At some point in life, it’s fairly common to regret buying a car. Maybe it’s out of a lack of due diligence, maybe the car ends up unexpectedly being a lemon, or maybe it just didn’t live up to expectations. Whatever the case, most of us haven’t sought revenge for this sort of remorse, but that doesn’t mean this kind of thing doesn’t happen. This week, one Utah man reportedly decided to take matters into his own hands by crashing his recently-purchased car through the front doors of the dealership that sold it to him, and the incident was caught on camera.
As Fox 13 Now out of Salt Lake City reports, police in Sandy, Utah report that the man in this incident “bought a car from Tim Dahle Mazda Monday morning.” More specifically, it appears to be a 2008 to 2009 Subaru Outback, likely in either 2.5i or 2.5i Limited trim judging by the seven-spoke alloy wheels. Unfortunately, this man wouldn’t turn out to be a happy customer, as the report goes on to state that he “reportedly discovered mechanical issues and went back to the dealership, hoping to return it.” Unfortunately, this was reportedly an as-is sale, so it seems that the customer was out of luck.
In a situation like this, most people would perhaps leave a negative Google review, go to the press, or more likely, accept the risks of buying an as-is car without a pre-purchase inspection to uncover any potential mechanical problems. However, as Fox 13 Now reports, “Police said the man threatened to drive through the dealership’s front door if they wouldn’t give him his money back.” Judging by the video below, and a police statement saying he “did exactly that,” what ended up happening was reportedly deliberate.
Man crashes car into dealership showroom due to overcharge
byu/RedDevil4853 inPublicFreakout
Maybe some parts of the 2000 remake of “Gone in 60 Seconds” aren’t totally unbelievable after all. It’s amazing to hear that nobody was hurt in this incident, especially as the Outback absolutely obliterated the front desk of the showroom, not to mention the doors. Unsurprisingly, law enforcement generally frowns upon this sort of behavior, so Fox 13 Now reports that the man has been charged with felony criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
Understandably, this seems like a shocking thing to happen at a workplace. While dealership employee Aylin Hernandez reportedly wasn’t there at the time of the incident, she told Fox 13 Now:
“What would’ve happened?” she wondered. “Who knows — it could’ve been fatal.”
“He came back but with a rage… Without thinking, he just acted out on rage,” she said.
Violence in the workplace is a rough thing to experience even by proximity, so one can only imagine the emotions experienced by anyone who was present at the time. I’ve reached out to Tim Dahle Mazda Southtown in Sandy, Utah for comment, and will provide an update should I hear more information.
It should be pretty obvious that, if this went down as reported, we aren’t looking at the greatest tree of decision-making here. Crashing a car into a dealership allegedly out of anger and ending up with criminal charges and a damaged car doesn’t appear to be a win. Again, a pre-purchase inspection might have potentially avoided this. Paying a little north of $100 to know if a prospective purchase needs work seems a much better deal than being stuck with a problematic car, or worse, getting arrested.
(Photo credits: Reddit)
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I have been burned by dealers before with brand new lemons, terrible service, not paying off liens/registration/taxes, etc. so I’m not defending dealers at all… but it does seem, at least from what the article says, the dealer was trying to find some solution, swap him into another car. For such an old low value car, seems at least like they were trying?
Now he has a felony charge, even more damaged car and probably owes building repairs to the dealer… double down on a bad situation…
Am I the only one primarily shocked that it was a Subaru and not an Altima?
If that was an Altima, they would’ve been going down the highway at 110 with a fender, rear bumper, side mirror and possibly a wheel hanging off, weaving in and out of traffic. Never would have come back to the dealer
I want to know exactly what was wrong with the car and how the sale went down. Sure, we as car people understand that $4k for a 15 year old Subaru is bonkers, but most people aren’t car people and presumably this guy went to this dealer because he assumed they’re trustworthy and you know damn well they sold the fuck out of this car to this guy. This might not be the right way to handle the situation but he did it for all of us out there that have been fucked by a dealership. It probably felt awesome driving through that window.
Dunno.. I just assume at this point even non-car people know that neither the engines or the transmissions in Subarus will make it to 100k miles, so buying a 15 year old one is the closest to setting your money on fire as you can get.
I just can’t have any empathy for someone who bought a used Subaru, with advertised problems, then getting mad about it. This guy sounds like a total meathead. We’ve all got stories about how a dealership tried to take advantage of us, but this certainly isn’t the issue here.
I feel like this relates to another comment thread on used Subarus . . .
Update in case anyone is still watching, dude is out and did a news interview: https://www.ksl.com/article/51208942/man-says-he-drove-car-through-showroom-doors-out-of-sadness-and-rage
Yeah – After reading this, it’s clear that this moron is a self-inflicted victim.
Isn’t every sale of a 15 year old car an “As-Is” sale?
Unless the dealer really wants to state otherwise in writing, pretty much, yeah
Here in Maine dealers are required to provide a warranty on used cars (30 days, I believe). So all the true POS cars are sold as “not inspected, tow-away only” to avoid the warranty requirement.
