An Uber customer realized his driver got scammed at the auto dealership. In a viral TikTok video, he wonders why the care sales industry isn’t more regulated to protect consumers.
In the clip, Will Lamparelli (@willlamparelli) shared his recent experience with an Uber driver. He explains that when he got in the car, he noticed it was the “nicest f*cking car I’ve ever been in.”
He gets to talking with the driver and learns it’s a limited edition Hyundai Ioniq 5 with the dealership plates still on it (meaning it had likely been purchased recently).
The electric vehicle has a 10/10 Car and Driver rating and was chosen as the company’s number one pick in the electric SUV category.
“It looked like a goddamn spaceship,” Lamparelli says in the video.
As he chats with the driver about it he learns that she did in fact just get the car at the Hyundai dealership and was quite happy with the experience because they “really helped her out.” Reader, car dealerships are rarely trying to help customers get great deals. It’s just not in their best interest financially.
@willlamparelli #greenscreen #cardealership ♬ original sound – Will Lamparelli
That’s when Lamparelli learned that the driver was “upside down” in her 2010 Equinox, meaning she owed more money on it than what it was worth.
“No shame, no shade. Everyone’s got a fucked up car situation at one point in their life, that’s chill,” Lamparelli says.
But, this did let him know that his driver may not be financially literate when it comes to cars and the car buying process.
She repeats that the dealership “really helped her out” and gave her a good deal. Curiosity spiked, and Lamparelli asked how much she was paying monthly.
She shares that the dealership took her trade-in vehicle, and she’s “only paying $1,000 a month” and will be good after three years. Lamparelli took that to mean she’d be done with the loan after three years and would end up paying about $36,000 during that time.
The 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 starts at a suggested manufacturer’s retail price of $43,000 and goes up from here depending on the vehicle’s specs, upgrades, and interior.
“That’s not so bad,” Lamparelli said.
Wrong. It turns out the driver has a 6-year loan but is planning to refinance in three.
“I only drive Uber, so I have to have a really sick car,” the driver recalls the dealership workers telling her.
All in, she’ll end up paying $72,000 for a car that’s worth about $50,000. That’s a $22,000 difference. Lamparelli then wonders how car salespeople are able to sleep at night after deceiving customers and taking advantage of people with less financial awareness.
“What other business is so customer-facing and so deceptive at the same time?” Lamparelli says in the clip.
The video has more than a quarter of a million views and is nearing 1,000 comments as of Monday morning.
Customers were also up in arms about the situation.
“The thing is car’s salesman don’t even make that much money, you’re telling me they choose going to hell for not even 6 figures,” the top comment read.
“We need to be able to buy direct from manufacturers,” a person said.
“I predict the car industry is a bigger bubble than the 08 housing market. Going to be bad soon,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Lamparelli via TikTok comment.
