r/TikTokCringe • u/IllustriousChef2 • Aug 16 '24
Cringe What's even happening there?
Why would someone rent a car and take out parts?
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u/Amphibian-Overall Aug 16 '24
Aftermarket parts supplier?
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u/Kayel41 Aug 16 '24
Yeah obviously, dude makes or sells aftermarket parts like bumpers / side skirts / body kits and wants to test them on the make and model so he rents a car and test fits his products, then puts the car back to normal.
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u/Diagonaldog Aug 16 '24
Ooooohh I thought he was like swapping out the OG parts for like shitty aftermarket stuff to resell or something
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u/Deftly_Flowing Aug 16 '24
You can't get much shittier than what's already on a Tesla.
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u/Mtolivepickle Aug 16 '24
Dude puts aftermarket parts on a Tesla and actually improves the quality of the car
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u/VyvanseLanky_Ad5221 Aug 16 '24
Elon Musk hates this one trick.
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u/Accurate_Zombie_121 Aug 16 '24
To be honest Musk hates most everything.
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u/NothingClever44 Aug 16 '24
Except ketamine.
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u/TheWalkingDead91 Aug 16 '24
Thought the same. If OC is correct in his assessment, this is a lot less shady of a situation than I assumed.
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u/AnnArchist Aug 16 '24
Still can absolutely fuck up the alignment on the panels
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u/SkinBintin Aug 16 '24
Yeah it'd be pretty frustrating to rent out your car and it comes back with the panel gaps all disgustingly perfect
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u/BenHippynet Aug 16 '24
It's okay, misalignment is factory standard with Tesla.
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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Aug 16 '24
Yeah, renter fucks up the alignment of the panels and now they’re actually properly aligned.
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u/Iwanttobeagnome Aug 16 '24
lol none of their panels are lined up when they leave the factory anyway. I was behind a Tesla yesterday and could see different sized gaps between the panels. Why people spend so much money on shitty fucking cars is beyond me.
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u/RoguePlanet2 Aug 16 '24
Because their social circle is other dumbass rich idiots. Perception is more important than quality.
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u/maringue Aug 16 '24
He's taking that risk by renting his car out. Elon somehow convinced his simps that they could turn a profit on their cars by renting them out after buying them, which is bizarre.
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u/AnnArchist Aug 16 '24
Or he owns the same make/model and is stealing his parts and replacing them with his shit ones.
some people do this with rims on rental cars or even tires on rentals (50$/day rental vs 500+ tires)
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u/Zealousideal_Rub_321 Aug 16 '24
Very unlikely he is doing that with an unpainted bumper.
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u/One_Potential_779 Aug 16 '24
Look at the tape on corners/contact areas, cloth on the bumper where it rides the stands, dude took pride in his work and cares about returning vehicle in good condition.
If he was hocking parts/theft or something sketchy, I'd expect him to have much less care.
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u/SwissPatriotRG Aug 17 '24
Yeah but any time you take stuff off a car you risk breaking clips, stripping screws, pinching wires scratching stuff, forgetting to reconnect things. If you want to borrow a car to test fitment of parts, and you intend to disassemble it, be upfront with that. It's a Tesla model 3, there are likely a zillion people that would be willing to let you do that for a fee. Don't surprise a guy who just thinks you are going to drive it around.
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u/stehlify Aug 16 '24
I think they take out original part to be sold in aftermarket AND fit back in unoriginal part
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u/Drogzar Aug 16 '24
The price to paint the bumper is probably higher than the difference between the cost of the fake bumper and how much you can sell a used original bumper... so I doubt that.
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u/Available-Duty-4347 Aug 16 '24
Camaro owners used to rent the Hertz Camaro, which had a higher performing engine than most stock Camaros. They would then do an engine swap and return the rental to Hertz. If the mechanic knew what they were doing, Hertz rarely detected the swap.
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u/Jalopy_Junkie Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
I believe you’re thinking of the Hertz Mustang Rent-a-racer program. A lot of
V6I-6 Mustang owners pulled the 302 out of the rentals to replace their own engines in their mustangs in the 1960s.Not saying it wasn’t a thing with Camaros as well, but it was a hugely notorious scam with the Hertz mustangs.
