automotive mechanic

car sales executive

automotive service advisor

automotive technician

body shop estimator

Group 1 Automotive

I started working for the company back in August 2021 as a service coordinator and I left couple of days ago within this month. I found out that this company, Group 1, is not a good fit for me because of the grotesque work environment, where management does not appreciate you as an employee, even though you are working at your upmost best in scheduling service for the customers. What made me irritated in this work position is management will play favorites for those who achieved a greater amount of customer compliments, rather than assisting or coaching each employee to improve their customer service skills. Sometimes when you attempt to ask team lead or manager for any help with your calls, they will scoff at you for not doing good job as a customer service agent.

The other reason I left the company is the attendance policy, also known as the strike system. You will be considered late for 1 strike, even if you came in late for over 5 mins from the beginning of your shift and 1 strike after, if you decided to leave 5 mins early before the end of your shift. Because I take the metro bus most of the time, it is hard for me to walk down three blocks down where the bus stop drops off and then pass along a couple of guard dogs near the garage warehouses in the sections of Sprite St. Plus it was also difficult to be on time, due to the metro buses run on different times and usually run late in the early mornings.

Training for the service coordinator position takes only two weeks. Afterwards, the company will put you in the floor as a nesting period, where you will be able to experience the call center environment. The training, in my opinion, felt vague, where our trainer did not explain well about the call center procedures and left some important features out from the training sessions. We have to experience the call situations ourselves, once we are on the floor. I also did not like the idea that we have to buddy jack ourselves, instead of buddy jacking with experienced call center agents who had done their job for more than 1-2 years. I was expecting to gain insight from all this, but it did not, which I had to figure out most of it myself.

The work environment in this company is extremely introverted. Most of the employees in Group 1 do not want to associate you or provide helpful tips/advices for handling call flows. The employees wanted to be in their own space and pretend smiling like nothing is happening, which in my opinion feels kind of awkward. On the other hand, most communication with employees are only done though email or chat via instant messager, rather than communicating face-to-face, due to pandemic protocols. Some employees like to talk toxic gossip about other co-workers, while other employees watch directly on their smartphones, while on a call, and act in their own universe. Management does not seem to care about this, but they only care whether you show up on time, follow the adherence schedules, and do the work.

Working for Group 1 is good for employees who are only new and wanted an experience in working at a call center environment within the car service industry. Because I had been working as a call center agent for over 13 years, it becomes boring when working in a service coordinator position for this company. I worked for 90 days just to see why the company had problems of loosing agents in the service coordinator field. Now that I have understand the problem, this company’s for those  who want to earn money and do not care about learning the customer service experience. Management becomes subjectively political in favoring those who want to keep their loyal employees and discard most other employees who do not meet the attendance adherence policy and productivity criteria. I do not recommend working for this company, if you do not have the stamina to withstand insulting embarrassment comments or have a weak-minded motivation. The only benefit here is whether you are considered certifying yourself in being a service advisor and transferring for any Group 1 dealership, good luck working for the company within 1 year.


Typical workday for an advisor is 12hrs minimum.7am-7pm. Late shift is 9am-9pm. Advisors are first on shift and last off shift. They are closed on Sundays according to their website now. But Sundays were considered a "short day" 10am-5pm. Breaks were taken where time was allowed, you could usually get away for about seven minutes a few times a day. Taking a weekly consistent lunch break is extremely difficult, but if you have worked as an advisor anywhere else that is the norm in the industry. BH Toyota is the only dealership within Group 1 Automotive that still uses paper intake forms vs tablets/iPads. Personally, I thought it took entirely way too long. This led to incorrect information, duplicate entries and repetitive data being entered into their system. 

The most positive take away from the “advisor section” are the seasoned advisors (4+ years on site). They do their best to help each other succeed. It takes about 8-10 months to get spun up and accurately forecast how much you can really make a quarter/annually. After that, you should be able to find your groove and figure out what you need to make to keep the lights on. The service director is very understanding, holds staff accountable and does their best to please the dealership employees. They would have a furious customer storm into their office-20mins later walk out laughing and scheduling their next service. How they did this is beyond me. Your GM is a GM. If you know, you know. My experience with customers on a typical day was about 75/25. 75% were pleasant and understanding the other half were entitled and name dropped or complained just to get something for free, whether that be a complimentary service or an extreme discount. Again, if you have worked in the industry, that happens no matter what logo is on the hood. Communication is always key, but you must choose your battles wisely.

Workplace culture for a dealership is right on par if not just a stroke or two below most weeks. The hardest part is doing your job.  The Service department is understaffed, underpaid, and over-worked. However, that is what made the job exciting. The bombardment of hats you had to wear at any given time and still being able to close a deal, make a customer happy, make a tech happy, make Sales happy, make the GM happy all to go home at the end of the day knowing the next day would be COMPLETLEY different. They are the unsung heroes and show up every day ready to do it all over again…. Hope this made up your mind. 


