New York Nissan Dealer Gives Woman A Free Car After A Wisconsin Dealer Called Her A Racial Slur On An Oil Change Sticker

The sh*ttiness of car dealerships seems to have no bounds. I've said before how I hate to make blanket statements like that, but we've covered so much dealership foolishness over the years, it's hard to ignore. Some dealers take things really far, engaging in fraud and pulling things like fake kidnapping claims to cover it up, or stealing customer information to buy cars with it. As if taking people's money via tons and tons of markups isn't enough. One Wisconsin woman discovered the dark side of dealerships the hard way after a dealer she took her car to for service put a racial slur on her oil change sticker.

The terrible ordeal happened during the first week of January 2025, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Makayla Starks took her car in for service at Kunes Buick GMC in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Everything about the service visit was normal until she got home. Starks says she received a call from the dealer's service department claiming they needed to stop by her house because one of the technicians left a tool in her engine bay. That should have been a major red flag, because why wasn't that spotted at the dealership? Whatever tool this was supposed to be seemed important too, as Starks says the service department told her that they wanted to come get the tool from her that evening. Things weren't as they seemed, though, and thanks to the truthfulness of one of the dealer employees, they tipped her off on what was really going on. 

An employee told Starks that a tool hadn't actually been left in her engine bay. What they were really after was the oil change sticker that was left on her windshield, which had the n-word written on it. "They were just trying to come and retrieve the proof, which would be the oil change sticker with the racial slur on my windshield," Starks told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She believes the dealer was trying to discreetly take the sticker off before she noticed it. According to a regional director for the dealer that spoke with Starks, they implied that "the reason they were going to try and do that was to prevent any harm from happening." That doesn't make much sense considering that the harm had already been done when racial slur was put on the sticker. See how dumb dealers can be?

The following day, Starks went back to the dealership to ask for her service paperwork, purposely making no mention of the sticker and the slur. She didn't have to either, as she says one of the dealer's managers came up to her and started "apologizing profusely" for the sticker despite the fact that she never mentioned it. Starks says this let her know that more than one person knew about the slur and that the dealer was going to attempt to cover it up. The dealer may have also damaged her car, as she says that buttons on her steering wheel that control certain safety systems were damaged.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says that while the dealer ducked out of a request for a comment from them and took down its Facebook page, the dealer released a long-winded statement on Instagram and TikTok apologizing for the incident. The dealer also says the employee at the center of the incident had been fired.

"We recognize the seriousness of this matter and accept our responsibility to ensure a safe, welcoming environment for every person who walks through our doors. While words are important, we know that real change comes from action, and we are fully committed to demonstrating our values through measurable steps. We are moving forward addressing this with our entire staff, reinforcing our corporate values."

Starks took to Facebook to post about her experience, but the social media site's recent shift to please the Trump administration led to her post being taken down for violating community standards. Luckily, protestors gathered outside of the dealership in support of Starks. As for the dealer, it tried to make things right with what has got to be one of the most offensive peace offerings ever made after an instance of racism: credits for dealer service at its other locations.

Family Nissan in Inwood, New York saw Starks' story on the local news as well as images of protestors outside the dealer. Ramzey Rizk of Family Nissan said seeing that was enough to get his dealer's support behind Starks. "The team here got kind of fired up to add more support and add more voice to her voice and to her narrative and to push her message forward that this should've never happened," he told The Sentinel. He says the idea to do what's right and help Starks out came during a morning meeting. Rizk and Family Nissan did what Kunes Buick GMC should have done: they gave Starks a brand-new Nissan Leaf. "Based on this heartfelt gesture, I just know they are kind people, and the world needs more of that." Starks said. Family Nissan didn't just stop there. They found out that Starks is a published writer, so when she and her fiancée visited the dealer on March 1st, they were surprised with food, kind words and multiple copies of her book A Painting Bird's Whisper: Poetry & Prose, there for her to sign.

While this story has a happy ending, Starks isn't done with Kunes. She wants the dealer to be held accountable, especially since they tried to cover up the racism. She has since retained Milwaukee-based civil rights attorney William Sulton to move forward legally. Starks says this is a perfect example of why DEI should be used more on jobs so that people can get training in "racial discrimination and culturally diverse consumer relations." As Starks told The Sentinel, "I think the ultimate message here is just that we want to see, in 2025, Black customers and other people of color being treated with the same respect as white folks."