A woman recently went viral on TikTok after sharing the less-than-rosy experience she said she had at an unnamed dealership.
Jessica (@jessicaslattelife), a wellness and beauty content creator, said in a recent video that the dealership took four hours to work out a deal that would result in her buying a new car. As of Tuesday afternoon, her post had amassed more than 774,600 views.
“How in 2024, do car dealerships still take 4 hours to figure out your deal & sell you a car like this is insane,” Jessica wrote in the accompanying text overlay. Jessica recorded her brief, 9-second video, from the inside of a dealership. While she didn’t speak in the clip, her facial expression suggested that she was frustrated with the long wait time.
She didn’t hold back in her TikTok’s video caption, either. “Can we just stop the games & give me a number,” she wrote.
How long should it take to buy a car at the dealership?
It’s not immediately clear from Jessica’s video which step in the car-buying process she was at. But according to a 2020 Reddit post, it’s not that uncommon for prospective buyers to wait for hours at a car dealership. One Redditor, u/sarcasmbunny, said that the entire ordeal—“from greeting to driving off the lot”—took roughly 3 hours. Others said that they’ve dealt with 2 to 4 hour wait-times depending on the dealership’s busyness.
Some buyers said they’ve been more lucky, however. In another Quora forum, one user boasted that, after ordering their last car online, they were in the dealership for “less than an hour.”
In other words, wait times may vary based on whether customers want to do a test drive, how busy a dealership’s workers are, and what car you want to purchase. That doesn’t mean customers won’t try and find roundabout ways to get serviced faster, though.
In the comments under Jessica’s video, a number of viewers said they’ve threatened to leave a dealership if they notice that they’ve been waiting for too long.
“I won’t sit [for] more than 30 min,” one woman admitted.
“Walk out of there! They will come make a deal if they see you leaving,” another advised.
Even with this tip, though, a number of users said they’ve given up on in-person car dealerships. Instead, viewers said they shop for used cars online through Carvana or CarMax, which both buy and sell used vehicles.
Switching to these used vehicle retails, according to some commenters, might be the best way to avoid long wait-times at the dealership. One person wrote that CarMax had them “in and out in an hour.”
Jessica responded to this comment, writing, “This is what I keep hearing!”
Other viewers affirmed this.
“CarMax is the way to go,” one said. “Best and quickest sale I’ve ever had.”
“Carvana was the best,” another wrote. “Never going to a dealership again.”
@jessicaslattelife Can we just stop the games & give me a number 😫#contentcreators #ugccreator #toddlermomtok #cardealership #buyinganewcar #buyingacar #carsalesman #newcar #howtostartaffiliatemarketing #howtogrowontiktok #momtokers #affiliatemarketingforbeginners ♬ original sound – Hannah Brown
“That’s why we go to carvana,” a third person added. “No hassle, no salesman. Bought our last 2 cars from there. You set the price, they tell you what you can get at that price.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Jessica via TikTok comment.