I started with Group one in February of this year, training was thorough, and prepared you for the job. However, once you get on the floor and start taking calls you realize that you can’t do much most of the time when clients complain. The Call center takes calls from dealership locations all over the country, so you’ll have clients wanting to speak to someone at the actual dealership, which you’ll have to look up and attempt to get an answer, which they don’t; which then upsets the client, who is under the impression you’re actually present on site. This happens several times a day, call after call. If you’re lucky you might get an answer, but most of the Service Advisor are rude, and dislike the call center, so don’t expect the warmest reception. On a tangent, during training you’ll get the chummy reception by management that uses terminology like “relationship” or “transparency”to describe the work culture. Don’t buy it, and don’t be honest with them. I made the mistake of being honest with them, and a week later I was terminated for a minuscule detail, while my superior gave me the work a round , despite them stating that the company was  adamant about “second chances.” This came after a previous discussion with management in which my vehicle was damaged at one of our dealerships within the company, so I left a scalding review, and my management decided to reprimand me by stating that I was not upholding the company policy of “teamwork.” Overall, this job was exhausting, day after day riddled with complaints, and frustrated clients in which you were hopeless to truly assist; This In addition to the sudden scheduling changes by workforce management giving everyone the work around. I will admit the job pays well, and has low standards on prospect employees, but it will leave you drained at the end of the day. 

The only thing that possessed me to write is the company's reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic and their attitudes towards this crisis.  I like the dealership and it's management team.  But with this crisis the corporate's attitude is all about money money money.  Every day we go to work and worry about who we're exposing ourselves to.  Fellow employees work shoulder to shoulder, gather in lunch rooms sitting 2 feet from each other, share from the same food, and management does nothing.  It wasn't until just recently they put into effect distancing customers from fellow service advisors.  The corporate's attitude is it's no big deal.  Don't worry and get back to work.  People are getting sick and dying and executives sit in their safe offices or at home and don't express any sympathy or support for the front line workers who are exposing themselves to this deadly virus.  They only care about how much today's stock is selling for and how much business you did that day.  There's never been any support or caring for the health and safety of the worker who is still working for them.   The company laid off half the work force and the other half keeps socializing at work like there's no pandemic.  No one practices safe distance, there's no masks, no sanitizing products, and we're forced to be exposed to customers and certain hazardous situations daily with no protection.  I personally am scared to death, literally, to have to work like this but I need the money.  I will say the store GM recently has been trying to help by getting gloves and masks and other products but it's the corporate management team who should be ashamed of themselves.  No one has taken a pro-active position and visited the stores or messaged the existing workers or even showed them they cared by putting into place safety measures that would make everyone feel safe.

Working there started off pretty good even though I was seeing people quit left and right. I became really good friends with 2 people and I realized they are the only trustworthy people in that whole building. None of the managers care about you as a person...you're just a disposable workhorse and you don't get rewarded for the work that you do. Being a cashier, everyone thinks you're God and makes you do everything, so be prepared! This job got beyond stressful. I had doctors appointments that were mandatory and I was expected to miss them to get something else done that could've waited for the next day. I even got wrote up for deciding that my unborn child is more important than fulfilling their request to stay for such silly reasons. It's a dealership at the end of the day. Very selfish people. Very cutthroat. Not the type of place for someone who cares about their own well being because they certainly don't care. They even made a technologist stay at work a day and a half WITH THE FLU! They literally said they didn't care and still needed her to stay even though she looked dead! The woman I worked with had a mass in her breast the size of a racquetball and my manager said she didn't have to leave us short-handed and get the surgery...that she should have postponed it and worked longer. Probably one of the worst parts here is that the managers blatantly cuss and talk bad about even their veterans to everybody. The stuff I've witnessed (i.e. the high turnover rate and way they treat and talk about their employees) made me lose respect for this place. They did take us to Main Event once...so that's good!

Working at Bob Howard Chevrolet has its ups and downs. The co-workers are very nice, and easy to get along with. Techs get paid by flagged time, and if its not booked correctly, they lose money and get very upset ( very detail oriented, remember?) Management really is not that bad, service director is absolutely awesome, along with the tech manager, drive manager, and shop foreman. Once you warm up to being around nothing but men all day, it's very easy going, and they really are gentlemen. Advisors can get very lazy, and try to pawn some of  their tasks off on you, do not let them. Every day is a chance to learn something new, whether it's about your car, the programs you use every day, or just simple little things to make your job easier. Typing is required basically all day long, between sending emails and booking tickets. In my specific case, the pay is not worth it, for how much extra stuff I do, covering shifts for the other 2 cashiers, and doing more than my fair share of work around the office. Free time is almost unheard of here, there is always something that needs to be done. The hours are pretty crazy too, open at 7, close at 7, and that doesn't mean you leave at 7, if there is still customers you stay until they are gone, do your deposit, and then leave. It is highly unlikely to get weekends off, and it would be a 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. shift with an hour lunch break. Catered food on Saturday's, cashier orders for service, and the techs are very picky on food. On hot days they prefer cold sandwiches over hot food, that will go cold before they even have a chance to eat it. All in all it is my favorite job so far, but that is mostly because of the other workers.