At least he didn’t kill anyone
Customers usually know absolutely nothing about cars and for whatever reason commonly don’t get a pre-purchase inspection. Most dealers know these facts and absolutely take advantage of them. This pretty much sums up 95% of car sales. Usually it ends up with the buyer in the hole for a piece of crap car that they really didn’t need to begin with. Rarely though I guess it ends up with the car parked in the dealer show room. The only thing that would have made this clip perfect is if some random person had shouted out “hey! you can’t park there.”
I wonder if head gaskets were involved?
I thought was implied with it being a Subaru…
So zero consumer protection laws for second-hand cars in Utah then?
Depends. If you buy a car through the dealer and they handle all the registration and stuff, yes there is some protection. It sounds like this was a car they intended to send to auction, and they don’t inspect those at all or handle the registration so you’re on your own.
Crazy people be crazy
“You told me the head-gaskets were MLS when you sold me the car! These are single layer! They’ll fail again”
Something about this tells me that this isn’t his first moment of acting out.
I have some guesses about the kind of content on his YouTube history.
I’m rather surprised at the lack of sympathy for the dealership in the comments section here. On one hand, I get it – I don’t know all of the details on this sale, but sellers (both dealers and private) routinely misrepresent the condition and quality of vehicles for sale.
On the other hand, I have very little sympathy for people who make what is likely largest or second largest purchase they will make in their entire life without doing due diligence. When you agree to buy a car as-is, that means you’re buying it as-is.
We also don’t even know what, if anything, was truly wrong with the car. When I (briefly) sold cars for a dealership, I had people with post-purchase regret (because, against my advice, they bought the car they wanted, not the car they needed, because they had to have it right now), come back complaining about the absolutely most frivolous issues. Examples include:
-the dome light doesn’t turn off immediately after closing the door (delay function was working as designed).
-the gas pump shuts off before the fuel tank is completely full (fuel wasn’t visible in the filler neck; it was working as designed).
-the vehicle “needed a new rear end” (no clue what this even meant; everything was fine and the customer didn’t seem to know what a “rear end” even was).
I also think the original article had some helpful context:
Slade claims the dealership did offer Murray his money back or a different car before he rammed into the front of the building. He added that Murray was told by the dealership beforehand that the car needed work before the purchase.
“We were very clear about the fact that this car is not retail,” Slade said. “It’s gonna need more inspecting and some work.
It sounds like the dealer was even willing to work the customer in this case, which they absolutely were not obligated to do.
I’ve sold a number of cars that needed work, sometimes extensive work, fully disclosing every known issue and informing the customer that it is possible other issues will arise or reveal themselves after purchase. Still, some people would come back feeling that they are entitled to some kind of recourse because X issue occurred, that we didn’t know about, on the $1,000 beater they just bought as-is. I once had a customer come in screaming at me because his alternator died six months after we sold the car, claiming that we knew this would happen.
I know dealers get a bad rap, and many times it’s deserved. The franchise laws in this country are beyond absurd, and generally the laws are written to protect corporations over people. However, it can be difficult to appreciate just how clueless and unreasonable the average customer can be, especially if they are looking for a cheap car on a limited budget, until you have to deal with it day in and day out.
I very quickly got out of the car sales business, briefly went back to automotive detailing, and then moved to human services. I am much happier now.
Yeah this is a Mazda dealership, I mean weird place to buy an Outback, but it was obviously a trade in and they figured it would be an easy sale (even with issues) in Utah. If this was a “buy here/pay here” type lot, I’d be unsympathetic. But I have a hard time believing a single marque dealership would roll the dice misrepresenting the car.
It doesn’t look like any of the employees has ever skipped a lunch.
Bollards?
This is probably the access to the showroom and they intentionally have the ramp and lack of bollards to pull cars in and out of there. They will likely now look into having some removeable ones for the future though!
ummm. financial loss/bad decision does not give license to preform physical destruction, pre purchase inspection or not. prevent this guy from being a total idiot? maybe nothing could prevent that. he was always gonna be that guy. hence he didn’t get inspection
Damn, the comments on the Reddit post are totally vicious and inappropriate. And absolutely hilarious.
Yeah, he really blew a gasket!
It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru 😛
I probably shouldn’t be amused because someone could have gotten hurt and the driver only made his situation worse . . . but I laughed because that car is my car . . . ’09 Outback and I can probably guess what was wrong with it.
It was a Black Friday Doorbuster Deal… that went sour…
Bahaha! Maybe nobody sent him to the service bays out back? This works, but just does not leave a good impression.
As someone who hasn’t needed to get a pre-purchase inspection, how exactly does one get the car to the person doing the inspection, or the inspector to the car?
Just ask the salesperson if they’re okay with you taking it to a third-party shop for an inspection. Most upstanding lots will allow it; if they don’t it’s a red flag. They might ask where you’re taking it since you’ll have the car for longer than the typical test-drive but that’s about it. Just be sure to have this pre-arranged with the shop you want inspecting it so you know they can take it in right away.
Thanks!
I’ve seen services where a guy will go to the car to inspect it.
That would be helpful indeed.
Maybe he was just punch-drunk from the boxer.