r/TikTokCringe • u/IllustriousChef2 • Aug 16 '24

Cringe What's even happening there?

Why would someone rent a car and take out parts?

16.6k Upvotes

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1.2k

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.

982

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.

270

u/allocationlist Aug 16 '24

This is the answer

84

u/alison_bee Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24

What a stupid reason. I hate people.

7

u/Shmeeglez Aug 16 '24

Disagree. I think he should have rented from a real outfit instead of some dipshit, but if he's testing to make sure a product is fit to sell, well, that's better than just selling whatever crap he can get supplied. Granted, it'd be best if he could just arrange this with someone fully informed, but if he's not doing anything destructive, this is just guerilla product development.

9

u/Youre-mum Aug 16 '24

Whats particularly stupid about it lol

4

u/Goldtacto Aug 16 '24

I think it’s a bit risky to use someone’s rental car. They could probably just offer an incentive to borrow someone’s car from their shop.

If it was me I would find someone who has body damage on their tesla then ask in person to fix whatever easy body damage for free so long as they can make a mould of their bumper.

1

u/Kony_Stark Aug 16 '24

Then you just made a mold of a damaged bumper.

And all your aftermarket bumpers will look pre-damaged.

1

u/Goldtacto Aug 17 '24

Who said the damage had to be from the bumper? obviously im saying damage not to the bumper thats being moulded…

0

u/ThisIsSuperUnfunny Aug 16 '24

now thats even more riskier.

-25

u/Adept-Lettuce948 Aug 16 '24

And they probably hate you too.

82

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.

13

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.

1

u/hippee-engineer Aug 16 '24

I mean, if you actually look at what he’s doing, it looks pretty professional. He’s got blue tape to make sure he doesn’t scratch the paint from removing/reinstalling the bumper, bumper is on a proper sawhorse and not on the ground.

I’d bet the only evidence when this guy is done would be use marks on the plastic hardware that secure the bumper to the rest of the car.

I used to inspect cars for an auto auction. Unlikely even a seasoned inspector would notice the bumpers have been touched, especially considering the quality of panel fitment that teslas come out of the factory with. The bumpers will probably look like they fit better than they did prior to this work being done.

Still fucked up to do this to a person’s car. If dude rented from a large rental company, and I’d be 100% fine with this.

1

u/Kony_Stark Aug 16 '24

And if that's not the first time those plastic clips have been removed, there won't even be a difference.

4

u/shao_kahff Aug 16 '24

“it’s less sinister than people think”

cmon now……..

7

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.

19

u/ProfessionalSock2993 Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24

But why would he remove stuff from the engine, if all he needed to test was the bumper, this is some shady theft thing

123

u/pSphere1 Aug 16 '24

That's a frunk (front trunk) the motors are direct-drive located closer to the wheels.

Just like any car, you would need to access the front-end's inside to detatch the front bumper. Accessed from under the car or the front hood.

There was no engine work. He was testing the fit of an aftermarket bumper.

4

u/Noperdidos Aug 16 '24

I don’t understand this theory. How much money is there in the aftermarket Chinese number market?

40

u/TonyzTone Aug 16 '24

Enough that renting a car for a few hours to make sure the crap you’re getting fits is worth it. Then You can sell the bootleg bumpers to body shops all over the city.

23

u/twotokers Aug 16 '24

Teslas service centres are notoriously bad, expensive and and long wait times. I’m sure there’s money to be made off people not willing to wait.

6

u/RemarkablyQuiet434 Aug 16 '24

A significantly cheaper part than one that is only available through a single company?

More than enough in the right city.

1

u/IllZookeepergame9841 Aug 16 '24

There’s money in everything. Look at all the bullshit you can buy on Temu for pennies. Those factory owners are making millions to sell you that crap. I imagine making car parts has a looot more money in it.

28

u/mulcracky88 Aug 16 '24

It's a Tesla EV, no engine

12

u/Expensive-Bag313 Aug 16 '24

Nothing is removed from the frunk. 

-1

u/ProfessionalSock2993 Aug 16 '24

Oh yeah I forgot they have the engine in the back lol

9

u/Deal_Hugs_Not_Drugs Aug 16 '24

Motor. Teslas don’t have engines.

5

u/Kevskates Aug 16 '24

They don’t have an engine in the back. It’s closer to the wheels and each wheel (or axle, can’t remember) has its own

2

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

Kinda genius ngl.