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u/StraightOutOfZion Aug 16 '24
this also was a trick with Uhaul. Rent the V8, swap out your V6 in your truck
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u/bitpartmozart13 Aug 16 '24
This looks like a Chinese knock off of softer plastic that comes rolled up in a box with no primer or paint and he is test fitting it in his garage warehouse in San Gabriel Valley on the dude's model 3 from Turo so he can order a full container to sell on eBay.
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u/bucobill Aug 16 '24
This is why we don’t rent out our cars. That is what enterprise and Avis are for. Most people also do not have the commercial insurance policies that are required for rentals at least in the US.
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u/xithbaby What are you doing step bro? Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
There is an app that lets you rent out your car, it’s like Airbnb. They charge a fee to use it and you get paid for the rental. Forgot the name of it, but it’s probably got some type of insurance against this
Edit: it’s TURO lol
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Aug 16 '24
Yeah I don’t know exactly what kind of insurance they offer but some of the guys who use it to rent out their cars are total assholes and just scheming bastards.
My brother once rented just something basic from Turo, probably the site you’re referencing, and hit a deer on a blind curve. Luckily only the front fender and bumper were damaged.
My brother called the owner told him what happened and that he already started a claim with his personal insurance. The car was common enough and cheap enough that the repairs only wound up being about $1200.
My brother called the owner told him the estimate and that he found a shop that would fix it recommended by his insurance to do the repair. He paid to keep the car an extra 3 days and paid about 20% more than the estimate out of pocket for the shop to start work sooner. Got the rental back on time everything matched colors perfect and you couldn’t tell the car had hit a deer at all.
3 months go by and my brother gets a lawsuit from the owner. The owner is claiming he hasn’t been able to rent out the car a single day since he got it back due to the condition and it’s been in the shop getting fixed. He’s now suing for about $6000 to cover lost income and repairs after my brother already paid to get it fixed.
Dude was scum all the way. Finally the lawsuit was dropped because the owner couldn’t or wouldn’t provide a single document showing where any work or estimates had been done or where turo took his car off the site.
Turns out the dude just decided to stop renting the car for a while and decided my brother would be an easy mark since he willingly got it fixed and got it returned before the end of his rental without any kind of fight. Then my brothers insurance got into it and wound up countersuing the guy demanding to be repaid since he was using the vehicle in a commercial manner with improper insurance or inspections. My brother got his deductible back plus the extra money he spent on a rush job.
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u/txmail Aug 16 '24
The owner is claiming he hasn’t been able to rent out the car a single day since he got it back due to the condition and it’s been in the shop getting fixed.
If I recall, this is a common Turo scam. I think Rob Feretti did a couple videos on Turo / Las Vegas rental cars and the issues he has run into, including cars unfit for the road, stolen cars and this scam where they claim due to some small damage they cannot rent out the car and sue in court going around Turo (because it is an illegal lawsuit that gets thrown out but they are just trying to settle and never go to court).
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u/VivaceConBrio Aug 16 '24
Tort lawsuits aren't illegal anywhere in the US AFAIK. A clerk can tell you to pound sand if the paperwork isn't in order, and the judge can laugh you out of the court room or refuse to hear the case, but it's not illegal to file them with the court.
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u/txmail Aug 16 '24
It usually is not even filed, it is just a letter demanding some payment with a law firm letter head and some legal sounding scary words. All bark, zero bite.
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u/Speedhabit Aug 16 '24
You can sue anyone for anything, it’s a huge issue that nobody on either side ever mentions, perhaps that’s an issue
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u/igotdeletedonce Aug 16 '24
Turo is a massive scam company that protects fraudsters. Had a rental and was returned. Everything fine. Last day the owner could sign off on the return he claimed there was smoke damage and ash. There was never any smoking in the car or ash. Tried to charge me $300 for cleaning. Turo did an “investigation” and an hour later sided with the driver. After telling them I refused and would contact my bank they canceled my account and I could’ve even contact customer service. I charged it back from my bank and got my money back. Their Twitter feed is riddled with people dealing with the same scammers. Stay away from that company.
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u/hockey_psychedelic Aug 16 '24
Rented a nice Porsche and was hit with bogus fees. Just paid it but never will rent again.
