in the Pontiac Torrent she won on *Survivor: Guatemala.* That’s because of the challenge she needed to win to earn her new wheels. The competition once again featured stages from previous contests that were presented in three stages, with players eliminated along the way. It eventually came down to zookeeper Cindy versus returning all-star Stephenie LaGrossa to see who could solve a puzzle based on the Mayan calendar and then use a machete to chop a rope for a thrilling ride on a runaway cart.

“I was like, is this real?” Cindy says now of her realization that she had just won a new car while speeding down the track. “Is this really happening? It was surreal. That was something I never thought I would have the chance to do and something I never thought I would accomplish. Having a new car at that time in my life was something that would never happen. And the fact that I just won the final reward challenge — forget the prize — it was like I couldn't even believe that I just did that.”

Little did she know then that the real drama was still to come. That’s because while Cindy had won herself the car, Probst had an offer for her. A diabolical offer.

“You may or may not know, but in 10 seasons of *Survivor*, the person who has won the car reward has never, ever won the game,” the host told Cindy. “Some people, the superstitious kind, believe it is the curse of the car. So I’m going to give you a chance to get rid of that curse right now. Perhaps change your destiny in this game. If you want, you can give up your car and instead each of the other four will get a Pontiac Torrent.”

Right on cue, four more cars were dramatically driven in, at which point Cindy was forced to make the biggest choice of her *Survivor* life. “I normally don’t believe in superstitions,” she told the host. “But I also want them to have cars. I also believe in making the impossible possible, which means, screw the cars. I can win a car *and* I can win a million dollars if I play my cards right and I do my best. I think I’m going to say, I would love to give everyone a car, but I’m here to beat the odds, and so far I have.”

Cindy Hall, Jeff Probst, and the cast of 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

The odds, she did not beat, as Cindy — like previous car winners Sean, Burton, and Ted Rogers, Jr. from *Thailand *— was immediately voted out at the next Tribal Council. Looking back now, why did she opt to keep the car for herself? “I think not enough went through my mind,” Cindy says. “But of course, with hindsight and time and with age, you develop wisdom. Now, of course, it's like, ‘Oh, why didn't I do that and why didn't I do this and why didn't I say this?’ But your head's spinning so you aren't like thinking straight. I should have been more creative with my strategy.”

And what would that creative strategy have been? “When our clues came in for the challenge, everyone assumed it was the car challenge. And when you went down the list of the people left, not a single one of them had any interest in winning a new car except for Lydia. She's the only one who on my level would have thought that this is the equivalent of a million dollars.”

Which is why Cindy wishes she had proposed a different deal to the host. “Had I been in a different mindset, I would've said, ‘Hold on, this is what you're offering, but I'm going to counter-offer. Can I give the car to *one* select individual? And if that's the case, I will give my car to her. Nobody else, nor myself.”

Cindy also faults her decision to bring Stephenie with her on the reward. “Stephenie was kind of Rafe’s puppet, honestly. She was his messenger. So I didn't think it was a good idea to leave them together back at camp. I really thought if I took Stephenie that they wouldn't be able to develop any further plans and I also would be able to gather information that might benefit me moving forward. But really what I should have done, knowing what I know now, is I should have taken Danni with me and gotten in with her. And I think had I done that, I would've won that dang game.”

As for the reason Cindy *didn’t* select Danni to join her on the reward: “I couldn't stand her! However, now I know how to better handle people. I've had to work with people in my life professionally that I could not stand, but we still had to focus on the goal and work together to accomplish that. I really couldn't stand Danni. I couldn't imagine spending the night with her. I had no interest in her. But had I taken her and played the game and been better at being diplomatic, we had the same goal. I should have taken her.”

Alas, she didn’t and was voted out in fifth place at the next Tribal Council, but not before delivering a classic line on the way to getting her torch snuffed, telling the group, “I’ll think about you guys when I see the stars through my sunroof of my new car.”

“That was not planned out at all,” Cindy laughs. “It just came to me.”

Stephenie LaGrossa and Cindy Hall on 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

What happened to the car?

It was a few months after the December 2005 *Survivor: Guatemala* finale when Cindy received her first-ever new car. “I think it was March when I actually received the car. I was told that I have this dollar amount of value, which was like $30,000, to design the car how I wanted. So I went to the local Pontiac dealership and met with them and picked out all of the little details that I wanted. It had anything and everything that I could have wanted. I still have the bike rack in my barn in a storage container because I ordered it for the car and never used it. “

Being handed the keys was an emotional moment. “I remember being at the dealership and the local news was there filming it. And there's the car, and I had this flood of emotion of being in the Guatemalan jungle, and this occurring, and a new car being a reality for me. I was completely overwhelmed and crying and I didn't know why. My mom's like, ‘What on earth is wrong with you?’”

Unlike most of the other *Survivor* car winners, who opted for different colors than the models seen on the show, Cindy wanted exactly what she was given in Guatemala. “I contemplated if I wanted black because I lived in Florida and it's hot, but I couldn't let go of the image in my mind of that car in the moment. So I got the exact replica with the tan interior and the black exterior.”

Well, not an *exact* replica at first. “I distinctly remember looking at the car,  and I was like, ‘It's not right.’ And my mom’s like, ‘What do you mean it's not right?’ And I'm like, 'It has a pinstripe. I didn't ask for a pinstripe. That's not what my car in Guatemala looked like. It didn't have a pinstripe.’ And she was like, ‘I'm pretty sure we can do something about that.’ So I talked to the guy and he was like, ‘Yeah, we'll take it off before you leave here today. It won't have a pinstripe on it.’”

Cindy Hall and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

Indeed, Cindy did take her pinstripe-less car home that day 19 years ago. And, believe it or not, that is where it still resides. Not only does Cindy amazingly still have her 2006 *Survivor* Pontiac Torrent (which was a replacement model for the discontinued Pontiac Aztek that haunted Colby’s dreams), but she conducted her entire interview for this article from the driver’s seat of the vehicle. However, after 217,000 miles, it unfortunately is no longer is road-worthy.

“I finally retired it four years ago. The things that needing fixing on it were getting pretty expensive for a car with that many miles. I kind of feel bad as I've let it get in not-so-great condition. And with my lifestyle and having horses, I really needed a truck. So I ended up getting a pickup truck and was driving this one back and forth a little bit for short trips just to keep it running, but it’s not something that I relied on for my daily travel. But it's still here!”

So if the 19-year-old automobile has 217,000 miles on it and can’t be driven, why in the name of Bobby Jon Drinkard does Cindy still have it? “There's been times when I thought, ‘You got to let that go. That thing's falling apart. It was great, but you don't need it anymore. The memory's in your head, it's a material item, let it go.’”

But then comes the other voice in Cindy’s head. “It's not just an old car. It's a piece of my life that was really significant. There is not a day of my life since *Survivor* that some aspect of *Survivor* has not influenced me in some way or been a thought that ran through my head. So I'm torn right now, because it does need a couple of thousand dollars' worth of work to keep it going. And I just don’t know if I should do that.”

She pauses. “But I kind of feel like I should today.”

Cindy Hall in 2025, sitting in the Pontiac Torrent she won on 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

Does she believe in the Survivor car curse?

“I don't believe in the *Survivor* car curse. I believe in the fact that it's the final reward challenge, and you show that much that late in the game that you are a huge threat and they need to get rid of you. That was the problem. There were some things that I should have done, but I was too enamored by the experience at that point. When I watched it again, my first thought was, ‘Oh, little Cindy, you're so naive.’ If I could play my cards right, then I might be able to beat it and win this game. But I didn't play my cards right because I was kind of naive then.”

Stephenie LaGrossa and Cindy Hall on 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

What Cindy is up to now

Cindy, 51, is still in the zoo game! She’s the animal operations manager at the Naples Zoo. She also started a certification program for zoo professionals to learn hoof care for zoo animals.

“The same way that horses need their hooves maintained to mimic natural wear since they're in human care and not in the wild, zoo animals need the same thing. I've traveled to zoos all over the country and consulted with the zoos and wild giraffe care specialists in Africa on improving hoof health in zoo animals. I also trim hooves on my days off here locally with horses and donkeys and cows, anything that anybody wants me to trim. So that's a huge part of my life.”

