automotive technician

lot attendant

automotive service advisor

receptionist

car sales executive

Ciocca Automotive

I was hired as a sales consultant at Ciocca Subaru in November 2019 following 3 interviews.  During my employment orientation the terms of my compensation changed 180 degrees from what the job description stated and what I was committed to in writing and verbally during each interview. I was told that the sales manager made a mistake and offered me a salary/commission program that they no longer offer.  I was told by the General Sales Manager that this entire travesty was a simple misscommunication, no it was misrepresentation.  The General Sales Manager did not back up anything promised but made every attempt to cover-up their diversions and attempt to change their committments.They went as far as to state that the salary/commission program I was seeking is available at Ciocca Audi next door and they would hire me at that delealership.  Within 48 hours I found myself without a job, with no position at Subaru or Audi, and devestated after weeks of interviews and actually being hired.  I passed their backgound check and drug test as well.

PLEASE it is my opinion stay away from Ciocca Dealerships at any and all costs.  They preach transparency at every level but make every attempt to hide their true intention - THAT IS TO PLACE THE INTEREST OF THE DEALERSHIP ABOVE ETHICS AND TRUTH AT ALL COST.  Ciocca Subaru is the largest Subaru in the US based on annual vehicle sales.  They will exploit the employee by offering a $125k/year commission only package making the reality to confusing and difficult to manage that you would need an accountant to be sure you are paid what is due.  The last item to note is Ciocca with all his dealerships and successs utilizes the sales team to be their snow removal staff requiring shoveling out over 400+ vehicles every snowfall.  So not only sell but save their company $'s every year through the burden and strain now on your back. To the very end 80 hour weeks, snow removal, dishonest managment at dealership level, and broken committments should be enough to make anyone STAY AWAY FROM THIS POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT NIGHTMARE!  Please note their job description now states "entry level sales consultant" which changed from previous job descriptions looking for experienced talent as well.  They know that an experienced professsional sales person will see through their smoke and mirrors and call them out on every broken promise therefore try to exploit young talent and mold them right out of college to their way of thinking.

My time at Ciocca was meh. When they first took over there were great promises made how the dealership was going to turn around and be the best place to work in town. Months went by and all we kept hearing was "Just hang on, it's going to get better." Fast forward a year, I'm struggling to pay bills because of the broken flat rate pay system and no guarantee. Tech's are left to fend for themselves if there are no cars to work on. Tech's are underpaid and are threatened with termination if they discuss their pay with each other as a method to keep everyone's pay as low as they ethically can. Management is a revolving door, half the time they have no idea what's going on and are just winging it. There's a new manager there just about every week. The current Service Manager, is one of the absolute best managers I've ever had. This man will fight tooth and nail to get you what you deserve and is a very genuine and fun individual. The other technicians, parts department, and service staff are the most wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of calling my coworkers. The culture of the shop is top notch; very progressive and inclusive and I have made many lifelong friends there. Corporate is overbearing and only concerned about numbers and if your shirt is tucked in while you're working on cars. The shop itself is very small, the lifts are very close to each other and Half of the shop equipment is either broken or unused so it just sits in the shop taking up space. Outside of that, it's a great place to work, very very good benefits, best people I've ever worked with. It's a shame that it ended when it did because things were finally starting to look better. Give it about 6 months and it'll be a great place to work all around. If you're willing to take a gamble, this is the place. I would work here again in a heartbeat, just for the sake of the service manager and the rest of the service staff. 

I began my career at Ciocca in March 2024 and initially had nothing but positive experiences with the company. I even referred multiple people to join the team because of the competitive pay, excellent benefits, and strong opportunities for growth. However, recent changes within the company have completely altered that perception.

In March 2025, Ciocca restructured its pay plan, significantly impacting employees who are not in sales or BDC roles. Unfortunately, it has become clear that those outside of these departments are no longer valued in the same way. Over the past few weeks, the company has conducted mass layoffs across multiple dealerships, creating an unstable and uncertain work environment.

Additionally, my own compensation plan was drastically reduced by thousands of dollars, making it financially unsustainable. Despite voicing my concerns to both management and the VP, I received no response from upper leadership. When I addressed the issue with my general manager, I was met with complete disregard—after expressing my concerns in tears, I was simply told to “put a smile on” and return to work, despite the financial strain the changes had caused.