The hours at this dealership are longer compared to others in the area, including some luxury brands that typically close earlier or observe more holidays. If you value having time off for holidays and spending time with family, this might be something to consider when looking at potential employers.

From my experience, success in sales here can sometimes depend on building strong relationships with management. It feels like certain sales opportunities might be more accessible to those who have closer connections with leadership. This has been my observation, and it’s something to remember if you’re considering a sales position.

Regarding the company culture, I’ve noticed some changes over time. For instance, holiday celebrations included more generous gifts and higher-quality food. Lately, it seems the focus has shifted, and these events feel less rewarding. Some of my colleagues have joked about the food quality during these occasions.

In general, while there are opportunities to develop strong sales skills here, I believe it’s important for prospective employees to consider whether the current environment aligns with their personal and professional goals. The dealership can be a good place to build experience in a competitive market, but it may not suit everyone’s preferences regarding work-life balance or recognition for hard work.

There are people working at this dealership who have been a Ford technician for over 30 years so there's a wealth of knowledge available if you ever have questions. However, the veteran technicians can be tough to get along with. The management team when I worked there was sub-par, and very much cared about their percentages more than their worker's well being. 

There were some options of moving upward, but these options were limited due to availability. The only technicians that would regularly rotate through the company were Lube Technicians so better positions were very scarce.

Almost everyone you will work with is friendly and helpful once they get to know you. When things are slow the other technicians do not mind at all if you were to hang around and ask if they needed help so you were able to learn a few things.

The most difficult part of the job was consistency. Some days you would be overloaded with work orders, back to back, with no break in between. Some days you would sit around for 4-5 hours with nothing to do but clean your area or find someone else to help.

The management was extremely friendly, but didn't always make the best decisions when considering their technicians. Work that you could have done more often than not went to another technician who's already scheduled out for the entire day, which ties in to the reason why a lot of people tended to sit around with no work.

So working two full days at the Round Rock Nissan location wasn't too bad. Only thing that I've struggled with was driving the Amazon vehicles which are super huge by the way and expect you to lift them even if you never lifted those types of vehicles before. 

What'd I learned: Honestly I felt I didn't really learn anything it was just stuff I already knew. 

Management: Not bad but there were no clear sense of direction or what they want you to do. Instead  they'll be like oh go work with this individual and do something I guess.  Plus when you ask about the schedule they never truly give you an exact answer as to what your schedule is until you pester them enough time to know what days you're working and what time you're working. 

Workplace Culture: A ton of favoritism as to who gets what job and what not. 

Hardest Part of the job: Driving and lifting Amazon vehicles 

Enjoyable Part of the Job: 1 hour lunches.

If you're looking to apply to this job you better hope to god you can drive Amazon types vehicle and lift them because they don't list it in the job description or tell you during the interview that you're going to be driving those types of vehicles.  And god forbid you know how to take a oil drain plug off because otherwise they'll judge you hard on having issues taking off one oil drain plug even though some oil change places tighten them super tight. 


From start to finish, this company is always looking to improve. It's one of the rare dealers where management would reprimand any employee that lied to customers for the sake of a sale. They're big enough that they don't need to lie to prosper. During my time there, the company worked hard on improving employee satisfaction, converting to a 4 day work week with one of the highest compensation packages I've ever seen in a dealership setting from base pay to bonus and commission pay. The company supports it's employees better than most dealers, which is a lot to say for anyone in the automotive industry. They promote from within, offer exclusive training packages for technicians, service advisors, and managers, and a great benefits package. 
Unfortunately, the management team is not good at communication with employees. If an issue arises, the open door policy becomes a catch all for digging information up to get rid of employees who don't fit their private group. It is survivable without being in the in-group, but eventually you will be pushed out regardless of the skills and results you bring to the table. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive mechanic 162 salaries reported	$37.41 per hour
Car sales executive 100 salaries reported	$91,421 per year
Automotive service advisor 82 salaries reported	$6,090 per month
Automotive technician 63 salaries reported	$38.98 per hour
Body shop estimator 10 salaries reported	$91,025 per year

Working at Group 1 Automotive: Company Overview and Reviews

Group 1 Automotive

Group 1 Automotive Ratings

Popular jobs at Group 1 Automotive

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected