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How much do they make? I am talking about car salespeople at a normal car dealership, such as Toyota, Mazda, etc where they sell New, CPO and Used cars. They also lease cars.
Do they have a base salary + commission? or only commission?
if you were to guess, would you say they make 50k, 75k, 100k, 125k, 150k, 175k, 200k per year? that would be total income (salary + commissions).
Your best guess. if there are huge variations from region to region, then specify if your guess is for a particular region.
I am not talking about those used only car dealerships that are usually a one man operation.
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From
huffingtonpost.com
"Dealership salespeople average about 10 car sales per month, and earn an average of about $40k per year."
From
motortrend.com
"If this turns out to be an average month, then as a car salesman I’ll be making about $36,838 this year."
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different dealers in different areas certainly have different pay scales. BUT by me the days of a car salesman making a six figure income selling mainstream cars are gone.
Most dealers are going to either a flat rate per car, like a VW dealer where sales get $350 per car. These dealerships are selling over 400 cars per month so a good salesperson can sell 3 cars a week.
Another dealership, Lexus pays $500 week salary and $200 per car with bonuses for certain models and for hitting a certain number of cars in a month.
More and more dealers are now moving to capture online sales. More and more customers are shopping online and this allows dealers 100 miles away compete for your business. My l;last two cars were bought with kind of a hybrid of online, in person.
2016 Cadillac, we had trouble finding the colors and features we wanted locally, found a dealer 180 miles away that had 2 perfect cars, two different engines. I did not want to use a local dealer to test drive the two engines and buy from another dealer so we drove 180 miles, drove the cars, picked one. The dealer 180 miles away was 100% willing to deliver the car to my home at no charge. That dealer is heavy into internet sales and delivers cars anywhere in Florida.
2017 VW two dealers, the two top dealers in the country for VW, same prices, same cars, I bought my VW and it was dropped off at my house. I bought the car a week before I needed it so they delivered the paperwork to my office several days before, picked up the paperwork the next day and on the day I asked, dropped the car off in my driveway
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FYI in the 80's and 90's my father was GM of a Chevy dealership. He employed only top salespeople and they all earned around $100k per year. They were all skilled salespeople and they were the reason car salesman had a certain rep. Different times.
My father earned more than the salesman as GM and after many years Autonation bought the dealership. A month later presented my father with the new pay scales for managers. 15 minutes later he quit, went selling cars again and did well selling Trucks and Escalades. A few years after that he retired
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My college roommates were DOKs ("Damn Owner's Kids") for a very successful Ford dealership. They both sold cars in the summers, for their dad and at other dealerships out of town, and they did okay for young guys in their early 20's, but both went on to professional (lawyer and doctor) careers. They could see the writing on the wall for pure sales.
The lawyer wound up taking over the dealership after their dad passed away, and it's still doing fine, but the individual salesmen--they're almost all men--don't make anything like the money they did 30 years ago.
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If I were to guess... of what use would that information be?
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I'll have to talk to my manager about this first.
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New car dealerships often do not turn a profit selling new cars. They rely on service and used car sales.