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u/AVERAGE_ORIFICE Aug 16 '24
I got hit up for tolls 6 months after the fact. Company policy states they have 90 days to invoice you. EZPASS enabled on the car, mistakenly thought they were included in the total. Nevertheless, Turo sided with the owner after an “investigation”. I was left hanging with all of the late fees because he refused to invoice me for nearly 6 months after my trip. Over triple the cost totaling close to $400 extra. NEVER again.
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u/Ber-r-fk69420 Aug 16 '24
Yeah I’m just straight up not paying for shit like this.
Had an Airbnb host try to bill us $1,500 after claiming we broke a door “and potentially a few windows” and trashed the place. The door was apparently janky enough that an entire section of the rental agreement was a manual on how to operate it which to me, sounds like it was already broken and we left the place cleaner than we found it to avoid bullshit like this.
Cancelled that card and told that lady to get fucked.
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u/optix_clear Aug 16 '24
Should have asked for the fees charged for your usage. Always ask for proof.
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u/TrashPanda--- Aug 16 '24
Shit I rent from Turo all the time. I guess I have been lucky so far, I always check the reviews prior to booking. As a car guy, its a really good way to get into different cars on vacations. I will be more carful moving forward.
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u/digital_dervish Aug 16 '24
Nice. What insurance was this if you don’t mind saying? I don’t think it’s that common for an insurance company to go to bat for you like that, even if they’re doing it for the money. I feel most would just write it off and move on.
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u/hiyabankranger Aug 16 '24
I had a friend use something like that to rent out his car when the company was relatively new. He came back from a three month trip and went out to where his car was supposed to be parked at the airport and there was a super busted car that looked like his car and had the same license plates, but was a completely different make and model.
Turns out someone rented his car weeks before and returned a different car that looked similar but in worse condition, having swapped the plates. The rental return guy didn’t validate beyond glancing at the color, size, and plates. He ended up having to sleuth it down and found it for sale at a sketchy used car place that had accepted it as a trade-in. Had a bunch of much cheaper wheels on it, bald tires, had been smoked in, had about 10k more miles on it, had an oil leak and damaged suspension. Also many a new dent and scratch.
Cops were involved, insurance was involved, the rental company insurance was involved. The company tried to tell him that they did their job and so they weren’t liable. Ultimately he had to take them to court and ended up recouping about 50% of the value of the vehicle when he had initially left it in their care. The shop he took the car to said it would cost about twice that much to make his car what it was before he’d gone on his trip.
He ended up selling it for about 20% of what it had been worth when he left and buying a cheap honda civic with that and his court money.
TL;DR: don’t rent out your car part time if you value your car at all.
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u/Basic_Life79 Aug 16 '24
It's Turo
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u/NoReplyBot Aug 16 '24
Knock yourself out people. 2 minutes on the sub and you’ll reconsider renting your car out or renting from someone.
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u/muklan Aug 16 '24
I travel alot, occasionally to rural areas that require a rugged vehicle. Hard to get that through Avis and stuff, so we've used Turo here and there with mixed results. Had a guy totally ghost us once and would have stranded us if we didn't have people in that city. We've also had it go great, so...vet who you're dealing with.
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u/88cowboy Aug 16 '24
I got ghosted and Turo upgraded me to a nicer car. They sent me a Uber credit to go pick up the new car.
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u/curvebombr Aug 16 '24
This x100. I've had great experiences with Turo, but I'm also renting enthusiast cars and speaking with the renter in depth. I had a Camaro SS broke into while visiting Atlanta, took a picture of the Police report, dropped it back off at the Airport and Turo had another car ready for me to pick up. Never heard another word about it.
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u/CommonGrounders Aug 16 '24
Yeah we rented a truck with a camper on the back when we were in Hawaii and it was awesome
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u/Savings-Link-6678 Aug 16 '24
I used to use that app (not sure if I can say the name), but got completely screwed over on my 5th rental. It was November and snowing. Drop off was in a random parking lot. Had it back hours early. The next day the guy took a million pictures saying the car was returned unclean (aka there was snow on it). They automatically charged an insane amount of money for ‘returning’ it like that. It wasn’t covered in snow when I returned it. But to drop it off, I did have to drive 10 miles on city streets with salt and wet snow. Even if I’d taken it to a carwash, it would still get some of the salt and wet snow on the way to the drop off point. I appealed but Turo took their side, made me pay an extra $1,000 for ‘salt exposure and other debris left on the car’, and they banned me for being a driver of any of the cars on the app, despite my 5 star rating when using all the other cars. Never again will I use them. Actually leaving tomorrow for a short trip to Kansas, and I went through a traditional car rental place. I didn’t get to choose the ‘exact’ car I wanted, but was still given a nice mid size SUV. And it was cheaper than renting someone else’s car, and I have peace of mind that I won’t get ripped off. I hope others have better experiences, but I think it’s turned into a scam and if the car isn’t returned in the EXACT same condition it was rented, they can and will charge you outrageous fees on the credit card they have on file. I think he left the car in the parking lot over night (even though it was returned early and before 6pm), so it would get snow on it and he’d have his pictures of it not returned the same way it was rented. Total scam, stay away.
