The 2nd Annual UNREAL Awards did not disappoint. You can view the virtual awards ceremony here, with the winners and the backstory below.
Where did the UNREAL Awards Come From?
We make software for car dealerships, and speak with dealership staff every day. The stories they tell about working in automotive can be rewarding, emotional, uplifting, challenging and difficult. They can also be absolutely insane with stories so crazy they must not be real, thus The UNREAL Awards.
It’s our way to pay respect to the hard working men and women that work in automotive, and to share their absolutely ridiculous stories.
The winners receive a giant silver trophy (not real silver!), a $250 Amazon gift card, and bragging rights for the year, across one of these four categories
- Craziest Trade-In
- Craziest Test Drive
- Things I Said to Customer That I Shouldn’t Have
- Most Creative Video
We’ve posted the winning stories below, adapting and editing them from the author’s original submission, as well as listing out the Honorable Mentions.
The Craziest Trade-In Story
Winner! Travis Hall at Varney Ford
“A local business owner bought a new Explorer for his daughter who ran the restaurant for him. She came in and signed paperwork on the Saturday of a holiday weekend but had to get a ride back to pick up her new vehicle for some reason.
She picked up her new Explorer after we had closed and left her Jeep Cherokee trade. Unfortunately she forgot she had a case of scallops in the back seat and for some reason 5 bags of trash in the rear hatch. Summer time at 90+ degrees for the next couple weeks.
It was an auction vehicle with a payoff so fast forward 3+ weeks when the title came in, our recon guy went out to clean it up for the auction and you literally couldn’t even get within 10 ft once the door was open.
Even after repeated cleaning and replacing the carpet the smell of rotten seafood never came out of the vehicle.”
Honorable Mentions
- Rob Steiman at Volvo Princeton – traded in and sold a car to actor Anthony Edwards, aka Goose from Top Gun!
- Thomas Pacer at Freedom Motors – got a trade in with live fish floating around the spare tire compartment
- Jayson Launer at Big Sky Harley Davidson – delivered a new bike, only to have to ride the trade-in back to the dealership, a tiny baby blue scooter.
- Ryan Tanimoto at Big Island Motores – helped a couple trade-in two cars and sell them a new one, only to have the FBI arrest the couple as soon as they left the dealership.
- Emily Snodgrass at Downtown Ford – A customer impersonating a US Marshall had been stealing test drives from multiple dealerships attempting to trade them in, leaving a stinky present in the front seat. Also now known as “The Poop Bandit”.
The Craziest Test Drive Story
Winner! John Stevens at Gator Ford
“We had a beautiful iridescent Mustang GT convertible that an attractive and professionally dressed women wanted to test drive, wearing suit with skirt.
My test drive route takes about 15 minutes, dring in traffic as we leave the dealership, turn right about 1 mile up the road and take a 3 mile ride through a nice country setting. Even some s-curves on the road with nice over hanging trees and very picturesque.
While on the country road s-curve a big yellow corn snake dropped from the tree into her lap. She screamed, let go of the wheel and trying to get away and repeatedly stomping on the accelerator.
I grab the snake with one hand and the wheel with the other. Tossed the snake and then steered from my side at ever increasing speed while begging her to calm down. We get back to the dealership and she turns off the car, hands me the keys, gets out and walks off without have said a word since the snake fell.
My boss is standing there in the lot and says I didn’t do a proper Turn Over. I told him what happened and we laughed about this one for years. And I never went on another test drive with a top down or moonroof open.”
Honorable Mentions
- Brittany Vinson at Walker Automotive – the frankensteined vehicle composed of three separate cars for trade-in that turned into a near-death test drive as the customer went full NASCAR in a Mustang GT
- Jonathan Maas at Fred Martin Motor Co – an elderly woman swerving off the road because the Honda Accord didn’t have a hood ornament like her old car to serve as her point of reference!
- Felicia Nealy at Acura Baton Rouge – Doing 80mph in an Acura ZDX on curvy roads and through stop signs, and then selling the car.
Things I Shouldn’t Have Said to a Customer
Winner! Morgan Taggart at Hall’s Motorsports
“A guy walked in one day and started describing the exact vehicle he wanted down to the last bolt, and I’m listening to him, totally serious.
But then he says, ‘It also needs to come with a backup horn in case the first one sounds too aggressive.’ Without missing a beat, I said, ‘Sure, we’ve got those in stock, right next to the unicorn fuel injectors.’
He stared at me for a good ten seconds before bursting into laughter. Turns out, he had a sense of humor—thankfully! We ended up becoming good friends, but man, that could have gone a whole different way.”
Honorable Mentions
- Jayson Launer at Big Sky Harley Davidson – telling a customer the automatic (vs. manual) Roxor SXS makes it easier to shoot gophers and drink beer, but the customer was a game warden
- Steve at Naples CDJR – “Don’t forget, I’m Italian and I know where you live”
- Mike at Griffin CDJR Jefferson – “Hello, sir!” It was a she…
- Charles at Bill Ray Nissan – “WOW, the car smells really bad”
- Todd at Bill Ray Nissan – “There is plenty of room in the trunk, get in and see all of the space.”
Most Creative Video
Winner! Quincy Foster at Clay Cooley Rockwell Hyundai
Honorable Mentions
Ryan Hall at Fort Collins Kia
Sterling Leach at Bud’s Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram
Lou Djokic at Tony Serra Highland Nissan
Congrats again to our 2024 winners, and let’s find a way to do this in person next year.