Fans of the pay television History network have certainly come across the popular reality show “Counting Cars”, which has been airing since 2012, and follows the people who are working at the automobile restoration and customization company Count’s Kustoms. The show is another spin-off from the hit reality series “Pawn Stars”, which is about the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop located in Las Vegas, Nevada; its other spin-offs include “American Restoration”, “Pawn Stars UK”, and “Cajun Pawn Stars”.
“Counting Cars” was created by Danny Koker, the owner of Count’s Kustoms, who also stars in the show, alongside Rick Harrison and Ryan Evans. It has aired 179 episodes in 10 seasons, however, the future of the show is currently unknown, as it hasn’t been renewed for another season, but hasn’t been cancelled either.
Numerous celebrities have made a guest appearance in “Counting Cars”, including the famous American singer-songwriter and actor Alice Cooper, the American actress and singer Cassandra Peterson, and the Jamaican musician Ziggy Marley.
One of the most popular former members of the cast is Roli Szabo, a Hungarian-American TV personality who seems to know his way around cars. He was an important part of the Count’s Kustoms crew, and his Hungarian accent amused both his colleagues and his fans.
Where is he today?
Roli worked at Count’s Kustoms as their resident car detailer, and even though he wasn’t a Las Vegas native, his passion for cars and his skills made him easily fit in. He had worked at various other similar companies prior to joining Count’s Kustoms, but only gained recognition after he starred in “Counting Cars”.
Roli appeared in the 2013 episodes “Psychedelic Cycle” and “You Talkin’ to Me?”, and the 2014 episodes “Pimp My Bus” and “GT Oh My My” of “Counting Cars”, but then disappeared from the show, leaving his fans to wonder what had happened. It’s mostly believed that Roli had a falling-out with the show’s producers, however, it’s also been speculated that he simply became tired of being in front of the camera, and chose to lead a rather quieter life. What contributed to his decision to leave the show was certainly the theft of his equipment, of which the estimated cost was several thousands of dollars.
Roli is still there for his fans on Instagram and other social media networks, and has revealed that he’s still detailing cars. He’s also still living in Las Vegas, and has opened his own company Rock N Roli Kustom Detailing; most of the cars and motorcycles which he has worked on can be seen featured in his Instagram pictures.
Roli’s job sometimes requires him to travel, and he once flew to Quebec in Canada, for an IGL Coating training at Sweet Ride Canada.
Did Roli leave “Counting Cars” on bad terms?
Some of the show’s fans have noticed that, even though he appeared in only four episodes of “Counting Cars”, he wasn’t always on good terms with his co-workers, often avoiding contact with them, preferring to focus on work. Twitter is filled with his fans’ tweets about Roli having been fired, but a precise reason for this hasn’t been disclosed.
In September 2019, years after he had left the show, numerous people on the internet started asking Roli about his reasons for quitting “Counting Cars”, however, Roli refused to answer these, simply stating that ‘he’s on the reruns’.
Roli’s earlier life
Roli was born in Hungary on 2 May – he hasn’t shared the year of his birth, but his zodiac sign is Taurus, and he holds both Hungarian and American nationality.
He was raised in Hungary alongside his siblings, about whom nothing’s known as Roli respects their privacy.
Their parents earned just enough to cover the bills and put food on the table, before in 1997 moving to the USA. Roli studied at a local high school, and although it was around that time that he became fascinated by cars, he was still interested in various other activities, especially sports. He also worked various jobs to help his family financially, and upon matriculating, he chose not to pursue a college degree.
Roli joined the US Army in 2005, and worked as an ambulance driver. He discharged after a couple of years, becoming a police officer, and after that job, Roli worked with the circus family The Ringling Brothers. Next he worked at a PVC pipe company as their transportation executive, while it’s also been reported that he worked for the world’s smallest man Michu Meszaros as his driver, personal assistant and bodyguard.
Roli has appeared in only one other reality show: in 2014, he was seen in the episode “George Clinton: Funky Yeah!” of “American Restoration”.
He’s highly secretive when it comes to sharing the details of his love life with his fans, but has still allowed them to have glimpse into it. On 28 February 2016, Roli uploaded a picture onto his Facebook profile which featured him and his wife together; a couple of months later, on 25 August, he thanked everyone who had come to their marriage anniversary celebration party. Judging by a couple of other pictures found on his social media acconts, Roli and his wife have a daughter together.
As of February 2022, Roli’s net worth has been estimated at more than $500,000.
His presence on the internet
Roli has a YouTube channel which he launched back on 29 October 2019, called “The Rock N Roli”, however, he hasn’t been paying a lot of attention to it, and it’s today subscribed by less than 100 people, and numbers just 1,000 views of his two videos combined.