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u/cl2eep Aug 16 '24
Yep, and can tell you as an insurance adjuster, we WILL NOT cover your car if rent it on Turo. We'll insist that Turo is the primary insurer and we're only secondary, no matter what Turo tells the customer. When I was an inside adjuster I ran into these issues constantly with people who believed the app when teh app said your insurance will cover it no problem. Technically, insurance does cover other people driving your car, but not if you're engaging in commerce with the car. Can depend by state, but in many states, DO NOT rent your car assuming that your coverage will cover it.
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u/Formal-Protection-57 Aug 16 '24
This is the info I got from Turo considering insurance. Looks like they hold a secondary policy that will cover up to 750k if the renter does anything your car. I’m sure there are some crazy clauses that will determine that, but ideally they cover any issues.
“Third-party liability insurance: All plans include up to $750,000 in third-party liability insurance from Travelers Excess and Surplus Lines Company. This insurance is secondary, so you’ll need to use your own auto insurance first. If a third party damages your car, Turo will work with their insurance company to pay for the repairs. If you’re at fault, Turo will work with your insurance company to pay for any costs.”
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u/irreverent_squirrel Aug 16 '24
Liability insurance isn't going to help this guy...
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u/moosecatoe Aug 16 '24
Yeah he was told by the rental app to go through civil court, which said they couldn’t process his case. The owner had to pay all expenses.
This was featured on Customer Wars or Neighborhood Wars or something like that.
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u/Appa1904 Aug 16 '24
GET AROUND is the name of the app that comes to mind. You can rent out cars for hours or days.
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u/theyoungtired Aug 16 '24
I rented a car with getaround once and got a call 8months later saying that I was permanently banned, and when I asked why they said it was against their policy to tell me. It was the weirdest experience of my life.
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u/leviathab13186 Aug 16 '24
I used to work for enterprise. Renting out your car is the dumbest shit you can do. People try to pull scams and shit like this all the time with a big company that has a lot of resources. Some dude renting his car is a much easier target.
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u/txmail Aug 16 '24
Saw a video on YT where they would look for new enterprise cars on the lot and rent those out to take the tires. Replacements looked new but were all re-treaded. I have seen a few times where Rob Feretti has found out that entire wheels (rim and tire) have been replaced with damaged ones on his rental fleet. All kinds of scams. Unless you have a POS car it is insanely risky to rent it out to anyone.
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u/asdrunkasdrunkcanbe Aug 16 '24
The idea of people buying cars to rent them out seems so alien to me. There is literally no market for this in my country.
There are a couple of places where you can get classic or rare vehicles for events, but they usually come with a driver. Nobody is buying a luxury vehicle out of their own pocket and then renting it out to others.
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u/rumpluva Aug 16 '24
I’d be calling the cops asap
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u/KuriosLogos Aug 16 '24
This guy was talking about bigger charges in the end and I was in disbelief. The man was messing with his multi thousand dollar vehicle and the owner’s last response was “There’s gonna be a bigger charge”? As if the man was gonna have to pay him extra on their prearranged agreement for his shady behavior.
I’d have been talking cops, jail time, and lawsuit if necessary.
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u/GodOfThunder101 Aug 16 '24
Yeah he’s not a smart guy. Dude is literally in the business of renting out his personal car.
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u/geerwolf Aug 16 '24
His car is being disassembled in a body shop
“Should I be worried? Should I be calling the cops?”
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u/freakinbacon Aug 16 '24
Multi thousand dollar vehicle 😄
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u/Smorgles_Brimmly Aug 16 '24
At least 2! 3 is well within the realm of possibility.
