1984 - Present
One Away is an enduring car game that is a challenge to win. The contestant is shown the digits in the price of the car. Each digit shown is false; it is "one away" from the actual digit (either one digit too high or one digit too low). The contestant adjusts each digit higher or lower to produce what s/he thinks is the price of the car. The contestant then ascertains how many digits s/he has right. If s/he has all the digits right, s/he wins the car. If s/he has no digits right (a rarity to say the least), the game is over. If s/he does not have all the digits right but has at least one right, the contestant is given one opportunity to change the appropriate amount of digits. If s/he is right the second time around, s/he wins the car; if not, the game is over.
With five-digit cars, the odds of winning this game are 31:1 (although they are really only 15:1 if you concede that the first digit of the car is a gimme). Still, it makes the game somewhat difficult to win. Accordingly, the cars offered in One Away are usually mid-range or higher, and the game has occasionally been played for Three Strikes type cars.
One Away is famous for the method in which contestants ascertain how many digits they have right. Bob insisted on a polite format in which the contestants ask, "Ladies/Gentleman/Folks, do I have x number(s) right?" The contestants must say ladies or gentleman depending on who is running the game board. Every time the contestant does have a certain number of digits right, s/he hears a car horn. The contestant keeps asking if s/he has more numbers right until s/he indeed wins the car or s/he stops hearing the horn.
The first playing of One Away was a logistical disaster. Bob and the contestant attempted the "Do I have x numbers right?" format, but Bob was under the false impression that the contestant would ALSO hear car horns after s/he made changes the first time. The board operators weren't ready, and the reveal of the car price and Bob's demand for unnecessary horns were completely out of sync (although the contestant did win). On the next few playings of the game, Bob avoided the procedure of contestants asking how many numbers they had right completely; instead, Bob himself asked how many numbers the contestant had right, and the contestant would hear a series of horns representing the number of digits s/he had right. Around 1985 the format we now and love was perfected and is still used today.
The best way to play One Away is to either get all digits right the first time around (obviously) or to get just one digit right. If the contestant only gets one digit right the first time around, most likely it is the first digit of the car, and s/he knows to change the last digits. This strategy works fine on paper but is hard to put into practice.
One Away adapted for four- and five-digit cars easily. The first block in the row of five could either be used as a digit or a dollar sign. The contestant is not given the first number free with five-digit cars, although it's usually easy to tell if the first digit of a car is "1" or "3"!
Drew Carey changed the digit asking procedure a little bit when he took over in 2007. Contestants now ask "Oh mighty sound effects lady do I have (X) number(s) right?"
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| Here's the simple One Away board from 1986. The black digits are the false ones; they are "one away" from the right digits. | Here's our contestant's first attempt. Red means she moved the digit under, blue means she moved the digit above. Nice boots. |
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| Gentleman, do I have at least one number right? HONK! She does. | But she has just one number right! She looks upset, but she doesn't realize that she's in perfect shape! |
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| She changes the last three digits... | ...and she wins the car! Pretty smart player! |
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| Here we are playing for a five-digit car... | ...but she didn't fare so well today. |