How Much Do Car Salesmen Make? (Find out the Salary of Salesmen!)

Last Updated on January 14, 2023 by Leepu Da Maxim

In 2023, the average salary of a car salesman was $57,550 a year. However, it is also necessary to incorporate some extra bonuses for an average of $3,000 per year. Even commissions averaged $19,888 for most car dealers. Commissions can range from $10,000 to $54,000, while the total comes out between $38,000 and $55,000. 

The Amount Earned By Salesmen

Time	Salary
1 Year	$57,550
1 Month	$4,796
1 Day	$160
1 Hour	$20
1 Sale	$250 – $330 average

Average Car Salesman Salary by State in the USA

State	Annual Salary	Monthly Pay	Hourly Wage
New York New Hampshire Wyoming Arizona Tennessee Massachusetts Hawaii Montana Indiana West Virginia Nevada New Jersey Washington Connecticut Minnesota Rhode Island Pennsylvania Alaska Oregon North Dakota Wisconsin Maryland Ohio Iowa Virginia Alabama Idaho California Vermont Utah New Mexico South Dakota Florida Nebraska Colorado Kentucky Delaware South Carolina Kansas Maine Arkansas Mississippi Oklahoma Georgia Michigan Missouri Texas Illinois Louisiana North Carolina	$53,434 $50,135 $46,618 $46,394 $45,724 $45,414 $45,352 $45,225 $45,020 $44,977 $44,880 $44,543 $44,163 $44,057 $43,897 $43,595 $43,571 $43,214 $43,015 $42,172 $41,847 $41,726 $41,422 $40,623 $40,563 $40,554 $40,326 $40,067 $39,901 $39,870 $39,861 $39,791 $39,618 $39,399 $39,373 $39,371 $39,128 $38,684 $38,569 $38,127 $37,813 $37,676 $37,417 $37,336 $36,934 $36,131 $35,848 $35,635 $35,016 $32,380	$4,452 $4,177 $3,884 $3,866 $3,810 $3,784 $3,779 $3,768 $3,751 $3,748 $3,740 $3,711 $3,680 $3,671 $3,658 $3,632 $3,630 $3,601 $3,584 $3,514 $3,487 $3,477 $3,451 $3,385 $3,380 $3,379 $3,360 $3,338 $3,325 $3,322 $3,321 $3,315 $3,301 $3,283 $3,281 $3,280 $3,260 $3,223 $3,214 $3,177 $3,151 $3,139 $3,118 $3,111 $3,077 $3,010 $2,987 $2,969 $2,918 $2,698	$25.69 $24.10 $22.41 $22.30 $21.98 $21.83 $21.80 $21.74 $21.64 $21.62 $21.58 $21.42 $21.23 $21.18 $21.10 $20.96 $20.95 $20.78 $20.68 $20.28 $20.12 $20.06 $19.91 $19.53 $19.50 $19.50 $19.39 $19.26 $19.18 $19.17 $19.16 $19.13 $19.05 $18.94 $18.93 $18.93 $18.81 $18.60 $18.54 $18.33 $18.18 $18.11 $17.99 $17.95 $17.76 $17.37 $17.23 $17.13 $16.83 $15.57

Do Car Salesmen Get Paid Hourly?

In recent times, it has been known that as of November 2020, the average wage charged by each car salesman per hour has increased. Thus, in the United States, the average hourly wage of car salesmen increased to $19.68. However, it is necessary to consider that there is a large number of car salesmen who charge for each sale.

That’s why many car dealers tend to calculate their pay based on the number of sales they make in a month or a day. This means that many salesmen can spend too many hours working if they generate money if they don’t have sales. In the same way, some salespeople can work for a few hours and make a lot of money with a lot of sales. 

Can A Car Salesman Make Six Figures?

To answer this question, it is necessary to take into account that most sellers earn money depending on the number of vehicle sales. A percentage of the profits made by each seller is what makes up their commission. In some places, each seller earns 5% of the closing price and 25% of each initial profit.

On the one hand, it is necessary to consider the purchase price of each vehicle to obtain the initial profit. Additionally, the greatest amount of profit is found in any additional sale as well as financing. So, the different types of insurance or the contract of certain services increase the benefits that each seller can obtain.

It is necessary to mention that dealership salesmen only make money when they sell a car. That’s why car dealers who don’t make sales all month long don’t have much of a future in that job. This explains why many car salesmen don’t put in a lot of hours for those people who don’t want to buy a car.

It could also be that many people want to try out two or three cars and take 3 or 4 hours from each car dealer. At the end of those tests people don’t end up making a sale and the salespeople feel they have truly wasted their time. That’s why it’s always recommended to test drive a car when you want to buy one.