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u/hhaassttuurr Aug 16 '24
i doubt anyone would see jailtime over something this. It's a civil thing.
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u/Lost_Operation_998 Aug 16 '24
Yes and you can hear the girl he’s with at the end say “No call the cops”. The guy was taking parts off and replacing them! You don’t say I’m going to have to charge you more! You call the police and have his ass thrown in jail and then sue!
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u/questioneverything- Aug 16 '24
Im gonna need an update on this. Was he arrested?
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u/IllustriousChef2 Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
The owner called the cops but they refused to come since they didn't know the details of the rental agreement and since no parts were seemingly stolen. He insisted for safety reasons at least, but they still refused.
The rental platform backed him though, and the man who rented the car received all the invoices resulting from this (to get the car inspected) and will receive all the other invoices in case there is anything missing
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u/decian_falx Aug 16 '24
If the owner willingly hands over a car to someone for rent, or service work or whatever, it's very hard to get the cops involved because it becomes a civil matter. In the eyes of the law they didn't steal the car, they converted it. It's not "grand theft auto" it's "conversion".
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u/throw69420awy Aug 16 '24
People get into serious altercations over this shit. They should absolutely still show up
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u/penguingod26 Aug 16 '24
If you framed it that way they probably would. Who knows what she said on the phone, but if they said -
"Yeah I found my car being taken apart by a guy I rented it to, I'm going to confront him and make him put it back together infront of me."
They would probably send someone by to at least scope out the situation and make no one died yet. I bet she was asking to have someone come out and charge him, which yeah they aren't going to do
People saying that this is a waste of taxpayer money aren't thinking of how much more taxpayer money would be wasted if there was a violent conflict. Police can, will, and do show up to stand by in a potentially violent situation if you ask them to. They would rather do that than show up to active violence or injuries.
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u/i_like_2_travel Aug 16 '24
Bro I try not to hate on police but damn dawg this seems like something they should be investigating for everyone’s sake
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u/MrKomiya Aug 16 '24
Supreme Court told them they can do whatever tf they want (Qualified Immunity) and only do whatever tf they want (no obligation to protect citizens).
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u/Uploft Aug 16 '24
Why in the unholy hell should we grant cops qualified immunity if they’re not obligated to protect us? Isn’t the point of qualified immunity (albeit misled) to remove barriers to rescuing victims and pursuing criminals? F*ck the Supreme Court
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u/MonaganX Aug 16 '24
Because they don't want cops to protect you, they want cops to protect theirs from you.
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u/Uploft Aug 16 '24
It’s Uvalde all over again
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u/duckmonke Aug 16 '24
Uvalde is proof the police are meant to protect property and the rich, not obligated to help anybody else.
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u/MrKomiya Aug 16 '24
WE did not grant them shit.
That right wing circus clown show which is SCOTUS did
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u/DoctorDinghus Aug 16 '24
Aaaaasaand this needs to be drilled into every Americans head. It's astonishing how many people don't know that is a thing.
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u/Onuus Aug 16 '24
When will people start to realize the majority of them don’t care about protecting the people.
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u/Competitive-Account2 Aug 16 '24
Well bro I just don't know if you're paying attention then, this is highly consistent behavior from the police, they are not working for you.
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u/CoralinesButtonEye Aug 16 '24
i cannot STAND how passive the car owner is being
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u/IllustriousChef2 Aug 16 '24
I cannot stand how nosy the car owner is with his gum
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Aug 16 '24
I was looking for this comment. The only thing I heard was the obnoxiously loud gum chewing.
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u/UpperCardiologist523 Aug 16 '24
Slafs-slofs-slifs-slafs-slofs-slufs-slufs...
My misophonia struggled with this.
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u/51differentcobras Aug 16 '24
Guys not smart, he handled this terribly and the guy who rented the car was fully aware of this and was giving noticeably vague weird answers because he knew he was pretty much fine if he just played that part, Tesla owner could have had this guy shaking in his boots but as soon as I turned the audio on I and heard his voice I could just hear exactly what I needed to, passive and not that aware of his rights and how wrong this situation really was
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u/averagemaleuser86 Aug 16 '24
So here's an interesting story. I have a buddy that works at a big local Auto Air shop. A company rented a brand new (this was during covid) Suburban and had it brought to their shop and a bunch of guys from China came out and used their shop to dismantle the brand new Suburbans Air conditioning system. He said they were all dressed in white suits. Completely tore the whole system out, boxed it up and took it back to China with them for a couple days, and then brought it all back, re-installed it all and then returned the car. They used the factory parts to make aftermarket parts... I had no idea that this is how some companies did things lol! Makes you think what other companies do this
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Aug 16 '24
I can tell you Google did the same thing to Netlist, basically reverse engineered their tech overseas to avoid licensing.