Terry Deitz, winner of a GMC Yukon on Survivor: Panama — Exile Island

Terry Deitz on 'Survivor: Panama — Exile Island'.

BILL INOSHITA/CBS

How he won the car

Terry Deitz, Courtney Marit, and Danille DiLorenzo were thrilled to win a BBQ feast on a private island after the trio triumphed at *Survivor Panama’s* final six reward challenge, in which they were attached to a long rope and had to navigate through a water-based obstacle course to retrieve bags. But Probst had one more surprise in store.

“He’s like, ‘I got something for you to do.’” Terry recalls. “And at first, we're like, ‘Oh, we just want to go eat, bro!’” That attitude changed when the host announced that the three winners would then compete individually for a GMC Yukon, with the first person to break three ceramic tiles with a slingshot walking away with the wheels.

“He does a spiel, and we look at the challenge and it's wrist rockets,” says Terry. “I'm like, holy s---! This is perfect! It's like it was made for me. Here you go — bang, bang, bang.”

While the episode shows Danielle taking the early lead and Courtney tying Terry at two tiles apiece, Terry notes that “They edited it a little differently. But yeah, Danielle hit a couple, and Courtney was over the place. She was just a mess.”

When Terry smashed his third tile to secure the Yukon, he made someone even happier than himself. “My wife Trish sent me a note that you all get with the family thing, and she goes, ‘You’ve got to have a lot of luck and your chances of winning a million are probably not that great. But do me a favor: Win me a car.’ And there it was! I won the damn car!”

The winner originally had grand plans for presenting it to his wife. “I was not going to tell her. So I told the other players, 'Listen, I'm going to surprise Trish for Christmas. Please don't tell anybody.' We got home around December 9th, so it was going to be her Christmas present. But Cirie ended up telling her husband, and her husband blabbed to Trish. And I'm like, ‘F---! So there goes my surprise.’”

Terry Deitz on 'Survivor: Panama — Exile Island'.

BILL INOSHITA/CBS

What happened to the car?

Maybe Cirie actually did Terry a favor. For one thing, there was no way he could get the car by Christmas. The *Panama* season didn't start airing until February 2006 and didn't finish until May, at which point the Deitzes could finally take possession of their new Yukon. In the meantime, the couple had just purchased a Volvo XC90 with a third seat, rendering the need for another large vehicle somewhat moot.

A local GMC dealership in Simsbury, Conn., told Terry he could build anything up to a $50,000 limit. With that in mind, and a new Volvo already in the garage, Terry started putting out feelers to see how much he could get by selling a Yukon XL. That led to a conversation with super *Survivor* collector Dan Knoll (who passed away in 2020), whom Terry was already in discussions with about selling his hidden immunity idol.

“He goes, ‘Hey, Terry. I saw on Facebook you were looking to sell the car. Let me take care of that for you.’ And he put it out there and he freaking sold it for me!”

The sale price: $45,000.**The length of time Terry owned the GMC Yukon: one day.

Danielle DiLorenzo and Terry Deitz on 'Survivor: Panama — Exile Island'.

“I went to the dealer in Simsbury, picked it up, drove it home. Then drove it down to New York City the next day.”

The meeting place with the buyer was a parking garage on 42nd street near the Port Authority bus terminal. “The guy walks around the corner into this parking garage. He could have been Denzel Washington's brother. Just this good-looking guy with a beautiful, long business trench coat. He looked and sounded just like Denzel. I'm like, ‘Holy s---!’”

And the two had more in common than just the vehicle changing hands. “He was a former army helicopter pilot who had come back from the first Gulf war and struck it rich in business. So me being a Navy pilot, we chatted a little bit. He bought it for his nanny to drive his kids around. And then he goes, ‘Bro, I got to go.’” And with him went a piece of *Survivor* history.

