A Florida dealership worker is addressing a popular follow-up question he received after chronicling how he and his co-workers prepare cars ahead of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on Friday.
TikTok user Dayton Michael Shupak (@shupaksgotyourback) is a car salesman based in Florida who does vehicle reviews and car sales skits on the social media platform. He went viral at the end of September when he showed viewers how his dealership prepares its inventory of cars for hurricane conditions.
In a follow-up video with more than 59,000 views posted last week, Shupak responds to a comment on his original post, which reads, “So the most expensive cars stay outside.” Shupak says, “All right, so I saw this question a ton on that video talking about Hurricane Helene and how we prepare for it. Let me answer it.”
Why do the most expensive cars stay outside?
“Why on God’s green earth would we put all the expensive vehicles outside the dealership and leave all the cheaper stuff inside the inside of the dealership?” Shupak says. “And there’s two reasons why, and they’re gonna make a ton of sense.”
First of all, Shupak says it’s an issue of size. He points to the Toyota Tundras in a line behind him. “The simpler answer to this is the fact that these vehicles are massive compared to what they used to be,” he says. “For every Tundra that I have on the inside of that dealership, I could’ve stacked two Corollas, two Camrys, one-and-a-half RAV4s. You get the idea.”
Second of all, Shupak says he has way more trucks at the dealership than he does smaller sedans like the Corolla or Camry. And those models are easier to sell. “So we want to make sure that we’re keeping the easier-to-sell things inside the dealership. That way nothing happens to them,” he says. “And we can keep the stuff that is harder to sell on the outside of the dealership. Worst case scenario.”
Viewers weigh in on the strategy
In the comments section, viewers reacted to the strategy and shared other reasons it might be a good idea.
“The other answer is insurance,” wrote one user.
“I naturally assumed the trucks would provide a larger barrier to protect the windows,” wrote a second user.
“They also have higher clearance,” suggested another user. “So it would take higher flood waters to do damage than smaller cars.”
Another user wrote, “Makes sense. Very cool to see how things like this work during a hurricane.”
@shupaksgotyourback Replying to @samanthagunnet ♬ original sound – Dayton Michael Shupak
The Daily Dot reached out to Shupak via TikTok comment and direct message for comment.
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