just to "shed light"... our dealership is small... in fact AP, you have seen it, so i'll let you judge its size. it's not a tiny country lot
we sell roughly 40 cars a month new, and maybe 20 used during good months. usually 40-70 in total avg. assume a 1200 profit on each... because yes.. we do lose on some.. both new and used. but we also get 3000 on some. (that's total profit on the car including admins, etc.)
1.5 million in sales to make under a hundred grand. before costs/overhead.
Thanks, tooscoops - I knew I was off with the number of vehicles moved. Hell, I almost never see a deal-in-progress when I walk into a dealership (which is kind of why I strut into dealerships as if I'm 'the sh!t' when I do intend on buying, because all focus should be on ME ME ME!!!).
I suspect that dealerships vary in their success based on a bunch of factors. I can't speak for dealerships in general because the front-lines are the salesmen and women. I don't disagree about paying for value-added services, but when I deal with the idiots (of which tooscoops is the opposite, I'm assuming
), it makes me wish for the ability to purchase a car online. Idiotic things like failing to listen to a customer, failing to be realistic, and failing to show me that you care about your products.
I had one salesman admit that he was relatively new, in a Toyota dealership that, at the time, had a lineup of 27 vehicles with countless trims available, plus dealer-installed accessories. So, yes, I did know more than he did, but he at least had a hand-written cheat sheet. He didn't bring the brochure with, he brought very intricate details. I think that's fair and he did work very hard for us. That person was, indeed, Philip, and he did get our purchase. He listened to us. The general manager said "NO" to our request for a trunk mat. Philip said to him "come down here and talk to them. They want to buy, but this trunk mat remains an issue. Let's talk it out." The GM came down, listened to us, and we got what we wanted and the GM made a sale for similar money to what he was expecting to let a Corolla go for. Philip worked for us. He was a good guy. He deserved WAY more than $250 for an admin fee (not that he gets to pocket it, no matter what the profit was - we didn't pay an admin fee at all).
I testdrove the Fusion Hybrid when it first came out in 2009 (as a 2010). The salesman took 30 minutes to locate the keys, got us into one that had never yet been filled - and promptly stalled, and took another 20 minutes to get us into one that did have gas. He didn't know a thing about its specs. He didn't try. He said "I'll give you a brochure and you can figure it out." It's morons like him that hurt the dealership experience. It's morons like him that give 'admin fees' a bad name.
All, let's give tooscoops a break here - not everyone is that same moron who I refer to in this post.