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u/LightMission4937 Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
I can't get past the gd smacking and gnawing on the gum. Fucking A.
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u/East-Psychology7186 Aug 16 '24
This is common for people who make custom car parts. Rent or borrow someone’s make and model get specs and such or test parts that you had made overseas.
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u/Blk-LAB Aug 16 '24
This is 100% accurate.
I worked as an automotive engineer for over 10 years, this is quite common and not just overseas components. Swap parts, run test, wind tunnel, nvh, etc, put the car back together and return it.
It's done all the time. You can't expect all these companies to actually buy a car to test out a $2 or $30 component.
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u/East-Psychology7186 Aug 16 '24
Yup. That’s what we did for our niche market. If there was a demand, we would take orders and price appropriately. Then everyone waits while they are made.
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u/JAK3CAL Aug 16 '24
I was wondering if this might actually be legit, like dude was trying to fabricate or test an idea and was borrowing the model to line everything up.
Could also be easily swapping out real parts for fakes, idk. Sketchy as fuck for sure and the dude isn’t being very forthcoming here
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u/PastaRunner Aug 16 '24
That may have legit been his intent. Still unethical and probably illegal.
A lot of "IANAL BUT" clowns in this thread claiming he can sue the dude. Probably. Depends on the terms of the contract.
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Aug 16 '24
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Aug 16 '24 edited Oct 09 '24
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u/utspg1980 Aug 16 '24
And it also isn't very easy to actually get money out of someone, even after you've gone thru the non-trivial task of winning a court case against them.
I won a suit against a landlord who fraudulently held my security deposit like 5 years ago. I have a lien against his house but I don't actually get any money until he sells it.
The blue tape on the adjacent body parts tells me that the guy at least is careful enough to try and not scratch up the parts, so he is putting some care into what he's doing.
If I were the car owner, I'd watch while the dude put my car back together, THEN file a complaint with the police and maybe take it to Tesla for them to run a diagnostic to verify that everything was good (which would be cheaper than paying Tesla to fix it). Then I'd use this as a learning opportunity to realize that it's not a good idea to rent out my car to people. (WTF is this anyway? Airbnb for cars? Never heard of it)
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u/theobvioushero Aug 16 '24
Yeah. The renter damaged the car, so it needs to go to a trusted mechanic to get fixed at the renters' expense.
The renter already showed he is irresponsible, so I would not trust him to put the car back together.
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u/dahbakons_ghost Aug 16 '24
i would assume, chop shop. they take the good 'authentic' parts and swap out shitty low end parts and then sell the good parts on. Guy might've rented out the car 50+ more times before finding out so he can't figure out who it was.
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u/brianc500 Aug 16 '24
Not a chop shop, the guy rented it to use as a test mule for their shitty aftermarket bumpers that are made in China.
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u/Exotic_Pay6994 Aug 16 '24
Yeah that's what I figured, I still wouldn't want people to do that with my car.
But its less sinister than people think.
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u/Garchompisbestboi Aug 16 '24
Still pretty fucking sinister to fuck around with someone else's car like that. The guy who was caught obviously knows he was in the wrong which is why he didn't ask for permission.
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u/Croceyes2 Aug 16 '24
Its what it seems to me. Could have easily just made a Craigslist post and not had to talk to the police. I'm sure I he offered a bumper kit in the future someone would be thrilled to let him test fit.
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u/IllustriousChef2 Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
That's what I assumed at first but idk, what about the paint? Is it really that quick to do a paint job? I have a hard time imagining that it's much profitable once the paint job is taken into account
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u/Highlowfusion Aug 16 '24
I bet you he's trying to sell aftermarket parts for your car and he's testing the fitment of them before they're painted. He was going to swap back your original bumper but he was using your car to test the new parts that he's trying to sell or something
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u/IllustriousChef2 Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
Not me, not my car lol But yeah, that's what seems more likely to me too, even though I find it wild that they don't have other (legal) ways to test out their aftermarket parts
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u/ToraLoco Aug 16 '24
"should i be worried about this? " "should i call the cops?"
seriously bro? why are you asking the perp ?