Further compounding the toxic environment, the new GM at our location fostered an unprofessional and exclusionary atmosphere, making those who did not share his religious beliefs feel alienated. He also made inappropriate comments about my partner’s work ethic directly to me, asking me to keep those remarks to myself. Meanwhile, the GM at Subaru has displayed a complete lack of empathy and leadership, making it an increasingly difficult place to work.

Ciocca was once an exceptional company to work for, but as of March 2025, that is no longer the case. The recent restructuring, layoffs, and poor leadership decisions have completely shifted the company culture, prioritizing profits over people

From the start my description of what was to be expected was very positive. This is not how things unfolded. They do have a career path for employees, except when it is in their benefit to not hire within which is often. They have a sales process to make things standardized and easy to follow (yet it elongates a customers showroom time in many cases), except for when their favorites do not have to follow the process and you do. Favoritism is 100% real at this location. Expect that some will be given sales while you actually work to provide for yourself and family. The positive outlook from management felt like nothing more than lots of hot air and smoke blown. The main driving reinforcement is negative reinforcement hanging your very livelihood over your head. They preach a team environment, but breed a sales floor that is nothing short of cutthroat. They preach work/life balance, but are quick to tell you be at work open to close regardless of your schedule or time off approved. This happened to the whole campus surrounding Christmas. Pregnant employees, employees with birthday plans approved, employees who need their time off to help tend their families at home were notified to work open to close for the rest of the year or suffer whatever consequence they had in store. The leadership offers no real leadership, just their own two cents on how they think you should sell a car. It was a toxic environment where the highs were short lived and the lows were so low and drawn out at the expense of the people working hard to sell cars on the sales floor.

As an automotive veteran with several years of management experience at different dealerships, I was asked to come in for an interview for a management position, leading to a GM role. 

After several interviews, I was told that I would need to start off in a sales position just to “learn their sales process” so that I could properly teach it to my employees when I am made manager. I thought this was strange since I had probably more experience than the managers currently at the store, but I foolishly agreed. 

My first full month, I led the sales team for most of the month despite not having any bdc leads or repeat business. I did so well that they asked me to train the sales guys because the sales managers and current GM weren’t reaching them. When I asked about my promotion, they told me that the group purchases dealerships all the time and eventually a position will open up that I can apply to.

Had a few heated discussions with upper management about their deception, which they did not deny. This group collects talented individuals, severely underpays the sales team, and tries to brainwash them into making sacrifices for the good of the company and future crumbs. As a veteran, I saw right through the lies, but only after wasting a couple of months of my time.

Stay away from working at the Ciocca Group. There are much better and more reputable dealerships that actually value their employees and pay them a fair salary.

 
Allentown Ciocca Subaru dealership is a very corporate-driven environment. You can be written up for things you did not do, simply because they rely more on hearsay. I have seen favoritism play a big role there, especially on a flat-rate system. Older technicians are consistently fed more work and receive the good jobs — the “big hour” ticket jobs — while others are left with warranty and undesirable work that doesn’t pay much.

It’s essentially a system where it’s every man for themselves. You’re on your own. There is very little willingness to help or teach; everyone acts like a gatekeeper. You are expected to learn everything by yourself. There is no real teamwork at this place. Everyone is focused on doing their own thing, trying to make as many hours as possible, and pushing cars through the dealership as fast as they can.

When mistakes happen, you are not given the opportunity to learn what you did wrong or how to correct it. Instead, people talk behind your back and make fun of you for it. You can even be written up by management for a mistake without any guidance or support. Managers and team leads do not offer much help when you are stuck on a vehicle.

At one point, management “accidentally” exposed everyone’s pay rates to all the technicians, which created a toxic work environment afterward. After working for the company for a couple of years, it’s clear that the company is primarily focused on profit and expansion and does not truly care about its employees. Compensation does not reflect the company’s growth or the effort put in by its workers.



