mjr24

I always wondered.....I am sure ones who own higher end brand dealers make more....but I bet even ones who own Kia, Hyundai, etc. dealers also really bring it in.

IronCobra

The large Toyota dealer owner in Florida where I am from told me he makes around $500k per year salary.

I'm guessing that a successful Kia, Honda, or Mitsu dealership CEO makes around $200-$400k depended on volume.

mmarshall

Though it is true that dealerships sometimes use questionable sales and buisness ethics to generate that kind of income for their owners, quite often it is deserved. Running a dealership today......especially a large one.....is an enormous responsibility, and it takes a lot of work, even though you as an owner hire managers to run the various departments. In addition, when problems arise, you, as an owner, can't pass the buck up the ladder to someone else......the buck stops at YOUR desk, and YOU have to deal with it ( unless it is a problem originating with the vehicle manufacturer, of course ). Sure, you can fire the people and managers you hire if you don't like the job they do, but sometimes all that does is sweep a problem under the rug and transfer the problem to a new group of employees....and then sometimes you face discrimination lawsuits if you have a disgruntled employee.
And last, you have pressure from the vehicle manufacturer, too.....THEY can pull your franchise if THEY don't like the job that YOU do.

So, is a multiple-six-figure salary like that actually deserved? In many cases, yes.

jracerlmn

well at MB of escondido the dealer principle puts a lot of his personal cars on the dealership inventory sheet so he doesn't have to pay the upkeep on them.

this is on top of his ridiculous salary

mkorsu

Try in the millions. The General Manager and General Sales Manager pull in roughly $300k to $500k a year. The owner my only pull a stipend as salary, but the real earnings are in the gains of the business.

And I know this from working for a short time at a dealership as their Payroll Manager. Left once they asked my to do something illegal (accounting-wise).

mmarshall

He pays for their upkeep one way or another. The people in the service department who maintain and repair those cars don't work for free.....and if the labor, parts, and fluids are not warranty-covered, he can't bill the manufacturer for them either.....he has to pay for it either out of the dealer's bank account or his own pocket. And with the notoriously poor reliability of many new Mercedes products, they WILL need repairs, warranty-covered or not.

This is one reason why some dealerships fail or are bought out by others...their expenses simply exceed their income, and that cannot go on indefinitely.

LexFather

The cars have decent margins in the luxury business. I believe Porsche and BMW lead in the actual profit per car.

It is the SERVICE that makes the $$$$$$$$$$$ for dealers.

encore888

Lexus is the most expensive dealership to acquire now in the U.S., according to Automotive News/Detroit Free Press. Apparently the premium on buying a Lexus dealership is 6-10X annual profits. BMW, Honda, Mercedes, and Toyota are next at 4X profits.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/busines...uto/index.html

So those owners definitely need serious cash to get started in the car dealership business, particularly luxury/highly successful import brands! I'm pretty sure that if they are owners of these successful dealership franchises, they can earn quite a lot.

mmarshall

In terms of percentage ( not necessarily actual dollars ), Saturn and Scion do, because they sell for no-dicker full list, and the dealer gets the ENTIRE markup...NO discounts.