Earlier this month, a TikTok user took the platform by storm after recounting her experience buying a used Kia, only to have the dealership ask for the car to be returned. Now, there are some interesting developments to her story.
While the original TikToker, Brooke, has few updates—she has yet to return the car and has been told that her new vehicle will be ready in a few days—others on the platform quickly took to speculating about what exactly went down that led to Brooke’s peculiar situation.
One of those users was a TikToker named Tom (@tomislavmikula). Across several videos, he advised Brooke to cease contact with the original owner and claimed that something was amiss about her story. This led to the original owner responding with her own video offering some further context about what happened. In short, the user says their newly leased car malfunctioned, and now, they’re simply trying to resolve the issue with the dealership.
Other users were quick to respond to this video, including a user who posts under the name @jolly_good_ginger.
In his video, he responds to the original owner’s response, speculating that the dealership’s decision to cancel the deal might not be solely due to the car’s malfunction. He suggests that underlying funding issues could be at play, a point he says is validated by bizarre dealership behavior like their selling the owner’s trade-in before finalizing their initial deal.
“Now they’re trying to do a car swap, but they’re having trouble getting the deal funded. It’s all going to sh*t and they’re trying to talk their way out of it,” he theorizes. “So I want to be clear, I don’t think this issue is either of these customers’ faults. I’m still convinced, just like I said last night, that the dealership did some shaky financing bullsh*t.
The TikToker later posted another video in response to one of Tom’s follow-ups, saying it was a “super rare scenario.”
Concerning that response from Tom, he posted a video saying he had spoken to the original owner and offered to negotiate her new deal for free. Additionally, this video offers some further details about what went down, pieced together from both Brooke’s and the original owner’s stories.
Tom says the original owner, Diana, experienced mechanical issues shortly after leasing the vehicle. She was given a loaner vehicle to get to work but, despite initial assurances from the dealership that things would be resolved promptly, she was told that a representative from Kia was coming to look at the car—at which point she was “ghosted.” Tom says that Kia later canceled Diana’s deal and resold her original car to Brooke.
“This is where the twist comes in. As Diana was patiently waiting for her car, she ended up looking over her paperwork and realized she got absolutely hosed. She got a horrible deal,” Tom says. “She was paying $1500 a month on a lease on this EV 9. So now that this car is being canceled and she’s getting a new vehicle, she understands this isn’t a good deal, and she needs to get a better deal.”
“She’s trying to get at least an $1100 payment, which from…talking to some friends in the car industry, seems like a fair payment. But the problem with all this is, the dealership refuses,” Tom continues. “They’re staying strong at 1500 bucks. And I think this payment is extremely high.”
This leaves everyone in a tough situation, as Brooke paid significantly less for the car than Diana.
@didi__cc @B R O O K E @Delivrd ♬ original sound – didi 🇺🇸
“If [the dealership] cancel[s] this deal and don’t get a new deal involved, Diana no longer has a car, and they have $18,000 of negative equity that Diana would technically owe because she sold the car to the dealership,” Tom states. “Diana’s not gonna give that 18,000 that was part of a car deal, and she really doesn’t want to work with his dealership anymore. So her lawyers advised her just to cancel the whole thing and she can go buy a car somewhere else. But the problem is that they sold her vehicle.”
“The dealership has a dilemma. They either have to take a huge loss over here, or a slight loss and unwind a car deal, and that’s what they’re trying to do,” he summarizes. “They’re trying to take the slight loss over here, unwind the car deal, and get Brooke into a better car.”
However, things could still get worse.
“The worst part is that, technically, because this deal is unwound, they do have the right to ask for Brooke’s car back, and Brooke might get nothing out of it,” Tom explains. “Florida has a Right to Rescind Law within 30 days, which means that if they cannot get a deal funded, then guess what? They have the right to take the car back.”
That said, Brooke and Tom say they are working with the dealership to negotiate a good deal for her.
@jolly_good_ginger This is the previous owner – the dealership isnt telling the whole story.
♬ original sound – jolly_good_ginger
In an email to the Daily Dot, Tom offered some thoughts about the situation.
“The most surprising thing about the situation was just how this all came about. The dealership, instead of just being honest to Brooke about why they needed to return the car, made up some weird scenario that the previous owner didn’t like technology,” he wrote. “If they were just honest about this from the beginning, I don’t think Brooke would [have] even made a TikTok.”
“Dealerships need to be honest to clients. This is why people HATE the car-buying process. They constantly feel lied to,” he continued. “People are about to make the second biggest purchase of their life; they are spending 10s of thousands of dollars. Dealerships need to just be honest. I mean, think about it — if they were just HONEST and explained that Kia wiped out the previous deal, and ‘what we are doing to make it right by Brooke is getting her a BRAND NEW car,’ she would be happy. Instead, it was confusion, stress, and frustration.”
He further provided his thoughts about how car buyers can avoid confusing situations like these.
“Negotiating in-store is one of the worst mistakes consumers make. People make rushed and emotional decisions while negotiating that can cause you to overpay (which happened in both Brooke’s and the original owner’s situation),” he explained. “Always make sure you are working with a reputable dealer as well. Look at online reviews.”
@tomislavmikula Replying to @Shelly D @B R O O K E @didi 🇺🇸 The full story of Brookes Telluride Return from dealership. All sides tell their story. #newcar #cars #carsales #carbuyingtips #carbuying #delivrd ♬ original sound – Delivrd
In the comments section of Tom’s video, users remarked upon the absurdity of this whole fiasco.
“THIS IS SUCH A WILD RIDE THAT I HAVE NO REASON TO BE THIS INVESTED IN,” exclaimed a user.
“$1500 a month on a lease is WILD,” said another.
“And this is why I returned my Kia after it ended up in the shop after only SIX DAYS,” shared a third. “Three weeks later I told them I was DONE! Honda for the WIN!”
The Daily Dot reached out to Brooke, and @jolly_good_ginger via email, and Diana via TikTok comment.