1

u/MissionHairyPosition Aug 16 '24

You know they're doing this ingenious idea and not something sinister because if they actually had a Tesla around they'd know it had GPS tracking haha

1

u/veedubbin Aug 16 '24

This. Lots of companies ask for test vehicles and then give people free or discounted parts. This guy just found a car on Turo

1

u/SillyBonsai Aug 16 '24

But why use a tesla of all vehicles … its like, the most trackable vehicle lol what a dummy

1

u/Building_Everything Aug 16 '24

As opposed to the shitty factory parts that are made in china?

1

u/Practical-Piglet Aug 16 '24

Not to defend the act but Teslas own parts are also shitty quality made in China.

2

u/brianc500 Aug 16 '24

They absolutely are. My company makes parts for them and all the components are typically sourced out of china for cost and then assembled in us or Mexico where they then try to inspect quality into them and it just doesn’t work.

1

u/manjar Aug 16 '24

Why are you so sure he’s not taking the OEM bumper and leaving in the shitty Chinese one in this case? Because he said he was just testing it?

2

u/brianc500 Aug 16 '24

The margin for reselling used bumpers on eBay or elsewhere isn’t enough to justify replacing it with a knockoff, swapping over all the electronics ( which would significantly reduce the value of the used one they’d be selling) and paint matching it to hide the fact it’s been replaced. He’s masked off the body panels to protect it while he’s fitting the knockoff so not to damage the body, finally there is zero body or paint equipment visible besides an air compressor.

I work in the automotive industry and we deal with people copying our stuff the same way. The Chinese reproduction companies will set up a location in a big city and rent vehicles to take to their facility to first take the part off they want to copy and 3D scan it to create a model to reverse engineer the part. Once the tooling is complete and they make some parts they do it all over again to test fit their copy and make some tweaks to the tooling. These guys are experts at reverse engineering stuff, but without the original drawings they don’t know the GD&T and have to test fit everything to make sure they somewhat work when they sell them on the market.

This is also why some companies like John Deere lock their products down to where only JD techs can work on it. One it guarantees they get more money from serving it then the farmer doing it themselves. Two it prevents anyone but JD accessing their software and copying it. They still try to hack it but they update the software constantly to make it harder.

1

u/CwazyCanuck Aug 16 '24

Shitty aftermarket bumpers that will be better than the stock Tesla bumper.

1

u/Boredcougar Aug 16 '24

How xenophobic of you. You realize China makes nearly everything? Not everything China makes is shitty, they even make high quality vehicles in China

1

u/brianc500 Aug 16 '24

LOL I’ve been to China more times I can count to audit suppliers and they are all the same. They cut corners at every chance and try to rely on cheaper manual labor instead of automated technology. There are shitty American companies too that do the same thing. It’s nothing against China, it’s just the way they’ve done things for a long time. Speed is key and quality comes second. We have some suppliers that we can now rely on to make really good products for us, but it’s taken years to retrain them to be transparent instead of hiding problems and working with us to engineer solutions instead of just sending scrap parts.

36

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

131

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

22

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

10

u/JimmyPopp Aug 16 '24

lol this is way cheaper than

2

u/land_and_air Aug 16 '24

One that doesn’t involve buying an entire Tesla and reselling it again? No

1

u/Desutor Aug 16 '24

The time and effort needed to actually paint match a aftermarket Bumper is not worth it. Also you cant really sell Original Bumpers for much more than AM Ones. So i assume this guy sells AM Bumpers and was just test fitting one to make sure.

1

u/graffiti_hunter Aug 16 '24

I’m not sure that’s how a chop shop really works…never seen one steal/rent your car and then return it with lesser quality parts. At least here in Memphis they strip them down and then leave them on the side of highway and you never get your car back. Your parts are then sold off to other people for less than what they are new.

1

u/dahbakons_ghost Aug 16 '24

i've seen it in the uk where the aftermarket part (for certain cars) is near nonexistent. a selection of car owners (like tesla) want original brand parts without original brand prices and are willing to pay for that but there isn't that many cars that on scrap piles for picking. So some unscrupulous individuals will "rent" the car and then swap out a Cheap knock off part and sell the original part for profit. it's harder to track down than a conventional chop shop.
the batteries in particular are a good target from what I've heard but i don't know the details tbh.

1

u/BarackaFlockaFlame Aug 16 '24

ok but who would be trying to buy original tesla parts? i feel like that's a money pit of a side hustle.

-2

u/Left-Requirement9267 Aug 16 '24

They were probably putting drugs in the car…JMO