What’s the Weirdest Thing You’ve Seen at a Dealer?

A black and white photo of a man leaning on a used car at a dealership.

Three-figure car prices! How strange. Photo: Janet Fries (Getty Images)

As a Brit, American car dealers confuse me to no end. All this talk of franchising, allocations, and sky-high markups makes shopping at a dealership sound a bit like navigating the Wild West. And that means, to me, that you must have seen some weird stuff when perusing the local car lot. Have you?

So that’s what we’re looking for today, we’re asking you for your weird and wonderful car dealership stories. We want to hear what the weirdest thing you have ever seen at a car dealership might be?

You can find a lot of odd things at car dealers. First, there are all the weird and wonderful cars you might spot out on the lot, or lurking in the parking garage. Maybe you saw a Honda Element lurking in the shadows that gave you a fright, or perhaps stumbled upon a pristine Mark 1 Fiesta ready to hit the sales floor. Either is a pretty odd spot in the year of our lord 2022.

Or, perhaps, you might have seen some questionable negotiation tactics on display by anyone haggling for a better price. I heard about a sweet-toothed customer that once asked a dealer to throw in their hot chocolate maker to sweeten the sale.

Then, there are the weird buildings, mascots, advertising paraphernalia and other odds and ends that you might find lying about the place. And, of course, you’ll no doubt have seen some truly shocking markups on hot-ticket items like Broncos and Ionic EVs.

G/O Media may get a commission

A gift for literally everybody.
Gifts under $20, $10, and even $5. It’s Wish, the catch-all shop for all of the above.

So, what have you got? Head to the comments section and let us know the weirdest things you’ve ever seen at a car dealer? We’ll round up some of the most shocking stories in a slideshow tomorrow afternoon.