TikToker goes viral with dashcam footage of Toyota mechanics “frying” their car

Dave Deiley

TikTok footage uploaded by ’86moe’ has taken off, with dashcam footage showing Toyota mechanics abusing their car when taken in for a standard service.

Dodgy mechanics are a concern for everyone, from complete motorheads to inexperienced vehicle owner.s What happens to your precious car when it’s out of sight is a mystery to most.

Shining light on the poor workmanship of an Autonation Toyota in Leesburg Virgina, a newly viral TikTok video exposes a series of issues recorded on a dashcam when mechanics thought no one was watching.

The TikTok shows the Autonation workers speeding the car around an empty lot, damaging the clutch of the manual vehicle, and even openly admitting “I feel so bad for this car right now.”

Mechanic scams and issues were estimated to have impacted 2,670,873 users in 2020, according to a Clearsurance study. Virginia had the fourth-highest number of Auto-related fraud cases for that year.

In the video, you repeatedly hear the unseen mechanic driving 86moe’s car bemoaning driving a manual. “It’s a manual. I got good enough at the manual…” the technician says before unconfidently petering out of speech.

Captions explain that the mechanic is ‘frying the clutch’ when reversing it. A term that refers to keeping the clutch half-engaged while driving. Literally grinding the gears of the car and causing damage to the inner workings of the manual mechanism.

Further text commentary from 86moe accuses the Autonation worker of ‘dumping the clutch’ and stalling the vehicle. As this occurs you hear the driver say “oh that hurt. oh my god, that did not feel good at all.”

In the comments section of the TikTok, 86moe lets loose that since posting the allegedly shoddy dealerships’ work that “Toyota called begging me to take the video down.”  A request that 86moe has clearly denied.

https://www.tiktok.com/@86moe/video/7092099863327886634?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&refer=embed&referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailydot.com%2F&referer_video_id=7092099863327886634

Viewers agreed with 86moe that the car was not being treated with the professional care you’d expect from experienced car handlers One user even recommended taking the video “to the highest person at Toyota. That’s not okay at all.”

It wasn’t all accusations against the Autonation however, with the argument being put forth that clutches are hardworking pieces of machinery “made to be used and abused for 150,000 miles.”