Nissan Saleswoman Says She ‘Doesn’t Have Time’ To Show Car. Then She Learns Who She's Talking To

A woman says a trip to buy a car took an ugly turn after a dealership employee appeared to judge whether she could afford it based on how she looked.

Lala (@ohh___lala) says she visited Crest Nissan in Frisco, Texas, and left without buying the Jeep Grand Cherokee she came to see.

“The young lady said she ‘doesn’t have time’ to show me the car,” Lala says.

According to Lala, the employee said she already had too many customers and suggested Lala would have little chance of buying the vehicle without putting at least $1,500 down.

Lala says she had $7,000 available for a down payment.

She says she later complained to a manager, accusing the employee of stereotyping customers.

“I guess I didn’t look like I had money,” Lala says. “You cannot judge a book by its cover.”

Lala then showed viewers a video she recorded of the interaction. In the clip, the dealership employee suggested it could be a “waste of time” to show a vehicle to someone she did not believe was serious about buying.

“How is it a waste of time if we’re trying to buy a car?” Lala asks.

The employee explained that some shoppers spend hours looking at vehicles only to leave without buying anything. She referred to those customers as “tire-kickers.”

Lala eventually recorded the inside of the Jeep Grand Cherokee. She told the employee—who it’s suggested did not know she was being recorded—that she had good credit and was confident she qualified for the vehicle.

But by then, Lala appeared ready to take her business elsewhere.

She told the employee the “tire-kickers” comment had rubbed her “the wrong way.”

“We’ll find it somewhere else,” Lala says before walking away.

As of this writing, the video has 1.7 million views.

Gallery: 2027 Jeep Grand Cherokee

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Source: Jeep

Can A Dealership Judge You Before You Buy? 

A salesperson deciding that a shopper probably cannot afford a car is certainly rude, but whether it crosses a legal line depends on what happens next.

Car dealerships are allowed to ask buyers about financing, credit, and down payments. But once a dealership is involved in arranging or extending credit, federal law limits what can factor into that decision.

Federal law also bars lenders from treating borrowers differently because of factors like race, religion, national origin, or age. That includes dealerships when they help arrange financing, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

That does not mean every dismissive interaction is automatically illegal. Lala’s video does not establish why the employee apparently thought she was unlikely to buy the Jeep, and Lala admits, too, that the worker did not know her credit or how much money she planned to put down.

Still, regulators have taken discrimination at dealerships seriously.

In 2024, the FTC accused three Texas dealerships of charging Black and Latino customers more for certain add-ons than similarly situated white customers. The agency alleged there was no legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the differences.

A 2020 settlement with Bronx Honda, meanwhile, followed allegations that Black and Hispanic customers paid higher financing markups than comparable white buyers.

Again, there is no evidence in Lala’s video that Crest Nissan engaged in that kind of conduct. The clip shows a dispute over whether she was being taken seriously as a customer, not the terms of an actual financing agreement.

‘Don’t Ever Beg Anyone To Take Your Money’

Many viewers focused less on whether the employee was technically allowed to screen customers and more on how Lala says she was treated.

“Um, doesn’t have time to make a sale??” one person wrote.

“Nope she didn’t at all,” Lala replied.

Another viewer argued that the simplest response was to take her money elsewhere.

“Let’s normalize when people treat you like [expletive] not to give them your money,” they wrote.

Others thought the employee may have had a point, but handled it badly.

“Her reasoning was valid but the delivery was terrible,” one commenter wrote.

Another viewer shared a similar experience at a different luxury dealership.

“Rolls-Royce did the same thing to me so I went straight to BMW. I don’t have time for that. Nine times out of 10 I do dress like a homeless bum, but I’m spending a bag everywhere I go,” they wrote.

Lala agreed that appearance should not determine how someone is treated.

“They lost, gotta treat everybody the same no matter what they have on or how busy your day is she need to learn how to schedule her appointments and learn how to treat people and learn her job,” she replied.

Other commenters simply criticized the idea that Lala had been wasting the employee’s time.

“[Oh,] so you wasting her time at a job she woke up to go [to?] My goodness,” one person wrote sarcastically.

Another viewer told Lala, “I think you look cute and well put together.”

“Thanks, hun,” Lala responded.

The comments mostly came back to the same point: whatever the employee thought about Lala’s chances of buying the Jeep, the interaction could have been handled differently.

Motor1 contacted Lala via TikTok direct message and Crest Nissan and Nissan corporate through email. We’ll be sure to update this if they respond.