Terry Deitz on 'Survivor: Panama — Exile Island'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

“No, no, no,” says Terry flat-out, putting the blame for being voted out in third place at his own feet, rather than any alleged curse. “I lost the final four immunity challenge to Aras by one inch and one second. I made a mistake by one inch and the mistake cost me 40 seconds in the challenge that I had to go back and double check something, and that cost me a million dollars. It would've been me, Cirie, and Danielle. Danielle never would've brought Cirie to the final. It's like giving her the money. ‘They're going to give her the money. They're not giving you s---. At least you got a chance with me.’”

And that’s not the only mistake Terry believes he made. “I also made the strategic mistake of not giving Shane the immunity idol. He had me convinced that they weren't going to vote him out and they *did* vote him out. I could have saved him there. I had to give it to him before we even went to the Tribal. I made two mistakes there that cost me the million dollars. So the curse of the car, it's like, well, is it going to make me make two mistakes? I don't know. I f---ed up. It was me. It wasn't anybody else's gameplay. It was me that made the mistakes.”

Terry Deitz on 'Survivor: Panama — Exile Island'.

What Terry is up to now

The 65-year-old pilot recently hung up his wings, retiring from American Airlines. Terry and Trish are now living in Stewart, Fla., and engaging in “lots of pickleball, boating, beach, pool, gym, and travel.” On that last point, the couple have been driving through North America in their Mercedes Sprinter van, including a recent trip to Banff and Glacier national parks. “We’re loving life.”

Dreamz Herd, winner of a Ford Super Duty F-350 on Survivor: Fiji

Stacy Kimball and Dreamz Herd on 'Survivor: Fiji'.

How he won the car

Well, technically, he didn’t. Which is what makes what went down on the *Survivor: Fiji* car reward challenge one of the most famous moments in franchise history.

The contest on day 34 had the final six separated into two teams of three that would race across a series of seesaws and up and through a cargo net tower before digging up a hatchet and chopping a rope. The team of Dreamz Herd, Earl Cole, and Cassandra Franklin took the early lead, but were passed on the cargo net stage by the other group of Yau-Man Chan, Boo Bernis, and Stacy Kimball, who went on to win.

Yau-Man, Boo, and Stacy then competed in an ax-throwing contest, which Yau-Man won to claim the car. And that’s where things got interesting.

“So, I want to see if I can make a deal with the car,” Yau-Man informed the host. He then laid out the terms to Dreamz: “Here’s the deal. There are six of us left now, right? When there are four of us left, if you and I happen to there, and if you win the immunity for that round, you will give it to me.”

Yau-Man’s deal not only was reminiscent of Probst’s offer to Cindy from *Guatemala* to transfer the *Survivor* curse over to someone else by not taking the car, but it also gave the player a possible strategic fast-pass to the final three — as long as Dreamz agreed and then fulfilled his end of the bargain.

Dreamz’s answer? “I promise to God. I give you my word, Yau.”

The cast of 'Survivor: Fiji' eye a new Ford truck.

Of course, that word was broken when Dreamz *did* win immunity at the final four, kept it for himself, and then voted Yau-Man out of the game. Dreamz maintains it was a pact he never intended on upholding. “My intentions were never to give him the car — even if I had to vote him off, which was my last resort. So if I don't give up immunity now, I look like the bad guy, which ended up having to happen.”

Dreamz also claims there was an aspect to the agreement that did not make it to air. “It was a two-part deal he actually made. He said, ‘The first part, I give Dreamz the car. The second part is everybody has to vote how I choose to vote. So everybody has to be involved.’ And everybody said okay. I'm telling you the truth. These are facts I'm giving you.”

In addition, Dreamz says that *everybody* prior to the challenge had agreed to let him walk away with the wheels. “We knew it was going to be a car challenge that day. I mean, we ain’t a bunch of dummies, and we knew that a car challenge would come up. Everybody was talking about what cars they had. It was my turn, and I was like, ‘I don't have a car. I don’t even have my license.’ We talked about it and then they were all like, ‘Listen man, if we have a car challenge, let's get Dreamz the car.’ Everybody said it.”

Alas, the car curse did indeed transfer its powers and claim another victim, as Earl unanimously bested Dreamz and Cassandra in the final three, but not before Dreamz was on the receiving end of some brutal jury judgement for his aborted car deal gone wrong, along with other moves in the game. But he rose above the slings and arrows.

