[Italian Stallion]

http://www.edmunds.com/edweb/editorial/confessions/part1.html

 

[Italian Stallion]

Finally read through the article in its entirety .... scary and depressing.

 

[tony]

Very good article. Took a while to read though.


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Tony
'01 Spectra Blue
'94 Turbo Miata

 

[Italian Stallion]

a guy over at the Audi site descibed it, "like reading a dark, brooding vampire novel"

 

[Agent Smith]

I read a lot of that story...I feel bad for those bastards...it is bad enough to go through the sales hassle when you buy a car...but to be the pecker on the other end...God help them.

The IS buying experience wasn't so bad...actually quite painless since they wouldn't budge.

[This message has been edited by Agent Smith (edited November 02, 2000).]

 

[Chiphead]

Great piece of writing. I can empathize with the salespersons's need to make a living, but my next car purchase is going to be on the net.

 

[DonCorleone]

very good article...gives you a whole other view.

 

[brad]

Unfortunately not any different than I presumed. I do wish he had landed that Lexus or Infiniti job. That would have been interesting.

 

[Stephen]

Well I'm a salesman. I'm in commercial/industrial sales not cars, but its all the same. The one main part I agreed with in that little story was his answer in the interview. The single best trait of a salesman is the desire to make large amounts of money in the easiest and fastest possible way. If you ever want a sales job, just say "I want to make a lot of money" and bam you're in. Some places, especially higher end car dealers will want an experienced person but it has nothing to do with treating their customers right. They just dont want to train the kids and deal with their failures. What he said about luxury car salesmen making $20,000-$25,000 a month is slightly far fetched. The highest paid car salesman I've ever interviewed for a job (we get car salesmen as applicants all the time) made about $140,000 a year. I dont see how a car salesman could POSSIBLY make $288,000 a year given profit margins on cars today. In other types of sales though, there is a lot of money to be made. I'm the top salesman at my company, and one of the best in the business and I made $390,000 last year full commission. If you are good with people, confident in yourself to the point of arrogance, and have a strong drive to be rich sales might just be the thing for you.

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Stephen Withrow
[email protected]

98 Lexus LS400
97 Ford Explorer Limited

 

[mrclam]

damn that thing i slong. i actually read all nine pages of it, its pretty interesting =)

 

[Young]

Originally posted by Stephen:
I dont see how a car salesman could POSSIBLY make $288,000 a year given profit margins on cars today

Perhaps working at a BMW dealership in the Silicon Valley. It's a seller's market. I wouldn't be surprised if the "German dealership" that treated the author so rudely on page 6 of the article was a Bay Area BMW dealer. Love their cars; hate their salesmen.


[This message has been edited by Young (edited November 02, 2000).]

 

[Stephen]

Young, Still, given the profit margin on new cars today, even BMWs I find it hard to believe that a car salesman makes $288,000 a year. You would have to sell cars almost nonstop all day long to do that.

------------------
Stephen Withrow
[email protected]

98 Lexus LS400
97 Ford Explorer Limited

 

[chromaplast]

interesting but a bit too long to finish

 

[Young]

My dealer told me that some of the salespeople at her dealership sell 15-20 cars a month. The fellow in the article was making $300-500 per sale on $20-25,000 cars. So imagine the commissions on $40-80,000 cars...cars that often command MSRP or more. $2500 above MSRP for M3s, $10,000 to $30,000 above MSRP for M5s and $125,000 above MSRP for Z8s at this dealership. I got my 330i at MSRP.



[This message has been edited by Young (edited November 03, 2000).]

 

[chromaplast]

damn that sucks, why pay more than MSRP?
might as well buy a merc or a lexus

 

[Stephen]

Dont automatically assume that the salesman sees any of that markup.

------------------
Stephen Withrow
[email protected]

98 Lexus LS400
97 Ford Explorer Limited