service technician

automotive technician

car sales executive

service advisor

inside sales representative

AutoNation

TLDR: Autonation can be a great start to sales you will learn a lot and grow substantially as someone new to sales. You will build relationships similar to that of siblings from an abusive household. You will ultimately feel like you work for a corporate billion dollar company where tons of money is being made but you just don't get any of it. If you want to become a manager good luck. Its either not worth it or never going to happen.

Day to day car sales car be a wild roller coaster. Top of the world to bottom of the barrel on a month to month basis.

Autonation offers extensive training and coaching opportunities which can be extremely hit or miss and largely depends on your management team. After 8 years with this company yes you can learn a lot. Yes you can potentially move up or around but it seems to really be by favor and politics.

Be prepared to constantly changes policies and procedures for no rhyme or logical reason. Be ready and willing to let things not bother you that should other wise you will have your productivity crushed as every single metric and stat will be scrutinized and review and reviewed again. As soon as you hit metrics in one area the focus will move and change and a large majority of the time the metrics you are actually able to attain aren't completely in your control based on the market, traffic, and available opportunities. The company seems to value stats over actual productivity and results which can really start to weigh you down over the year.

Work place culture can be a huge roller coaster depending on your team and what Autonation is currently scrutinizing. I have had a lot of fun with my team and my co workers and built life long relationships typically under the shared crushing weight of Autonation policies and procedures. You will be asked to do more, produce more, and be paid less for it overall. If something doesn't make sense or have logical rational reasoning behind it be prepared to simply deal with it until the decide randomly to change it again.

Compensation wise I can comfortably say it is abysmal. Unless you are make the company obscene amount of front end profitability you will likely make minimum commissions on every car while you hope and pray for a random chance encounter on a high value vehicle with no discounts or used car with profit built in. The car market is a largely back end profitable business with manufactures paying dealerships back of invoice on cars sold which sales people are not paid on. On top of a profit margin deduction that started last year and a laughable back end pay structure (think a tank of gas and maybe a dinner date on an average month) the company just doesn't seem to value sales people to actually pay them to stay. We had a great run during covid but the market sucks currently and autonations ever increasing demands from their purely commission sales people drains you when traffic isn't coming in and you are waiting for your next opportunity.

Sales is a self starter and self managed position that not every excels at. Autonation can be a great place to start to build and develop sales experience if you don't need a consistent pay check or come from an extremely low monthly income. I don't think I can recommend it any longer as it is mentally draining and car sales feels like a dying industry working for this company. I can recommend it as a stepping stone into a dealership or company that pays their sales employees in line with dealership profitability.

Autonation is great company that provides its employees ample opportunities.

A typical workday at AutoNation corporate is not typical at all. During the month end, certain teams are in full overdrive mode to meet the deadlines to ensure AutoNation has its reporting completed in a timely fashion. Outside of this, the work will vary depending on the team a person sits with. One thing is constant, however. The ability and freedom to travel to different floors and speak with different teams (marketing, accounting, IT, etc.) to get an understanding of what objectives each team strive to achieve on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis allows a sense of belonging and understanding how the greater overall objectives of AutoNation are achieved. 

The most enjoyable part about my job is the gym. With the gym on site, I personally have the motivation to make it to the office building early and leave later than most. Lunch time exercises are also possible! Having that ability to just work out the body before or after the workday is incredible because you can guarantee that each day at work you are performing at your highest level. This shows the dedication made by AutoNation to its employees on the basis of greater general health and well-being.

Management team is incredible. The company has done a phenomenal job attracting talented and experienced persons with the experience to execute management decisions with the knowledge on guiding fewer senior employees to take on ownership and additional responsibilities aimed and accelerating career progression and growth. Within less than two months into the job, I was able to present to the direct reporting managers a process to add automation to a key area where much time is spent. At other companies, this opportunity would not have been presented until well over a year of active full-time employment. 

The workplace culture is one of marvel. There are a number of initiatives that have been launched in the past two years to promote diversity and inclusion. One worth mentioning is the flag program where each employee can select up to two flags that represent the cultural and familial lineage and have it displayed in their workflow space. This has allowed people to connect in more intangible ways, achieving more organic connections than asking the questions like "Where are you from?" or "Where does your family come from?" is able to accomplish. 

The hardest part of the job currently is reapplying everything learned in the first 90 days in an automated, technologically driven fashion. With the state of society and its access to technology, there is a lot of opportunity to reduce the amount of work humans perform on manual, repetitive tasks and processes. Sometimes within the corporate setting, one can get comfortable with doing the same thing over and over if it gets the job done. However, by eliminating the tasks that add less value, the option for employees to focus on value-add activities that drive the success of their career at Autonation is important. AutoNation provides the tools and training to be able to accomplish this. Making sure to get comfortable with being uncomfortable is a key part of the difficulty factor in my current role at AutoNation.  


