Do car salesmen make good money?

the hours are long, the money is pretty low except for the rare few and the car business is in one of the worse periods in decades....

you will not stay in the business if money is your motivation.... I hope you like working 6 days a week...

Oh, my family were multi-line new cars dealers for over 25 years.

 

it is rare that a salesman makes over $50,000.00. I know some that make six figures, but that is very rare.

 

Depends on the dealer, brand being sold, the market, etc....

I worked at a Mercedes dealership where, in a record month, the top sales lady made $24,000 in that month (and one of the "lower" salesmen made $14,000 for the month).

However, I have personally sold cars at a dealership where, if I hadn't had the monthly guarantee, I would have made less than $1500 for the month.

It is a VERY turbulent industry. And, yes, with a slow spot right now, I would not recommend getting into it right now.

 

A friend of mine has been making a killing selling Toyotas in Boerne, Tx. While others are pushing a couple high dollar cars at the dealership next door, he's pushing quantity of cars. As he said, like they've been selling themselves. He's just been doing the paperwork, lol. He's been there for a year and a half and loving it. Some other dealerships seem to have a revolving door for salesmen/women.

 

Yeah, this current state of the industry has made me think twice about wanting to go further in my research on this career.
BTW, I didn't know this, but is it really possible for a salesman to have a salary & still get commission from sales?

 

It depends on what you sell and where you sell it. I know people who make $70,000/ year sitting at a desk selling 40-50 cars and others who make about the same selling 250 cars per year.

 

Your best bet is to become a used car dealer. Buy cars in the $2,000 to $3,000 range and flip them on Craigs list or a for sale sign in your front yard. Once you get your dealers license you can go to the auctions and by cars. Remember turn time is key and you do not want to keep a car over 1 week. You can make some good money this way. Stay away from luxury cars and sports cars and you can do very well. My brother in law has been doing this and has been making about $12,000 a month with very little work selling 6-8 cars a month in a rural area.

 

I spent about 5 years in the car business at two different dealers. I worked at a Lexus dealership then at a Chrysler/Plymouth/Jeep/Eagle dealership. Funny thing is that the money was pretty consistant between the two dealerships, but I had to work a lot harder for it selling the higher volume product. In a major market and at a dealership that is fair to its employees I would expect the starting salesperson to be in the $30-$45,000 area. Once you establish yourself compensation can get quite high. Remember that car dealerships work on a commission basis and commissions are paid on amounts over the dealership invoice pricing plus what ever 'pack' the dealership places on the cars...the stores that I worked at paid 20% and 30% over invoice plus pack with a minimum commission of $100 per car. So say that the invoice on a Jeep Grand Cherokee was $25,895 and there was a $500 pack and the customer bought it at $27,000 I would get paid 30% of the difference between $26,395 (invoice plus pack) and the $27,000 selling price plus for a total of $181.50 plus the $100 minimum commission for a total of $281.50. Average month on the domestic side would be about 20 cars, but I had months where I would sell 12 and months where I would sell 40, it all depends.

Two things being a car salesperson taught me. 1. Be good at budgeting your money as there are months where you make 10 grand and the very next month your don't cover your draw. 2. Keep your credit spotless as I have seen people who don't and what a HUGE difference that makes on their purchasing power.

I had a lot of fun and met a lot of good people who I still consider my friends, but I would not even consider trying to break into the car business with the way that the car market is going...and I live in an area where most folks lease so there is still a decent volume of business.

 

When I was car shopping a while back I was offered a job at the dealership b/c I knew more about the car than the salesman...Haha!! I asked him what kind of money I'd be making and he said it would be about $60k, but since I'm a decent looking girl with a detailed sales background and know a lot about the cars I could quite possibly make $75k+. He said they work 12-14 hour days 6 times a week and that didn't sound appealing to me. Even if I did make a decent amount of money, when would I have time to spend it? Also, I'm in college, so those hours really wouldn't work for me.

If you have some money in the bank already, why not give it a shot for a couple of months? You might really enjoy it...or you might absolutely hate it, but if you have cushion money, you'd be fine. Good luck!

 

At Beverly Hills BMW ...there was a sales girl my friend knew ...she was a top seller and bought a Ferrari 355 in adition to a 7 series BMW.

But in Beverly Hills a majority of people in that are have so much money, they don't even hangle on price, and they pay mostly in cash.
So a sales person job on Beverly Hillls is easy.


Generally speaking, sales people earn a "draw" when they don't make any sales.
In terms of commision, they earn a per car $$$, and then get % for selling above certain sticker amount, and more $$ for selling add on like Rustproofing and Extended warranty. Then they earn a bonus for selling more than X cars per month.

 

Just one small thing to mention the "draw" is actually more borrowed then earned. As it is a draw against commissions so that you do not end up bringing home nothing during a slow month or for the first half of the month where you sell almost no cars.
Erik

 

Careful Andy, sounds like there is a story behind this story. True, you can make Ferrari money selling cars, but for the most part it's just a pretty good living. I usually found that those that had money didn't throw it around wrecklessly...as a matter of fact some of my highest single comissions didn't come from my days selling Lexus.

As far as the draw goes, I was paid on a draw against commissions. I got a check for $500 on the 15th and a check for $500 on the last day of the month. Then the remaining amount in my commission bank would wash out on the 1st of the next month. Don't make the $1,000 draw in your commission bank by the end of the month, then you have to make that difference PLUS the thousand from the next month...don't make it that next month usually meant that you were gonna be getting your walking papers.

 

Unless you've sold cars before and were good at it, you more than likely won't get a job a BMW, Merc, ect. I do a lot of training for different car manufacturers, and inbetween contracts sometimes I'll sell cars. I've been to Nissan, Ford, and Subaru. The pay set-ups are pretty much the same. 20-30% comission on the front-end gross, meaning profit on car and accessories. Financing and warrenties are back-end, and the sales people don't see a dime of that. Minimums are usually around $100-$150 per car. Used cars are where the money is. I'd say the average gross is 3-5k on used and maybe $1000-$2500 on new. Then here are usually dealer paid spiffs, like 3 cars sold during the weekend get you $300. Test drives =$5. But those are just the dealer being nice to the sales people. There are manufacturer spiff programs which can be worth several hundred dollars per month and are tied to new units moved. You'll find out just how important the surveys are. While they are scored percentage wise they really mean pass/fail for you. And just one fail can mean a loss of money from spiffs.

I too know of the girl they're talking about. Altough I think she's at Crevier BMW now. She is/was the top salesperson in the US for BMW.

 

Stressful, low pay, and everyone has already pre-judged you as scum of the earth.

I know a FEW people making six figures selling cars, but I know a hundred making $30-40k working their asses off.

Bad time to get into the industry and not exactly a good industry to get into.

 

Again it depends on what you sell and where.

Of course if you think about it, there are far more "car mills" in operation than "proper new and used car stores" but you can find work with a decent employer selling decent cars for good money.