“That’s how we were in the 70s and 80s.’
A Knoxville, Tennessee, car sales representative called the industry she works in “unhinged” and detailed an anecdote straight out of “The Wolf of Wall Street” to make her point.
Savannah Skyes (@vannahskyes) uploaded a TikTok where she shared some of the more volatile behaviors a general manager she worked under engaged in.
And numerous people who replied to her video remarked that this type of conduct is par for the course in car sales.
Skyes begins her clip spilling gossip about her previous supervisor’s personal relationships.
“The car industry is already unhinged, but my old general manager took it to another level. So, the first year this guy was with us, he already had an affair with the finance manager. And they ended up getting engaged, but later broke it off, but still stayed together,” she stated.
Following this, she talked about how the same general manager was given more responsibilities by upper management. Consequently, she and her co-workers didn’t see him as much. But when they did, they noticed a drastic change in his appearance.
“We noticed he was dropping a ton of weight,” the sales rep remarked.
Word on the street was that his new look came with a new demeanor, one that was said to have been influenced by substance abuse.
“Rumors started circulating that he was acting really erratic. And that’s a lot, considering he once flipped a table in a sales meeting. Turns out, he had been hitting the slopes,” she says, touching her nose. This skiing metaphor is used to indicate that someone is participating in cocaine usage. Since another slang term for the white, powdery stimulant is snow.
The saleswoman continued, “Hard. On the job. In a promotional RV that we had on the lot. But it gets worse.”
“Allegedly, corporate found through a leaked video of him passed out in the RV,” Skyes said before her video came to a close.
A multitude of commenters who replied to her post stated that they weren’t exactly surprised.
“Every dealership ever,” one social media user said. “I think this happens at every dealership,” another echoed.
“I was awaiting the shock in your story. Because this is as normal as can be,” someone else penned. “That’s not the wildest thing I’ve heard,” a different person mentioned.
Judging by the reactions people had to Skyes’s video, one may think that Will Ferrell based his “Eastbound & Down” character Ashley Schaeffer on real-life car salesmen. But there have been other instances of car dealers who’ve found themselves embroiled in legal troubles regarding the sales of controlled substances.
Richmond.com published a 2018 article highlighting how a “74-year-old … car dealer [was] charged with selling heroin and cocaine from his upscale home.”
In 2013, WFTV reported that an Orlando, Florida, car dealership owner also used the business to allegedly sell “large quantities of cocaine.”
In May of 2026, a dealership owner was sentenced to six years in federal prison. The charge? He reportedly used the establishment to facilitate cocaine deals.
One of the more notable yayo-related automotive stories has to do with John Z. Delorean, the creator of the ill-fated automobile featured in “Back to the Future.” History writes that on “October 19th, 1982 the automaker [was] … arrested and charged with conspiracy to obtain and distribute 55 pounds of cocaine.”
The correlation between illicit substance usage isn’t necessarily a hallmark of just the auto industry, however. Research indicates that there may be a relationship between high-stakes sales jobs and illegal narcotics and stimulants.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration published findings on occupations and drug usage. According to this 2015 report, the government agency found that those in sales jobs rank fifth for illicit substance abuse. And 10.5% of full-time sales reps are clinically diagnosed for substance abuse disorders.
Scientific Journal Publishers also featured a study centered on job types and their possible connections to drugs. The data presented showed that professions with higher levels of job autonomy skewed toward increased potential for illicit substance abuse.
According to the Journal of Psychology, these factors, coupled with increased stress to meet performance criteria in these vocations, can contribute to individuals turning to illicit substances as coping mechanisms.
Motor1 has reached out to Skyes via TikTok direct message for further comment. We will update this story if she responds.
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