Tarek El Moussa Defends $150K BMW Gift for Daughter Taylor: 'She Actually Earned It'

HGTV star Tarek El Moussa is standing by the luxury SUV he gave his daughter for her 16th birthday. In an Oct. 28 appearance on Nicole Lapin’s Money Rehab podcast, the Flip or Flop alum explained why he believes the roughly $150,000 BMW X5 was a reward his daughter Taylor earned, after the gift drew a mixed response on social media.

The BMW gift, explained

Taylor, Tarek’s daughter with ex-wife Christina Haack, turned 16 in the summer. In August, Tarek, his wife Heather Rae El Moussa and Haack teamed up to surprise her with a light blue SUV, a moment Heather shared in an Aug. 13 Instagram Reel, E! News reported. Heather said Taylor “cried” when she saw it.

On the podcast, Tarek said the car was a reward for her work, not something she asked for. “She’s got a 4.2 GPA. She was MVP of her freshman soccer team. She’s an absolutely fantastic kid, and she didn’t just get it—she actually earned it,” he said, according to Realtor.com. “If you ask me, she deserved it because she worked really, really hard.”

He told E! News in an earlier interview that the distinction mattered to him: “She didn’t ask for it. We gave it to her. There’s a big difference.”

Why a BMW X5? Safety, he says

Tarek said the choice of car came down mostly to safety. “That thing is built like a tank. The biggest thing for me was safety,” he said on Money Rehab. “She’s in a safe car, and she loves it.”

He also said the BMW was his pick, not Taylor’s. She’d have been thrilled with a “used Honda,” he joked, and if she had chosen herself she probably would have gone for a Ford Bronco, which Realtor.com noted costs about half as much.

Is the car spoiling her?

Lapin pressed him on whether such an expensive gift could spoil a teenager. Tarek pointed back to her record. “If she were going to be a spoiled brat, she probably wouldn’t have got the 4.2 GPA, she probably wouldn’t have been MVP of her soccer team, and she probably wouldn’t have done the extra coaching, right?” he said. “For me, this is a reward for all the work she’s done.”

He also admitted that Taylor has grown up very differently than he did. “She was flying in private jets when she was like, 1 year old,” he said. “When I grew up, I didn’t have anything, right? So I’m obsessed with things because I never had things. She’s always had things.”

When Lapin asked whether a cheaper car and investing the difference would have been smarter, Tarek said he has already bought stocks and real estate for Taylor, Realtor.com reported.

Not his first surprise car

The BMW isn’t Tarek’s first big car gift. On the same podcast he recalled buying Heather a white Ferrari on their second date in 2019, after asking her about her dream car on their first. The couple married in October 2021 and share a son, Tristan, 3. Tarek and Haack also have a son, Brayden.

A blended-family effort

The gift was also notable for who planned it. “What’s more of a surprise… the car for Taylor or the fact that the three of us actually pulled this off?” Heather wrote in her Instagram caption, as quoted by E! News. Tarek and Haack, who co-starred on Flip or Flop, have co-parented since their divorce.

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