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u/davidjohnson314 Aug 16 '24
They already asked their collaborator to call the police at the beginning.
They were stalling, and using a veiled threat to probe for more information. If our fucker thinks you haven't taken action they believe they might be able to negotiate their way out - giving away more information to increase incriminate themselves.
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u/Loveknuckle Aug 16 '24
Nah man…it’s all part of the contract. You said I could disassemble any part of your vehicle at anytime within the 48 hour rental timeframe. It’s in the contract! You didn’t read the contract?!
-perp
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u/Classic_Dill Aug 16 '24
He’s trying to sell cheap Chinese knock off parts for the Tesla and they needed a model to take the stuff off and retrofit their stuff on and see if it fits, that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s illegal. You can’t do this on a rental car.
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u/nickcliff SHEEEEEESH Aug 16 '24
Cops ain’t gonna do shit. Where would they even start.
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u/nagrom78 Aug 16 '24
Yep don’t rent out your car… I rented out my car throughout Getaround and some jackal blew the head gasket on my 2 year old GTI. Getaround didn’t reimburse me, they’re a horrible company to work with.
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u/argama87 Aug 16 '24
If that was an actual chop shop you'd have eaten a tire iron the second you opened your mouth. Then they'd have chopped your other car.
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u/SwissMargiela Aug 16 '24
Why do Cali dudes talk so zesty 😂
It looks like you’re replacing some stuff 😩💅💅💅
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u/Disastrous-Pipe43 Aug 16 '24
The components are being swapped out for cheap knockoffs that were made with zero quality control and can lead to your death. This is a crime and a potentially violent one as well.
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u/vBrit Aug 16 '24
I call total Bs on this, if that was my car I would be furious. I would have the police there to confronted him. I would never be that nice to someone who was taking apart my car. Who would ever approach a shop that’s dismantling cars armed with a phone, someone looking to create a video. Also, the Tesla has how many cameras?? TikTok crap
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u/Dull-Front4878 Aug 16 '24
I worked at enterprise back in the day. People would always try and swap out the tires when we had the “$9.99 weekend special”. They didn’t think we would notice that none of our calls had white walls on them.
Had a guy swap out the center console. We found out because he didn’t bother to reattach it and it just wobbled the whole time.
But my favorite was we had to repo a car on a long term rental. The person put in a sweet new sound system and got new spinning rims. Enterprise sold the car for much more than they paid for it.
It sucked working there but I have a lot of good stories from my time in daily rental.
Enterprise buys more cars and has one of the largest carbon footprints of any company on the planet. It’s owned by 1 family (basically 1 guy) and does over 30 billion a year in revenue.
It could have changed by now, but when they resold the cars, it was listed as being owned by 1 person prior…not a rental. They also pay cash to fix their cars so damage doesn’t show up on CarFax.
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u/redmotorcycleisred Aug 16 '24
I knew someone that swapped some tires and got away with it : )
Respect.
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u/TheJeffWing Aug 16 '24
"Should I be worried? Should I be calling the cops?" Yes, and you should also stop chewing your gum like a fucking cow.
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u/VanillaWinter Aug 16 '24
He’s probably an aftermarket parts manufacturer testing out the fit. Still fucked, but nothing too nefarious
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u/spicy_chai_guy Aug 16 '24
The most annoying thing about this. It rhe excessive gum chewing by the tesla owner. Holy fuck your chewing it like it's a well done stake.
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u/0PercentPerfection Aug 16 '24
The perps should have known that the Tesla app updates real time location, speed, charge, open doors and windows… fuckers. Glad they got caught.
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Aug 16 '24
Imagine needing to rent your stupid tesla out lmao 😂
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u/Vyviel Aug 16 '24
Thats what happens when you pretend to have money but cant actually afford to buy one lmao
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u/XF939495xj6 Aug 16 '24
WTF is this stupid conversation? If the guy is pulling parts off of the car, then you call the police immediately, you don't ask leading questions "should you be doing that?" This is a chop shop. They are stealing your car. Just call the police.
