A prospective truck buyer says a car salesman wanted to fight him over a truck.
TikTok creator Mike (@elevatorguy70), who regularly posts about physical fitness and health for men over the age of 50, says the sales team at Medina Auto Mall wanted to have a “Fight Club” type of experience when he went there to buy a truck.
In a recent clip that’s been viewed over 800,000 times, Mike describes being in the buying mood for a four-door, four wheel drive truck, and went to Medina Auto Mall after seeing online ads listing a truck that was to his liking.
He said what?!
Here’s the outrageous TL;DR breakdown of his attempts to buy a truck from the local dealer:
- Mike schedules a Wednesday appointment to see the truck after being told it’s at another lot.
- On Wednesday he receives multiple texts confirming the truck is ready. When he calls to double check he’s told the truck is still unavailable. He reschedules for Saturday.
- He arrives on Saturday expecting to view four specific trucks but finds they’re all at other lots or in the detail shop and unavailable.
- Highly annoyed at this point, he confront the manager, who deflects responsibility.
- At this point an aggressive salesperson, who Mike nicknamed “Italian Stallion,” behaves aggressively; “puffs his chest out, sticking his chest out, having the other guys hold him back, saying, why don’t you just take your money someplace else?”
Mike tells viewers that’s exactly his plan. And he offers to meet Italian Stallion in a local gym for a fight.
“You pick a gym, and you pick a style. Karate, jiu jitsu, MMA, wrestling, boxing. You pick,” he said. “You have my number, you’ve texted me multiple times. So give me a text and let me know.”
Thus far there’s been no update on Mike’s TikTok account on if the fight, which at this point sounds more compelling than the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul debacle, is ever going to happen.
Fighting for a sale
To find out how off the page the sales staff were behaving in this situation, we looked at the core principles of some of the most successful sales trainers who specialize in auto sales or adjacent fields.
None of the leading names—Joe Verde, Grant Cardone, Alan Ram, or Mark Tewart—promote the use of bait-and-switch advertising, patience testing, or using appointments to build sales pressure. Instead, they’re all about building rapport around the customer’s needs, disciplined follow-ups, structured appointments and communication, and creating trust.
Nowhere in any of their teachings do they advise sales staff to close a deal with their fists or feet.
We’ve written plenty here about how to navigate the pushy and manipulative sales tactics employed at car dealerships all over the country. There’s great advice on when to pursue a sale; how to stay on balance and educated; and how to preserve as much trade in value as possible.
How to lose a customer
Commenters on the clip had plenty of disdain for modern sales tactics at car dealerships. Several Ohio residents thanked Mike for ringing the alarm and saving them some time and frustration.
“I was about to take a two-hour drive from Columbus to check out Medina’s inventory for a new truck. Thanks for helping me decide to shop elsewhere,” one wrote.
Others detected that Mike, who is shown wearing Army apparel in his fitness videos, gave off an air of someone who knows how to handle himself in combat.
“The way this man just calmly and casually challenged this man to any type of fight in a gym made me think this isn’t someone to tussle with,” one of them wrote.
And another is pulling for Italian Stallion to learn a painful lesson: “I love it, I hope you knock his teeth out.”
@elevatorguy70 Still looking for a clean no rust 2000-2005 chevy 1500 or 2500 extended cab 4wd under 110k miles or a 2011-2016 Ford extended cab F150 under 120k miles. #donthitmebro #dealershipnightmare ♬ original sound – elevatorguy70
The Daily Dot reached out to Medina Auto Mall via email and text.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
