Car Saleswoman Reveals 'You're Not Safe' If You Bring Car In For Service: 'The Dealership WILL Use Your Car For Parts'

A car saleswoman says that a Louisiana dealership caught on camera pulling parts off a customer's KIA was not an outlier, just the first one to be filmed doing it. 

Her account of how the practice works has drawn more than 238,300 views, and it ends with her saying she will not let a dealership service her own car.

Anya Abreianna (@anyaabreianna)—an Atlanta creator who says she’s worked at BMW, KIA, Hyundai, and Acura and been in the service department—posted the video.

"As a car salesperson, I'm here to tell you that the dealership will use your car for parts if necessary," she says at the top. "I know that we all saw the video of the lady whose KIA engine was being used for parts, and I'm here to tell you that that is not anything out of the ordinary as far as working at a car dealership. I think this is just the first time that a dealership got caught."

Dealerships Using Customers’ Cars For Parts: Two Ways It Happens

Her first example involves cars nobody has bought yet. A customer asks to see a specific vehicle, she says, and the key has gone to the service department. 

"They tell me that the car has the entire back off because they are using it for parts for a customer's car, and I can't sell the new one until its parts come in," she says.

The second is the one that would alarm most owners. She describes a customer whose car has been stuck in service for months awaiting a part, who has escalated to the general manager and to KIA corporate. Then, someone arrives with a near-identical vehicle for routine work. 

"They just might, to get you out they hair, take a part off of somebody else's car, put it on your car," she says. "Get you out of their hair, and then order the part for the other person's car. You know, they're very calculated."

She lists her background at several brands plus a stint in service. 

"I've seen a lot of things," she says. Her conclusion is personal. "As a car salesperson, I don't care what the discount is: I personally don't even take my vehicle to get serviced at the dealership."

The Dealership Stripping A KIA For Parts Case She Is Talking About

The incident behind the video is documented. As Motor1 previously reported, Shirley Poullard's KIA Telluride sat at KIA of Lake Charles for more than a month, and a video she recorded captured a service manager admitting that fuel injectors from her SUV had been "borrowed" to fix another customer's car.

The dealership later said the service manager is no longer employed there.

Local station KPLC reported that Poullard had brought the SUV in on June 17 after a tire blowout on the interstate and that it sat "for more than a month with little communication from the service department" before she turned up in person and found the hood open.

Gallery: 2027 Kia Telluride Hybrid

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Source: Kia

'Definitely Not The Norm'

The claim that this is routine drew a firm rebuttal from someone claiming two decades in the business. 

"20 plus years at multiple dealerships, never once have I seen taken a part off a customer's car," wrote a commenter posting as D. "It's illegal and unethical and definitely not the norm. If her dealership is doing it, they are shady as hell."

Another commenter questioned the arithmetic of it. "I don't understand the logic in them stealing parts from car B to fix car A," wrote Mr__Throwback. "Now they have a new problem on their hands that never existed."

The two scenarios in the video are also not equivalent, something the clip moves past quickly. Stripping a new car sitting in dealership inventory means a business taking parts off its own property. Taking a component off a car a customer has left for an oil change is a different proposition entirely, and it is the one the Lake Charles video captured.

What Owners Can Actually Do To Protect Their Cars

The most useful advice in the thread came from viewers describing habits rather than outrage. 

"My dad asks for his parts back when they get replaced, and he asks to see the original packaging for the new parts," wrote the top commenter. "I thought he was being extra, but I guess he wasn't." 

Another noted that "some states require the old parts be given back to the customer."

That is right, with a catch worth knowing. California's rules for repair shops, at Title 16, section 3355 of the state code, say that "if requested by the customer at the time of authorization of the estimate, the automotive repair dealer shall return all replaced parts to the customer upon completion of the repair." 

The request has to be made when the work is authorized rather than when the car is collected, and the rule exempts parts sold on an exchange basis and those a shop must send back to the manufacturer under warranty.

Several commenters described their own suspicions being confirmed. One said a dealership swapped tires that were two days old during an oil change, and that she was reimbursed after calling them out. Others said they now photograph their vehicles before handing over the keys.

Motor1 reached out to Anya Abreianna by direct message. We'll be sure to update this if she responds.