Ever wonder what people are saying about you behind your back? Of course you have; you’re human. One handy way to find out is to take a car in for a trade-in appraisal, and leave your dashcam inside! Then you might be as lucky as this guy who brought his BMW to be appraised for a trade-in on a new Ford Focus RS. Spoiler alert! They’re not so nice to him.



I want to be clear here: talking shit about people is a human right, and I’m not faulting these employees for that. It’s just fascinating to hear it when it’s all caught on a car’s auto-starting dashcam.


Now, there’s no real terrible driving or anything like that happening here. Just a couple of car salesmen from Lakeland Ford talking a little bit of shit about the guy who brought in a leased BMW with an aftermarket exhaust for a trade-in on a Focus RS. It starts with a question:

“Why the fuck would he put an exhaust on a lease?”

Not the worst question. The conversation then moves to the metaphysical:

“Mother fucker.” “What?” “Just this car, dude.”

Soon, we learn a bit about the flexibility of dealer markups:

“He says, problem is, y’all are trying to sell it for $5000 over sticker, and I’m trying to pay sticker.” “Oh yeah, that’s not gonna work.”

... then comes the questions the car salesmen dare not ask aloud, in public:

“Why the fuck does he want an RS?”

And then, the judgements. Rapid, harsh, and tempered with a disclaimer:

“He looks like a guy that has daddy’s money, just knows everything about cars, and can get whatever the fuck he wants. I could be completely wrong.”


This is also a good warning to remind all us gearheads how we may be perceived every time we walk into a car dealership.

Then, realization:

“What is that?” “Holy shit, the dude has a camera.”

It gets quieter after that.

But then there’s speculation:

“The RS is probably faster.” “I don’t think so. That’s probably why.”

Finally, they get into some in-depth technical discussion about the cars they sell:

“Dude, I don’t know anything as far as, all-wheel drive. Like, what are our F-150s?”

We contacted the dealership for comment, but have yet to hear anything back. I don’t want these guys to get into any trouble, because I don’t think they behaved any differently than thousands of other car salespeople. If anything, this should just be a warning to car salespeople out there: you’re being watched.

Always.

H/T to Justin Miller!