Every dealership is different. With my dealership most of the deals are minis on front-end and then there is a profit-share of products on the back end if applicable. Salespeople here need to hit at least 15 units for the month to get a bonus and have a decent month. 20+ units makes for a great bonus and solid month. This is unless your surveys are below the region’s average and then it gets cut in half. Payplans are all ridiculously complicated. At the end of the day selling cars is the hardest 50k-60k you’ll ever make or easiest 90k-100k+ you’ll ever make depending on your work ethic and general approach. Dealerships are also notorious for changing payplans to “give you a better opportunity” which just means they want to pay less to show more end-of-month profit.
It is a bit crazy but I prefer this to being a Substance Abuse Therapist with a set salary. I think I may have enjoyed selling group and personal training and working with clients in a gym a bit more though.
Just to ad to the off topic…Once in a Honda dealer i actually asked what the commission the sales person was getting for the contract we were signing…it was $150. A sales person making $15/hour and selling 10 cars per month would be over $100k.
Correct, every place I worked at payed $200-$300/week salary. Toyota and Mazda $100 minis and 20% of front end gross. Toyota payed $40 for gap insurance. I always got that $40. BMW payed a different mini depending on the car. We also got anywhere from 0-10% of back end.
There is not a standard answer for this since every dealer is different. In my experience (3 dealers), it has always been pure commission with $0 salary or hourly pay. At the two luxury/high line dealer I have worked at, one had a mini of $100 and 5% of back-end profit and the other was a $150 mini and 16%-25% back-end depending on volume. It helps when the manufacturer kicks in bonuses for selling certain models (anywhere from $50 to $2000). Plus there is a pack that is taken directly from the front end profit and it is usually around $500 (ranges from $200-$2000 depending on if it is a new or used car). So on a leasehakr deal or any deal below $500 front end profit (selling price minus invoice) I make $150.
And to answer some other questions, I believe the “average” sales person makes $50k per year. Your more seasoned sales people (2-4 years) probably makes $70k to $100k and veterans (5+ years) should be making $100k+. From there, there are a handful of rock stars who make $300k+ and have assistants. Of course there are always outliers and the dealer’s pay plan and market plays a huge roll in this.
If your overall hours pays out more than commission you’re not cut out for the industry and going to get let go. Some dealerships do pay a flat hourly and XXX amount per car sold - they usually go through salespeople very quickly. Most salespeople want an opportunity to make a lot in commission and bonuses.
I forgot to mention Honda occasionally has ‘spins’ so when a specific vehicle (civic, accord) has a spin it means you can log onto the Honda Interactive Network after selling one and spin a digital slot machine that pays out either $100, $250, or $500. This gets loaded onto a debit card from American Honda and has a 1099 form at the end of the year. Honda doesn’t do the spins very often unfortunately.
This is why I never understood why someone wants to work at CarMax or a one price dealer. As long as you have half a brain, you can make more money at a pure commission store even if you have to work a few more hours a week.
Once walked into a Carmax and counted 19 salesman just milling about the showroom shooting the shit with only two customers in the store. The store was huge. I know they’re the most profitable used car business, but man the overhead is insane.
There is definitely a lot of turnover at those stores and I doubt the training is very good. They probably hire anyone with a pulse and just see who can cut it and who can’t.
I talked to an order taker who worked there when I had my A5 appraised a few years ago and he said about half the store was part time. I heard they make about $15/hr plus small volume bonuses and CarMax averages $2000 in profit per car, so lets assume 10 full time/10 part time order takers sell 150 cars per month. Works out to $36k in hourly pay and once you figure in bonuses, managers, and techs, it might be $100k in pay. Not too bad for $300k in profit.
it’s part LH deals, but part factory. If i sell a Malibu for example, at MSRP, there’s $500 in the front, which is still a mini because most stores pay 15-25% of the front…