The interview process makes you feel like you're joining a cult. Including reading a weird pamphlet and finding the moral to the story. I was honestly hoping not to get the job because it was such a weird over the top "look how happy we are" process, but I got the job and did it well. What you're told in interview, isn't what the company actually follows through with. I was told one thing in interview and upon hire about my pay, by the time i was there 6 months, they changed it, told me two days after the change went into effect. Effectively, I wasn't being compensated for the work I was doing. Management will never back up their employees, ignore customer wants, and will use employees as scapegoats. Customers refuse to come back due to their practices, employees quit weekly, or they are fired for standing up for themselves or the customer. Unless you're a yes man or a robot, you will be looking for a new job in less than a year. 

Don't believe the hiring managers lies. They're young, inexperienced kids that have less than 5 years working experience.  They don't pay well at all. It's a revolving door for employment. People work there a few months, realize they can't live on the crummy pay, and leave. The owners and managers don't care either. Only managers get factory training, and great pay. That's why they stay there. They beat flat rate hours out of tech's, and your working performance is never good enough according to themselves. While the manager stand around eating donuts all day they don't share with anybody else, and do next to nothing for what their paid for. The pay for tech's is flat rate, no guarantee. So they lose nothing on you being there. No work, equals no money. I started as a Tech there just as the new owners took over. Suddenly I noticed all the experienced tech's that worked there for years started quitting because they lowered their pay some how. Which, I thought was illegal, but the management found a way to do this. After 5 months, I quit. I was going broke. Almost any dealership out there pays better, and treats you like a civilized human being. But, not the young guy running this place.  He's a real big fan of himself, and his money. Expects you to enslave yourself in the shop for his personal profit. 
So, if you're a good Tech, don't go there ! Move on, your wasting your time in this place. And going broke for the sake of the owner, who seems to buy a new car dealership once a month. That's how much money he makes of of his employees !

I enjoyed my time at this company for approximately the first year I spent. Things gradually go downhill with a newer manager that can't assess the needs of the department without help. The compensation was decent, but with a newer manager not generating leads, the commission isn't worth the pressure and boredom of trying to make 80 calls a day with the same lists and trying to keep yourself busy through the day. Yes, it's normal for leads to go dry sometimes, but with too many reps sharing lists, you can only contact the same people so many times. Not every contact is a call, and the call amount is the primary goal, not the actual appointment...  
We also worked in an office that received little to no maintenance or cleaning.  We also were responsible for calls for a local Ciocca, which faltered in communication, which was something that had to be consistently brought up in bi-monthly meetings & weekly. 
The only things I enjoyed were the busy days, actually having fresh leads, and the staff of the service department that I did not have to work with, because some issues with other people's attitudes were never addressed by mentioned extremely passive, non-assertive, new manager. 
Maybe things will improve in time, but I do not want to deal with it anymore, as much as I tried and liked some of the people I worked with.  

My first months were fine- not good but not bad. I was (at the time) paid the most I'd ever been at the time (not a good judgement at all- Eat the Rich and fight for your wages.) @ 14/hr- I'd even get 15/hr after my first 3 months whether I went to flat-rate or hourly and I was doing what I loved!

..And then I was told I was not working fast enough... again and again.. I was told to leave car after car after car with pet hair and dirt all over the insides and the outsides ran through a VERY poorly running automatic car wash that was NEVER maintained.. a harsh contrast to what I was lured in with- Reasonable Polishing/Buffing times, detail-oriented work, etc.  On top of it all I was still forced to be flat-rate while still being forced to work harder than I was told and leaving cars dirty only to be in turn yelled at (after being told it's clean enough).

I cannot stress enough that they do NOT care about customers, employees or anyone they hurt as long as they can upsell that shotty car they're selling and prey on the vulnerable. They ACTIVELY teach their Salesman dirty tactics- of which you will hear of if you have any close work-relationships with the salesmen or managers; how they upsold a 2011 beater by another 5k and how they're getting X amount of it and laughing all the while. 

Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive technician 126 salaries reported	$82,560 per year
Lot attendant 7 salaries reported	$15.29 per hour
Automotive service advisor 123 salaries reported	$67,785 per year
Receptionist 1 salary reported	$17.00 per hour
Car sales executive 42 salaries reported	$99,643 per year

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