DO MORE WITH LESS is the AutoNation motto.  Failing computers, outdated applications, poor quality.  Not to mention hiring chronic drug users and people who can't drive stick...at a dealership.  You are punished for wanting to work.  They reduce staff THEN tell you to only work 40hrs in a 12hr a day business, while cutting the staff.  All they care about is their own paychecks at the top end AT the expense of their employees that actually EARN that money for them.  Working at Auto Nation is truly embarrassing and demoralizing. The absolutely WORST programs and concepts come from Autonation, and when it fails it will be your fault.  Regardless of the fact that ZERO time or attention was spent beta testing.  The AutoGear program is a joke at best.  The application, the follow through, the support, all poor.  MULTIPLE systems put in place when only one is needed.  Everything about Autonation is over-complicated and over engineered and at the end of the day does not work.  The Precision Parts program is garbage, the Autonation own brand of parts.  By far the worst quality and craftsman ship is who they use to make their parts.  But again it's all only about their profit.  Clearly it's not about their quality or their reputation for trustworthy parts.  The accounting department and SSC is run by the most inept people that were fired as greeters from Walmart for incompetence.  When accounting doesn't pay their bills, departments suffer and greatly all because they can't do their jobs, which is monthly.  They most things around or delete accounts and some how it's the dealership level people's fault when they don't have access.  Another issue, is the gross lack of normal accesses that ANY OTHER dealership gives their employees, you can't have.  So they leave the most lazy and incompetent people with the most access.  They will move money from one account to another and the demand you find it because it's "your fault", when you don't have the access.  Every senior manager and director is a puppet for corporate and spineless to fighting for their people.  Those in charge of money are clueless.  Departments abound that protect the most incompetent employees.  If you steal, you will keep your job because of the spineless management.  The only way to get fired whatever it is you do, and have done, for years, it has to get so bad the GM has to find out...or the hosting manufacturer.  And even then they will try to sweep it under the rug.  It pays to be in the "cool kids club".  It doesn't matter how bad you are at your job, or much you steal, you'll be protected.  You can cost your own department tens of thousands every month, and a few other departments too...you'll be fine, your in the cool kids club.

AutoNation Ford, Marietta is incredibly unorganized. The finance managers are constantly contracting customers on the wrong vehicle forcing the customer(s) to be inconvenienced by having to return to the store and spend at least another 45 minutes in the finance office resigning their contract and purchase agreement. Sometimes this process drags out and takes longer. 
Customers call and leave voicemails for various reasons but have an incredibly difficult time getting their call returned, at which point they (the customer) has to return to the store in order to get a response to their concern.
On another occasion, one customer put down a deposit on a truck and it was sold out from under him because the dealership made more money selling it to another customer. The used car manager then lied to the customer saying that the vehicle ended up having mechanical issues and was now a wholesale car. 
The finance manager prioritizes what deals he works on based on whether or not he personally makes any money off of it. This not only affects the customer but also affects the pay check of the employee. 
New sales staff aren’t put through all necessary training in a timely manner and the internet sales manager doesn’t offer any help or guidance. The lack of inconsistency ultimately puts the employee and the dealership at a disadvantage because employees aren’t being taught how to work leads properly which then results in missed opportunities and again, affects the paycheck of the employee and the overall well-being of the store.
Representatives of the companies that the dealership partners with have stop coming to the store to conduct training because of all of the issues. 
Management turnover is ridiculous. In 14 months, there have been 14 managers that have come and gone; 2 in service, 4 in internet sales, 4 used car managers, 2 new car managers and 5 finance managers. With the exception of 5 employees, the majority of the sales people have been there less than 6 months- they just can’t seem to hire quality sales associates and if they do, they can’t manage to retain them. 
Sales opportunities that the managers work behind the scenes get handed over to a couple of select sales people and aren’t distributed fairly. 
If the GM isn’t a huge fan of you, you will ultimately starve and be forced out or won’t receive the necessary assistance you require in order to rectify an issue.
The key to being successful at anything is consistency and the only thing this store is consistent about is how much they blame things on Corporate, their unhealthy Saturday lunches and their ability to inconvenience the customer.

