A video showing apparent employees of a dealership in California involved in an all-out brawl is making the rounds on the internet. And while I don’t have a ton of information to give you about what precipitated the melee, I can show you the video itself, which is rather absurd.
Update (April 17, 2023 6:15 P.M. ET): I discussed the situation with the Milpitas Police Department. Its representative didn’t have a whole lot to tell me other than that on April 8 “there was a call about a fight. It was between some employees that work [at the dealership].” By the time police had arrived, some parties had already left, so officers are now “contacting people and conducting their investigation.” No medical aid was needed.
This all went down at Envision Toyota of Milpitas near San Jose (I confirmed this by finding images of the dealership’s showroom, which contains the beautiful vintage car wall-graphics you see in the clip), apparently sometime earlier this month. The clearest video of the altercation comes from Twitter user “ange,” whom I reached out to for more information. Until I hear back, this tweet (which contains tags implying that the fight involved a sales manager or sales managers) are all we have. Have a look at the brawl:
I went to Toyota and the employees started brawling. This was actually the SECOND fight. Don't mind my commentary.. @fighthaven @30secfights #SalesManager vs. #GeneralSalesManager #FightHaven #Crown #ToyotaCrown #Fight #Brawl #Envision #Milpitas #Toyota #EnvisionToyota pic.twitter.com/erhnYSEMCr
— ange (@l0veleahh) April 13, 2023
Here are some quotes from the video based on what I can hear (some of the words are difficult to decipher amongst all the hoopla):
“Cut this shit out, cut this shit out right now.” — This seems to come from an unknown person in the room.
These words appear to perhaps come from the white-shirted big guy involved in the fight, though again, it’s not clear:
“You saw what I did to that punk-ass.”
“Mother f*ckers (trying to jump me?)”
“[indecipherable]…drop you, motherf*cker”
And these terms seem be coming from someone in a position of leadership:
“I’m telling you guys [indecipherable]… you guys all gonna go in jail right now.”
“I just called the cops, you wanna be here [indecipherable]…go in jail you can go or leave the lot right now.”
Someone named Ebereto Chan posted to Facebook a video showing a different angle and a little more of the tail end of the fight. Here it is (open it in full-screen):
What started the fight? Who are the parties involved? To these, we don’t have answers. All we have are tweets from ange, the apparent shooter of that top video in the tweet. Here’s what she — someone who “just wanted [her] car serviced” writes in her Twitter thread:
Yes!! They all work there. I understand that one was a sales manager and another the general sales manager? Everyone in The video works there..
— ange (@l0veleahh) April 16, 2023
I was shocked. But knew I had to record when I saw people running
— ange (@l0veleahh) April 16, 2023
This one’s actually quite funny:
Yes, the one they fought on is the new Crown model! Check it out lol
— ange (@l0veleahh) April 15, 2023
Again, nobody has details on this; even ange isn’t sure what caused the fight, with her Twitter thread being full of only rumors and jokes:
I’ve reached out to the dealership and to the local police. The former has not responded to my inquiries, and the latter told me it doesn’t yet have a press release to show regarding such an incident, and that police records are not available at this time. (It’s unclear if police records exist. I’ll find out when the office opens tomorrow). If anyone has details on this situation, please email tips@autopian.com.
Top Image: Screengrab from ange (Twitter)
I think the big guy was demonstrating the new floor plan, but I’m not entirely sure that this is an effective method for getting customers to take the $500 TruCoat option…
“”
But that Tru-Coat….
Looks like someone forgot to order the sales staff pizza on a Saturday.
This brawl had its origins nearly 40 years ago…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HubZ2cABBfU
Oh what a feeling!
The first rule of car sales, don’t talk about car sales.
“Don’t come around here with your Happy Honda Days bullshit. This is a Toyotathon house!”
The Crown front end is awful.
I saw my first on the road yesterday. It’s an ugly mish-mash.
I don’t recall if it was here but recently there was a discussion about the way dealerships cut all of the professional sales people in favor of guys who specialize in standing outside and smoking cigarettes. Those pro’s were “making too much money” and besides…the cars sell themselves right?
The guys standing around smoking ARE the pros.
…smoking… Cigarettes?
That’s so old-school. The cool kids are vaping…
Sure, but Toyota salespeople are still going to be pretty old-school. Techs and detailing, yeah, they probably vape, but sales is good ol’ rolled tobacco.
My wife found a post on facebook about what happened (supposedly.) I guess this dealership was recently bought out and things went a bit downhill, new/cheaper staff etc. Three guys, all related, got into an argument about time off and apparently got whipped by the sales manager “the bigger DJ Khalid looking guy.” 10 employees fired over the incident total, including all of those 4.
“Grounded to the ground, muthafucka!!!”
After the way I treated at dealership this weekend by a Salesperson, I can understand the punches.
Can I get the next RAV4 Prime at MSRP (and without $300 floor mats) if I beat my sales person in a fight?
Sounds like a better promotion than Challenge Pissing.
Not many questions here, that’s just good old fashioned human egos at work.
Conveniently, this dealership is across the street from the jail.
Sales people are basically hired on the basis that they have a pulse and a tie. I’ve seen guys throw water in someone’s face, punch a guy’s mirror off leaving for lunch, someone told a customer their sale’s guy had herpes so they wouldnt shake his hand…
The fact that it was caught on video is the rare part. Usually folks are too busy pushing these guys into the service area or outside so customer’s can’t see it lol
I would have guessed Livermore Toyota, a hell hole cesspool system dealership I will never visit again.
San Francisco Toyota on the other hand was just fine.
Those bruises will buff right out. And for someone without any knowledge of what happened, it sure looks like DT in the blue shirt recording it!(just kidding, I realize that’s not him, but at a quick glance it does sort of resemble him).
I bet someone took a KIa Amantie in on trade…
I laughed way more than I should have, almost woke the kids up, thanks for that.
Laughing at this too
Believe me, if you sold cars professionally, you would not have ANY questions.
The only real job requirement for many dealers is: “a pulse”. Ex-con? No problem. Besides, commission sales can drive even the meekest man to unbridled rage.
You bring up an excellent point. When I worked in the fitness industry, a lot of our managers were the same as your description. I was having a conversation with a GM one time and he explained the rationale (guy had an arrest for drug dealing when he was younger, guy turned his life around). “They know we’ll put up with all the bullshit and all the hours because in the end they know we’ll stay here since nobody will hire us and pay us as well as they are.” It’s true, those guys would put in insane hours to make the sale. Unfortunately, there were a lot of shady dudes as well. Makes you think if we should have some sort of pardoning program for people that paid their dues and are contributing members of society.
Agreed. I relative of mine spent time in jail. When he got out, he worked at a local grocery store. The store was bought by a regional chain that had a policy of no ex-cons, so he lost his job. Fortunately, he was able to get a job he has to this day not too long after. The system needs to change.
Ha ha! So right! (Yes, I sold cars for a semester in grad school)
An unsolicited opinion…
Seems like this story is a little low brow for the Autopian but respect the decision making process. TBH, it reminds me of the current state of the website that shall not be named.
The hell-scape that is the franchise dealer system needs to be called out whenever possible.
I agree with both of these comments. Yes, the dealer system should be called out. But there’s almost zero original content here. This piece is just repeating unverified rumors to crank up the page views. Classic clickbait.
It reminds me of this piece you penned at the old site:
“This article is a “Question of the Day.” It’s basically an easy way for Jalopnik to increase reader engagement and get two free posts per day — one question and one that basically lists your answers in slideshow form. We get one pageview per slide, so this helps us really crank up our metrics, which means more ad sales, which means more money.”
David, I really appreciated your transparency over there. I still appreciate it over here. I understand you have business decisions to make, and this piece will earn you some income in the short term. But I’m paying for good, *original* content. Stuff that “celebrates the unifying quality of automobiles.” Not warmed-over rumors swiped off of Twitter. Inevitably, some of those rumors will wind up being wrong, and The Autopian will have earned some egg on its face for acting like a cheap tabloid. And when you act like a cheap tabloid, your readers will eventually start treating you like one.
We can do better. Waiting a couple days for responses from the various parties might have cost you a few of the early views. But it would have allowed you to write a much better editorial, actually calling out specific faults with the dealer system.
Bottom line – That original content is what keeps us coming back for more, and that’s what will keep this site sustainably growing in the long run.
Wait, you think Autopian has a bottom?
“Wait, you think Autopian has a bottom?”
All this shit has to come from somewhere…
:-p
The dealership is conveniently local to the Elmwood Correctional Facility.
Bill always thought it was so funny to take customers on a test drive, lock the windows, and fart.
“Toyota: Let’s Go Places”
…such as the floor…
I guess Jumping isn’t quite enough for Toyota anymore…
Someone must’ve said something bad about taillights.