jamesrwrightiii wrote:
Ha just curious..were there any people there making serious money?
I always see those ads and wonder what the truth is..
Well, let me put it in salary ranges for you, but first I'll say that my sales manager made $120k his first year in car sales (just a sales associate, not a manager). I didn't know his salary as a sales manager, but I do know that he said he had to earn $6k every month just to break even on his car loans and mortgage. Here's the general rule of thumb:
Sales associate: $15k-120k per year
10 cars per month = ~40-50k per year
15 cars per month = ~60-80k per year
20 cars per month = almost guaranteed >$100k per year
Sales manager: $120-150k per year
Sales managers get a chunk of everything sold, so they have to be good closers.
Finance manager (F&I): $150k-200k per year
They make a lot of money on the back end by selling insurance/warranties, Security Guard, Simoniz, etc.
General manager: $200k-500k per year
If a customer
can be closed, the general manager is the person to do it. This person typically has very good relationships with lots of banks and can pull some serious strings if they've got favors to cash in on. They also obviously get a chunk of everything sold.
The person who trained me was a general manager at something equivalent to a Hyundai dealership and was pulling in $250k per year. He always said "Do you want to drive a Hyundai to the BMW dealership, or do you want to drive your BMW to the Hyundai dealership?"
Insane money available in cars sales. When I heard the figures above, I questioned why on earth I would pay $150k for an MBA to get out and earn less than that. BUT, don't underestimate the work environment. Stand outside waiting for customers for 70 hours per week, work every Saturday, hang around with fairly sheisty people, and push a new $20k car on someone with a 550 credit score earning $25,000 per year and rolling $6k negative equity from their 2005 Dodge Neon into a new 72-84 month loan, and SMILE while doing it.
25 days felt like an eternity.