On the contrary, there are also car salesmen who can make an excellent amount of money with proper sales. Some sellers mention that a good amount of sales is selling between 20 and 25 vehicles each month. Additionally, it is also necessary to maintain the gross value to obtain an excellent profit in each sale.

This is how a dealership salesperson can make 6 figures a year or more. There are even many expert car salesmen who manage to sell 15, 18, or more vehicles per day. Of course, these are exceptional cases in which these salesmen can make much more money than a company’s CEO.

However, the average salesperson cannot make more than 25 car sales per month. At the same time, the decrease in demand makes it difficult to maintain the gross value of each vehicle. Also, many dealers set the minimum commission for the salesperson when the sale of a car does not generate a profit at all.

In turn, most sellers have an average commission of $500 to $600 per sale. Of course, that’s not a bad number, but it’s not a lot of money to live on. There are also deals where the commission is divided between two sellers. This happens when a person interested in a car decides to try out a vehicle one day.

However, the person does not purchase the vehicle that day but decides to come back at another time of the week. When another salesperson attends to the same person, the commission is divided when the sale is made. However, this is not convenient at all, since the commission is divided. 

Do Car Salesmen Work Long Hours?

In the vast majority of cases, car dealers end up working many more hours than they originally intended. On the one hand, this is a great disadvantage for those people who only wish to have a traditional schedule at work. However, this is necessary because it requires a certain amount of sales per month.

That’s why a lot of car salespeople tend to continue working at night on weekdays. It is also not uncommon to find car salesmen who continue to work on weekends or holidays to achieve a certain goal. Several tasks extend the working time of all these people.

We can mention the following tasks that extend the working hours of a dealership salesperson:

1. Possibility of financing for a customer

2. Credit check check check

3. Verification of each client’s employment

4. Carry out various procedures for each sale 

Do Car Salesmen Get Benefits?

In general, many car dealers want to get into this job because of the possibility of earning some interesting money. However, there are a wide variety of additional benefits that a car salesperson can obtain. Thus, selling cars becomes a much more attractive activity compared to other jobs today. 

Some people may even mention that the benefits of being a car salesman are unconventional and abundant. Of course, this requires a certain amount of information and knowledge about the car industry and vehicles in general. As this information becomes more abundant it is much easier to be a car salesman.

Although some car salesmen spend many hours working, the truth is that this is not so stressful. It’s not at all physically demanding. On the contrary, selling cars only requires a few materials and the information that every car salesman has in his mind.  

Regardless of which dealership each car salesperson chooses, some benefits are common to them. In this case, the most abundant and common benefits are usually leisure time as well as high-quality health insurance.

Of course, time off is not a fixed amount of time. The amount of time off for each car dealer is determined by the number of sales they can achieve in a day or a month.

In turn, there are several techniques to incorporate into the day-to-day selling of cars. So, this may be necessary for those people who want to earn 6 figures a year or even more than that. Today there are experts in car sales who say that anyone can access this goal. However, most car salesmen who are at an average level usually disagree. 

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Being A Car Salesman?

Many people who are considering working as car salesmen should consider what the main advantages and disadvantages of this job are. Here, we can mention the main advantages that most of them usually get.

Pros

1. Commission Salaries: A commission salary instead of a fixed salary allows each car dealer to set a goal to earn a certain amount of money per year. This amount of money can be increased as the car salesman continues to perfect his sales techniques.

2. Short Workdays: In general, workdays are usually the same number of hours as with other jobs. However, many car salespeople claim that time passes very quickly when a car salesperson works with customers. That’s why it’s a dynamic job in general.

3. Sales Commissions: The commissions each car salesperson can earn are determined by the price of each vehicle. Sometimes car salesmen can earn $1,000 or even more on a single car sale. Besides, bonuses and other items are added to the salary in addition to the commissions.

4. Low-Effort Work: Car sales work does not require much physical effort on the part of the salesperson. On the contrary, only a few items and office work are required.

5. 6-Figure Salary: Some sales experts or car salesmen who decide to learn may have the ability to earn a 6-figure annual salary in a relatively short time. These people usually work more than 40 hours per week. 

Cons

1. No Sales, No Money: Car dealers who fail to make sales make no money at all.

2. Few Commissions: Some car sales only leave a minimum commission of about $100.

3. Long Working Hours: When a salesperson has few sales, he or she must work nights, weekends, and even holidays.

4. Some Sales Are Not Secure: Some customers ask to try out a car and waste the salesperson’s time by not making the purchase. 

References:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-much-do-car-salesmen_b_7504680

https://work.chron.com/much-commission-salesman-make-new-car-21232.html