'Did What a Man Would:' Woman Drops Car at Dealership 1-Hour Away. They Refuse to Give a Loaner. So She Takes Drastic Measures

A woman feels stuck after her car dealership refuses to give her a loaner while her vehicle is being serviced. Then she decides to take matters into her own hands.

TikTok user Zoya (@thezoyaroya) explained what happened in a video posted last week. “Women were taught to be submissive so they could take advantage of us,” she says to start the video. “Case in point.”

Why Wouldn’t the Dealership Give Her a Loaner?

Zoya explains that she drove an hour from home to drop her car off at a dealership to be repaired. When she arrived, the technician told her the car would have to stay at the shop for anywhere between two and five days.

Of course, Zoya asked for a loaner car to drive home. “He said, ‘I’m so sorry. We don’t have any to give you right now,’” she reports.

Zoya reiterated that she lives an hour from the dealership and couldn’t be without a car for up to five days. She rejected the technician’s offer of an Uber and couldn’t figure out why a dealership with hundreds of cars couldn’t provide her a loaner.

Dealership Customer Changes Tactics

“I thought to myself, ‘This seems kind of crazy,’ but I felt so stuck,” Zoya says. “So I thought to myself, ‘What would a man do?’ So I threw a tantrum.”

The tactic paid off quickly. “And then guess what? He came back and out of nowhere—out of the sky—a loaner car had appeared, which I’m sitting in right now,” Zoya says. “So, moral of the story: Be kind whenever possible, but when in doubt, just act like a man.”

Viewers React to the Dealership Loaner Story

The caption of the video reads: “Just act like a man, I guess.” In the comments section, viewers weighed in to support Zoya in her quest for equal treatment and a loaner vehicle.

“I did what a man would do, threw a tantrum,” repeated one viewer. “Words of a wise woman.”

A second viewer wrote, “I loathe the way anytime a woman has to resort to being assertive, she gets called a Karen. They literally vilified our only avenue of standing up for ourselves.”

“It’s when they triple check and magically it can be done,” wrote a third woman.

Another said, “I’m so proud of you. I am taking notes!”

Does the Dealership Have to Give You a Loaner?

Loaner car rules vary by individual car brand and dealership. Toyota, for instance, will provide loaner vehicles in the case that your vehicle has to be kept in the shop overnight for warranty-covered repairs that will take longer than a day to complete, require extensive diagnosis, and/or need parts that aren’t readily available. 

Other dealerships may be more liberal with their loaner car policies—giving them out to customers whose repairs aren’t under warranty—but it’s at the discretion of the dealership. It’s important to check your car insurance policy to ensure that it includes coverage for a loaner car so that you aren’t liable for any damage that occurs while you’re driving it.

It’s clear that women do face sexist treatment at car dealerships, and that could easily explain what happened in Zoya’s situation. However, as pointed out by a dealership employee on this Reddit thread posted to r/askcarsales, it’s also true that dealerships only keep a certain percentage of their fleet as loaners. “And if they are all out, we can’t give you one until we get one back,” wrote one dealership employee.

Motor1 contacted Zoya via TikTok comment and email for comment. This story will be updated should she respond