‘Wheel of Fortune’ player misses out on Mini Cooper — but fans say it was actually a lucky break
'Wheel of Fortune' contestant Ricky Lowery just couldn't guess a simple 'Phrase' and lost out on a brand new Mini Cooper worth $38,000 during the Bonus Round. Ironically, fans rejoiced over the disappointing loss because they reasoned that winning cash was preferable to incurring the burden of a tax-ridden car. Lowery, a postal worker and Army veteran, competed against Pierce Goodbread of Atlanta, Georgia, and Kimberly Malesky of Santa Barbara, California. He started slowly after Goodbread took the lead by solving two toss-ups and ended up making $3,000.
After Goodbread incorrectly guessed the next puzzle, it passed to Malesky, who also couldn't solve it. Lowery was then presented with the puzzle, but his incorrect guess landed him on Bankrupt. Goodbread gained an extra $1,000 after solving the puzzle, “Gnarly wipeout, dude." The postal worker earned $1,400 after solving the second puzzle, “Odd job promotion.” However, he couldn’t match his opponent, who still led with $4,000 in winnings. Lowery went Bankrupt again after an incorrect guess, losing all his earlier winnings.
Goodbread, too, lost his 'Midas Touch' and had to give up all his savings after landing on an unlucky wedge. Lowery then had a celebratory moment after winning a lavish $13,882 round trip to Aruba. By the final round, all three contestants had earned $2,000 each after solving one toss-up puzzle. Goodbread guessed the final puzzle, “Fake it till you make it,” right and ended up with the final total of $14,250. Malesky made $2,000, and Lowery was declared the winner with a total of $15,882, which advanced him to the Bonus Round. "We got a car. We got $100,000. We've got $75,000," host Ryan Seacrest declared while introducing Lowery to the Bonus Round.
The army veteran went with the 'Phrase' option, and the puzzle board gave him the standard letters “R, S, T, L, N, and E.” Lowery picked his choice of letters, which were “G, H, D, and A." As the ten-second buzzer sounded, Lowery paused, whispered “Gone,” but it was too late. Seacrest then revealed the answer as "Gone Haywire." The seasoned host proceeded to exhibit the golden envelope containing the Bonus Round reward and declared that Lowery had lost out on a Mini Cooper. Lowery was visibly gutted as he threw his hands in the air in disappointment; however, he was fortunate enough to walk home with a total of $16,000.
Viewers labelled Lowery's loss as a 'blessing in disguise.' On a Reddit thread, they debated over the fact that a cash prize was better than winning a car on 'Wheel of Fortune.' One of the game winners dished out his experience, "Car winner here — tax implications are not the same (in fact, they're worse.) Not only do you have to pay income tax on the value of a prize car, but you also have to pay the dealership sales tax and license fees as if you had purchased the car yourself. The BMW I won was valued at $41,165, and I had to write a ~$4,000 check to the dealership before I could take delivery. I didn't want the car, so I tried to sell it back to the furnishing dealership in L.A., but they only offered something like $26,000. I ended up selling to another dealership closer to home for $32,000. So between the income tax, sales tax, and depreciated resale value, the $41K car ended up being worth about ~$16K of actual spendable money once all the dust settled,"