I worked for this company for a long time. It was my first experience at a car dealership and I figured what I endured was just typical car dealership stuff. When you are in management, you will not have a life. The money you make...you will never have time to spend it. Management is expected to work 65-70 hours a week. If it's the last week of the month, then they expect a 6 day work week and open to close. The thing about closing...is you can close at 8pm but sometimes you are there until 10-11pm because of customers that come in late. And do you get any thanks for that by the General Manager? Nope. But guess who doesn't work those hours...the General Manager. He's gone by 5 or 6. But the GM will just continue to beat on you. The culture and philosophy is fear based management. On the rare instances you get to take a day off during the week, expect to be continually called by other managers and the GM because they are too lazy to recognize the mental break an employee needs and find an answer or solution themselves. They are focused on 1 thing....appeasing their shareholders and that is it. They could care less about employee well being, employee mental health, the toll the job takes on relationships. It's work work work and they are not progressive and are falling behind other Fortune 500 companies for providing a workplace to where you don't feel like a minion. As far as the pay goes, I thought I made good money. But then when I started at another dealership, I saw just how terrible their pay for managers was. I can't stress how much I absolutely hate this company, their philosophy and their culture. After leaving, I actually sought out a therapist because of the mental stress this job put on me. Oh...and to that point, you have to have thick skin. Myself and other employees have been screamed at, degraded and made to feel worthless. I was in denial about this because I felt I was trapped in this job and needed it for survival. When I left...it was like I was leaving a cult. I began to enjoy life again, repair relationships with my spouse and woke up with purpose for myself...not my just my employer. They have a saying that employees quit managers. That is exactly what I did. I quit the managers and the company. Another saying is Work to Live, not Live to Work. At AutoNation...you will Live to Work. STAY AWAY

This job is not for the faint of heart. 
You have appointments set for you throughout the day with a range of different requests from the customers, i.e. oil changes to check engine lights and more. 
You must manage expectations to the customer letting them know about extended wait times between their drop-off and time for diagnosis as well as receiving parts and completing of repairs. 
You are solely responsible for dispatching the work you write up to the technicians to get them looked at and following up with your customers on a daily basis as to the status of their vehicle. 
You will have  angry customers right off the bat because diagnosis takes anywhere from 2-5 business days where customers assume their appointment is to get it diagnosed from a technician standing around waiting for them whereas their appointment is simply to drop it off to get it in line for diagnosis. 
You must submit claims through customers' extended warranty companies to get work approved which can either be done online(best case scenario) or by phone(where hold times can range from 5 minutes to an hour or so).
The incoming phone calls hardly get answered, so when you do get a call from your customer wanting an update, they will be upset as they've already tried calling multiple times a day to get through the automated system and through operators.
This is a corporate owned business and has sales models and expectations managed from people at desks you will never or rarely see.
Management will help you out getting to where you need to be before your ready to sit up front and take tickets as you have a 3 month paid training period before you are put on commission only pay.
There is a potential to make really good money at this work place, however work hours are long and there is little time at home. 
Service department hours are 7am-7pm.
Work hours are 0645-6PM daily, One day a week, you will close till 7pm on your designated night to close; You will also have to work every other Saturday from 8am-5pm.
There are nights where I've stayed till 9:30pm trying to catch up on paperwork, get estimates together for customers, submit claims to extended warranty, etc.
As I said earlier, there is big potential to make good money at this place, however you will be working 65-80 hrs/week or more. 


Management doesn’t seem Understand employees limitations. Was hired as a express technician. Shortly after being successful in the program they expressed to me that they would like be to try a new trade in the Autonation umbrella. They offered me a position on a used car reconditioning team but as a window tinted. I saw they really needed my help and said that I’ve never tried to tint windows before. Training was provided and I wasn’t 100 on the completion of tinting windows. Told them I felt the quality wasn’t good. They said it was fine. Well guess what if the customer comes back complaining about the tints your forced to remove and clean up the tints for Free. Not to mention that they pay three hours to install and would take me six hours to complete on job. It all adds up to losing money on a flat rate pay. Basically your working for no compensation. When you brought up you concerns to them they would bully you into doing it anyway. Finally after what seemed like years they removed me from used cars and placed me on the express team again. Was excited to make money again I began to work towards my goal. When one of the top administrators came up to me and said “ just so you know your still our tint guy”. I told him I couldn’t Survive doing that service and that I’ll need to make more hours. “Your the only on in the building that can do them so we need you to do them”. After walking away I tried to discuss my issue with my lead and store manager. When the administrator came up to us he asked what was going on that’s when I told him that I felt like he wants me to leave cause they can’t resolve the issue with the window tinting. That when he shook my hand and told me “Good Luck”. And that’s how they ended my employment at AutoNation. The quality of the window tinting was the first issue. Second issue they don’t compensate you to remove tint they wanted installed. Third issue they didn’t hear me when I told them I was losing financially cause it would take me twice as long as the book time to complete the task. They don’t care about your financial issues caused by there poor leadership. AutoNation now has a reputation in my mind as a greedy company.