“It didn't hurt at all. I didn't care. I was on cloud nine. You’ve got to remember that most of those guys were there because of me. I had to betray my whole alliance with Mookie and Alex, and the only reason I did that is because they didn't have my best interest in heart. They had an idol that they were telling each other about. So only a dummy would take those guys knowing that. I was at the bottom of the totem pole. I'd rather go somewhere where I'm at the top. And the reason I got rid of Michelle is because she was so tight-knit with Yau-Man and Earl. She was like the bond that held them. I didn't see nobody voting her out.”

He may have left Fiji with zero votes, but Dreamz did go home with something else: a brand new truck.

Dreamz Herd on 'Survivor: Fiji'.

What happened to the car?

Before he could take possession of the car, Dreamz had to make sure he could drive it. “As soon as I got back home, I went to the DMV and I took the test. I failed it. I went back the next day, took it again, failed it.”

Some of the questions on the written text proved flummoxing. “I had one more before I failed and it was like, ‘A farmer stops in front of you and his animals are all scattered over the road. Do you go around them? Do you stop? Do you beep the horn? Do you beep the horn and go around them?’ I was like ‘Maybe beep the horn and go around them because they don't expect me to stop and wait?’ But the answer was, ‘Stop and wait for him to get his animals indoors.’ I'm like, ‘What? Nobody's going to do that! We're going to beep the horn, make sure no animals are in the street and go around them.”

Alas, the third time was the charm and Dreamz finally got his license, but he still needed an assist from a tribe mate before receiving his vehicle. “It's like three weeks after the season is over and I still don't have the car. Earl calls and he's like, ‘How's that car driving?’ I'm like, ‘I don't have a car yet.’ He's like, ‘What? Let me call you back. I'm about to go make some calls.’” So Earl actually went and made some calls and then they called me and then told me to go down to the dealership.”

When he did, Dreamz was told he could spend up to $65,000 on any Ford automobile he wanted. Sine he “wasn’t a truck guy,” Dreamz eschewed the Ford Super Duty F-350 and instead picked out a Ford Excursion with all the bells and whistles. “It was all black and it had rims and then I got the TVs put in the headrests. It was all decked out. It was all good.”

But after just three months and less than 10,000 miles, Dreamz was ready to downsize. “Everything was really, really nice, but it was a super big car, and at that time gas prices were hitting $2.50. Back then, you ain't paying that for no gas, so I was like, ‘Man, I'm going to go trade this thing in now.”

So back to the dealership he went. “They were like, ‘Shoot, we can give you about $30,000 for it maybe. I was young, so I just picked out another vehicle. I was like, ‘How about this? We pick out this vehicle and then you drop the taxes and then we can go from there.’ So I custom made another car. It was hybrid Ford Escape.”

That Ford Escape from 18 years ago — traded in from a Ford Excursion, which was itself selected instead of the show-seen F-350 — represents the final reward challenge vehicle ever given away on *Survivor*. It too was traded in “after a while,” although Dreamz doesn’t remember the particulars as to why.

When he looks back on the most infamous deal in franchise history, Dreamz can’t help but wonder if the car deal shenanigans on *Survivor: Fiji* back in season 14 put a stop to the reward challenge giveaways. “We ruined the car thing. After that, they were like, ‘Alright, we're not giving anybody no more cars. We can't have this.'”

Boo Bernis driving Dreamz Herd's new Ford truck on 'Survivor: Fiji'.

Does he believe in the Survivor car curse?

Dreamz considers the question. “This is what I see it as. We're all playing a game for a million dollars. Once you win a prize of *any* money, everybody's like, ‘Well, he already has this portion. So you can't let him get too much’. You know what I'm saying?”

What he’s saying is that in a world where any excuse to vote someone out is seized upon, having been given a new car does a player no favors. “I mean, they wanted to eliminate Rita because she was talking about lip gloss.”

Dreamz Herd on 'Survivor: Fiji'.

What Dreamz is up to now

The 43-year-old is still living in North Carolina, where he owns a mobile detailing company and is an independent operator of a Sunset Slush, selling classic Italian ice.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL TV”