I have been selling cars for 14 years and the business has never been this hard. With gas at $4.00 a gallon and the crash of resale values for anything with a V8, this has been a difficult time. The car business didn't just start to slow down, the business for all domestic car dealers has been slowing over the last 2 years. In the last year it has declined for everybody.
Car sales have been very good to me over the years, I have made a lot of money. I started selling cars out of necessity, not because I love cars. I lost my business and needed a job that I could make money at "right now", while I looked for a job in the corporate world. What I did not realize was that I was going to quickly start making so much money that I could not afford to quit. The average salesman that is new to car sales; lasts 4 months, makes almost no money and then goes into the mortgage business. My third month selling cars, I made over $7,000 and I was hooked.
I guess that I got into the business at the right time. I have sold Ford's almost exclusively over the past 14 years, at primarily 3 dealerships. My first dealership was a horrible place to work and I only stayed there for 11 months. Since then I have worked primarily at 2 dealerships. I have been at the one I am currently working for over 6 years and do not plan on moving. I did try selling Toyota's for a month and hated that. My clientele is Ford based, so that is where I stay. After 14 years I have a good base to sell to and it has been very beneficial.
I have seen a lot of crazy stuff over the years. The craziest things have not been from the dealerships, they have been from the customers and the salesman. So I am going to tell some stories, talk about the industry, and answer some questions that my customers have asked me over the years.