— Roli Szabo (@THEROCKNROLI) July 30, 2019
Both were uploaded two years ago, the first featuring Roli at the IGL Coating training in Canada, and the second showing him spending time with his colleagues Marcus Parsley and Jennifer Turcotte during that training.
Roli’s quite active on his Instagram account, using it to share the pictures of his everyday life, and of the cars which he’s worked on. He’s today followed by close to 30,000 people, and has uploaded nearly 200 pictures onto the network.
He launched his Twitter account in August 2012, and has since tweeted nearly 5,000 times. He originally tweeted nearly every day, sharing his thoughts with his fans and showing off his work, however, nowadays Roli tweets only once every couple of months.
Fake things about the show “Counting Cars”
Not a single reality show is 100 percent real, with each requiring at least a little added drama to make it more appealing to viewers. So it goes with “Counting Cars”, and although most of the show is real, it’s still easy to notice that several things are fake and scripted.
The way the owner of the company, Danny buys cars in the streets is one of the biggest fake things in the show. It seems highly unlikely that a person wearing a bandanna and with a camera crew following him around would approach a random stranger and offer him cash for his car, not to mention how this person would react if this actually happened. Most of the time the deals are scripted, and arrenged before the camera starts rolling.
The show represents Count’s Kustoms as a very successful company, showing that all of their customers are 100 percent satisfied, however, this isn’t really the case. Some of their customers have left rather disappointing reviews about Count’s Kustoms, and judging by their words, they were very dissatisfied with the service.
You often get to see the crew fighting between themselves in the show, but this is also fake and scripted.
The interpersonal drama has been added by the producers to make the show more interesting, and the very moment the cameras start rolling, the crew takes on roles as if they were in a theatre play, showing the most irritable versions of themselves.
While this hasn’t been confirmed, it’s believed that the lawsuit which County’s Kustoms had filed against their former employee Joseph Frontiera was also just another way to attract additional attention, and make things more interesting. Joseph was accused of having stolen money from the company, to use for his own personal needs, while they had also sued the company that had recommended Joseph. The suit was dismissed by the judge.
The show is not filmed chronologically, as most people would believe. The crew sometimes works on 15 cars at the same time, which makes the shooting of the show extra hard.
Many conversations about cars and the crew’s personal lives have been scripted, as there are things which one shouldn’t say on TV, and there are those which should be said, to keep the fans’ attention.
The crew of Count’s Kustoms isn’t as whiny as they seem, but are made to behave this way so that the owner Danny Koker would look better, while all of this also makes the show more interesting to watch. It’s been noted by various fans that Danny would’ve probably fired his employees if they were indeed so whiny.
Similar to Roli, Scott Jones left the show after its second season, leaving his fans wondering if he was fired or chose to quit. Initially, it was all meant to look as if he had embezzled money from Count’s Kustoms, and was thus fired, however, in the first episode of season three, it was revealed that Scott had moved to Tennessee after his son was born.
The vast majority of stories about how the crew gets the cars which they’re working on are fake, entirely scripted, and while the crew makes it seem as if each car has an amazing backstory, it’s most often not the case.
Because of the number of cars which the crew works on at the same time, they tend to keep them after they’re done, so that the cars could be featured in new episodes.
A married couple has even sued the company, claiming that their classic Mustang was finished some time ago, but that the company had no intention of delivering it to them anytime soon.
The company’s owner Danny Koker
Daniel Nicholas ‘Danny’ Koker II was born in Cleveland, Ohio USA, on 5 January 1964 – his zodiac sign is Capricorn, and he holds American nationality. He’s a businessman, TV personality, film scriptwriter and director, who’s today running a couple of other businesses not just Count’s Kustoms.
Danny was raised in Cleveland and Detroit, Michigan, by his father Danny Koker Sr. who was a singer-songwriter, and his mother Mary who was housewife. He became interested in music at a very early age, mostly because of his father’s career, and Danny’s today the frontman of the hard rock/metal band Count 77. He became interested in cars around the time he reached his teenage years, as he enjoyed watching TV car shows with his father.
Today, Danny has a collection of more than 50 cars, and his net worth has been estimated at over $13 million.
He’s the owner of the Count’s Tattoo Company, located inside the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and Danny owns the rock ‘n’ roll bar and concert venue Count’s Vamp’d too, also in Las Vegas.
He’s appeared in various other shows, including 21 episodes of “Pawn Stars” between 2010 and 2013, a 2014 episode of the talk-show “Late Show with David Letterman”, and five episodes of “American Restoration”.
Danny is married to Korie Koker; they don’t have children together, most of his fans believing this to be because they both want to focus on their careers.
Will Roli be returning to the show?
According to Roli’s statements on his social media accounts, he isn’t planning to return to the show in the future, nor are the producers eager to invite him back.
