In recent months, a video by a TikTok user named Jo the Car Plug (@jothecarplug) has gone viral on TikTok and other social media.
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All videos proceed in the same way. A person stands excitedly in front of a new car. Then someone from behind the camera asks how much money you put down as a down payment. The answer is usually zero dollars. From there, he will ask about monthly payments. Usually it’s a few hundred dollars.
But where the video takes a turn is in the terms of the loan. There were numerous videos of people claiming to have loan terms over several years, and one video included a man who claimed he intended to pay $399 a month for the rest of his life.
Recently, another of these videos went viral and raised some eyebrows in the process. Are there really car dealers in Houston that offer such low prices?
Is this woman really paying $599 a month for 35 years?
In the video, which has been viewed more than 1.2 million times, Joe speaks to a woman standing in front of a Toyota Camry.
“MS. Nae, how much did you pay?” he asks.
“Zero down,” she replied with a smile.
“What are the monthly payments?” he asks.
“$599,” she says.
When she reveals how long is long term, the answer is shocking. 427 months, which is more than 35 years.
If this is true, Nae will be paying more than $255,000 for the Camry. According to Kelley Blue Book, the list price for a new 2025 Toyota Camry is just under $30,000.
Commenters were understandably shocked.
“Finance had no money,” said one user.
“550,000 for a Camry is insane,” added another.
@jothecarplug Nae came and picked up the Toyota Camry an hour after it arrived!! ️#toyota #dreamcar ♬ Pretty Girls Walk – Big Boss Vette
the numbers don’t match
But there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the video created on the Jo the Car Plug page.
The page has previously advertised that it caters to customers with bad credit, but that doesn’t explain how they can make such crazy deals.
The page itself admits that what it says doesn’t make sense. In the comments below one video, the page’s owner claimed that he “got a competitive rate because we were the #1 dealer with deep capital,” and then went on to say, “If it’s not a Lambo, it’s a 10-year deal.” I can’t even get a car loan,” he added.
Indeed, this type of payment plan is basically unheard of. A typical car payment is 60 to 72 months, and longer plans are possible, but according to Capital One, the bank whose account it claims is available for financing, the longest car payment is typically 60 to 72 months. 96 months.
Other comments by this account indicate that what is said in the video is not to be believed. For example, in one comment, the account claimed that car buyers were paying “something like $140 for 1,500 months” and the interest rate was 38%. NerdWallet notes that the average interest rate on used cars for deep subprime buyers (credit scores between 300 and 500) is 21.55%.
However, in another comment on the same video, the account wrote that the person in the video only paid “around $300.” The account acknowledged in a separate video that at least one of the other videos on the account was just a joke.
So what are these videos?
The purpose of these videos is unknown, but one theory is that they are designed to promote a specific car dealership, Strawberry Road Auto Sales in Pasadena, Texas.
Reviews for this dealership are mixed, with Google Reviews showing a score of 4.0 out of 5 stars, while Yelp reports it as 2 out of 5 stars.
There are no reviews mentioning the long loan terms mentioned in the video. However, when one commentator questioned whether the dealership was linked to Joe the Car Plug’s account, the dealership confirmed that they were the same account, but added that “all online videos on social media is strictly for entertainment purposes only. We do not share any of our customers’ personal information.
This means that these videos may simply be designed to get attention. Judging by the negative reactions from commenters, it’s clear it got some attention.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jo the Car Plug via Instagram DM and email, and Strawberry Road Auto Sales via the website’s contact form.
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