I would not even know where to start how much of a unpleasant nightmare it had been working at this establishment and feel my voice needs to be heard that someone needs to hear this. I worked at this establishment for 6 months  I started working in November of 2015 Was very excited to have a job working for BMW that this would be great start for my career little did I know the 6 month nightmare that I had in store. I am 26 and been in the Car business since I was the age of 15 starting as a porter working my way up to a manger of my own business which was family owned and unfortunately came to closing in the summer of 2015 so coming to this job I was hoping to grow in my career even if I had to start back from the bottom. This establishment is run by young kids I was appalled at the lack of management that goes on in this store. I was verbally harassed by my coworkers and treated with no dignity or respect. I followed all the channels to make complaints with HR department. Who then made empty promises to take action on the employees who surprising were not terminated due to the complaints that I made and even admitted to disregarding a previous complaint due to budget cuts! 
 While working their I also encountered absolutely horrific and despicable management and customer service. I was witnessing daily complaints from high paying customers on how they had been mistreated and neglected. And then to top all of it off during my time their due to unfortunate circumstances I became ill with severe stomach issues during that time as an employee their I was also denied a medical phone call by the same coworkers who were harassing me since I started my work their I then took this issue to hr who said they took hostile work environments seriously of which they did not because of this phone denial I was unable after to come to work and ended up in the hospital later which they gave me 2 week personal leave to cover their buts and then forced me to terminate myself due to my medical status. Their needs to be something done with this company im not one to write reviews but this I could not keep quiet about the lack of management and being treated by this company for wrongfully.

As a technician, my days are always different. Like any job, it has its pros and cons. One perk is the opportunity to drive vehicles that the average person would not be able to, such as high-end luxury cars, or a rare/vintage sports car. The downside of a high-end luxury car dealer is the high-strung customers that demand the world and see you as nothing but something (not someone) that is in their way. Now, to be clear not all customers are like this. Many are very nice people, but with most luxury brands going downmarket to increase sales, it seems less and less. 
The work can be very challenging, which can be very rewarding or frustrating depending on who you are. you really learn how to manage your time, as your pay will reflect it. Speaking of pay, technicians at Autonation are some of the highest paid technicians in my area. They have a set pay plan that everyone uses, so everything is transparent and based on experience in the field and/or certifications. This makes it fair for anyone that may have years of experience in another brand, yet do not have specific manufacturers certifications like others might. The bonuses and pay increases over the years have been very generous as well.
Management can vary greatly, as it does everywhere else. Very few dealers can keep the same management, or even front-end staff around for long. Just the nature of the business as you can get burned out quick, and other offers can be abundant. 
One thing lacking is a strong corporate culture, as you are so far removed from "Autonation corporate", that you forget who actually signs the checks. You work for a dealership of a manufacturer, owned locally by someone else, which is under the umbrella of yet another company. When things go wrong, it is hard to find a person to blame, and even harder to find a solution. I would prefer a locally owned dealer that has been around for years, possibly even owned by the same family for generations. At least you know who to talk to!
All in all, mileage may vary. Autonation is another large corporation that slaps their name on the shop that already existed and probably already has their own culture, then tries to bring it under their umbrella, for better & worse. Good luck!

Let me see where to get started. I'll go back to the interview. The first sales manager I spoke with told me that I'd have plenty of time off (I've been 3 weeks now without an off day), also that base salary is $3,500 a month when there actually isn't a base pay. The base pay is minimum wage that you owe back. But that is what happens when you are working a job for 2 and a half weeks expecting 3k+ a month before they even have you sign the pay plan paperwork. Micromanaging is an every day once an hour task. Rain sleet snow or hail if you don't have an up (even tho you've only been there 2 weeks) you better have an appointment or you get no off day that week. To top it all off, if you don't make a ton of phone calls every day you get brought into an office and yelled at and talked to like a child. EVEN THOUGH YOU'VE ONLY BEEN SELLING CARS FOR 2 WEEKS. I was never taught the sales process. My first day ever selling cars I was put on the lot and told to go at it. I'm 19 years old and never sold cars. But it's a good thing auto nation knows how to treat people. Because my third day when I sold a vehicle I got yelled at because I didn't have all the paperwork. Talk about irony. Icing on top of the cake: I caught a fresh up and put him in a vehicle he loved. Had him sold. But seeing how we can hire new associates every week but not get a finance manager to punch in deals, he had to walk. That was on my first week. I just now figured out how to find my no sales in compass. When I look back he's not even under my name anymore. He's already had an appointment scheduled through a 20+ year vet and has been transferred to his planner. Any one seeing this should know that auto nation definitely isn't the place to work. In my opinion, the largest problem auto nation has, is promoting salesman to GM's. They sit in the tower long enough and get their memory distorted and a 10-car-a-month salesman who got moved up because he's been there his whole life suddenly turns into a god of a salesman who thinks he's above everyone. Good luck if you choose this place. Hope you don't have a temper or a family to support. I'm headed to a group 1 company as soon as I get the drug test done #peace

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Service technician 21 salaries reported	$26.58 per hour
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Service advisor 117 salaries reported	$7,220 per month
Inside sales representative 1 salary reported	$2,500 per month

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