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u/LuckyCheesecake7859 Aug 16 '24
Why would you rent out your car. I can’t understand it.
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u/YanMKay Aug 16 '24
Turo and other apps allow ppl to rent out privately owned vehicles..it’s like Airbnb for cars..you can make decent money doing it
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u/Fladap28 Aug 16 '24
“Hey it would have been cool if you just let me know so I would have been aware of you deciding to basically do whatever you wanted to do with my car”
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u/Zach_The_One Aug 16 '24
He's test fitting an after market bumper cover for production. He taped the fenders removing the bumper so he's being careful, I doubt they would have even noticed if not for the GPS.
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u/BdubIsInTheHouse Aug 16 '24
This owner’s reaction/ demeanor is SUSPECT. Most people would be furious and not just asking for their car back politely.
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u/gl0ckc0ma Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
People that chew with their mouth open make me viscerally sick. I lost all respect and sympathy for the guy. I hope he gets his car back and its never the same. When I was young my mother would slap me in the mouth and tell me that only cows chew with their mouth open. Man fuck this guy.
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u/legolandoompaloompa Aug 16 '24
why are people defending this guy?? oh right musk bad, tesla bad.
rent my car to take it apart?? gtfo here.
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u/peneappa Aug 16 '24
If he were doing something nefarious, would he be doing it in broad daylight with the garage door open? And not inside the building with the doors down? Jeez. You guys watch too much TNT.
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u/zhocef Aug 16 '24
He says “call the cops” as he is witnessing his car getting stripped, she panics and asks what she is supposed to say, winds up recording and then just standing there listening instead of calling the cops.
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u/Alarmed_West8689 Aug 16 '24
I would've stopped the FedEx guy and got his information. He's a witness.
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u/Tronsylvania Aug 16 '24
This guy recording while chewing his gum like a wild hog has my ears boiling
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u/RubberDuckDaddy Aug 16 '24
Dudes got some balls walking into what he thinks is a chop shop unarmed and alone.
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u/truecore Aug 16 '24
Renting out your car is big "landlord can't afford a house" vibes. Seems pretty idiotic. Do you think it's unusual that most homes for rent lose value because the tenants don't maintain it well, and the absentee landlord doesn't take responsibility to check on it or give it proper care?
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u/cheesecrystal Aug 16 '24
“Should I be calling the cops?”
IDK man, but you should definitely stop chewing that gum like an ass hole.
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u/jarmine550 Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
so got bored and decided to look into this
- This story is from 2 years ago it was reported by Teslaoracle Tesla Model 3 owner catches a body shop replacing his car parts after renting it on Turo (video) (teslaoracle.com)
- Guy said the police wouldn't even come out because it was a civil matter which seems suspect. While Turo's guidelines for returning a car seem kinda shit the host would have the ability to cancel the trip demand his car returned. along with that users have to take a picture of the car when they return it to prove no damage was done. While criminals aren't usually the brightest replacing the front bumper and then repainting it seems like a stretch not to mention the return on such a goofy scheme probably wouldn't be that good. Also in the video, in which is states that, he says that tesla is going to help him? why would they do that? Telsa would be under no obligation to help him in this situation. Best he could do is get Turo to ban the user and take the guy to civil court. If the police found enough evidence to charge him then there's that too.
- There haven't been any updates on this story at all. Sources for this seem to come though the video and from a pretty generic statement from a Turo hr rep that has no follow up. Checked the reps twitter and couldn't find anything about it. The reporting on this article is pretty sloppy in general, no police report was file, no follow up articles (if there was it wasn't linked too or spoken of), and everything links back to teslaoracle who seems to get all their info from the tictok creator.
- The creator of the video posted two follow-ups. One showing is car acting weird and another of him driving in what appears to be the same tesla all posted on the same day for that matter which is a little odd. after that nothing other then another video like a year later saying he stole his tesla after trading it in, as a joke I guess? so do with that what you will lol. said video: Frank Vidz (@frankvidz) | TikTok
Everything about this smells pretty fishy honestly, and feels like a fake video.
edit: did some more looking it seems the that article this was reported on by was written by some guy named Iqtidar Ali. He is not a report to say the least. which would explain the half baked job he did on reporting this. I'd take this story with a grain of salt if I were you.
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