automotive technician

car sales executive

sales representative

service advisor

lube technician

Lithia & Driveway

Working as a successful car sales consultant has been both challenging and rewarding, allowing me to develop my skills and grow professionally. Here is an overview of what a typical day at work looks like, along with insights into the aspects of the job that I have found most challenging and enjoyable.

A Typical Day at Work
My day usually starts with a quick team meeting to review targets and share any new updates from the manufacturer. Being certified with the brand and products, I spend a significant amount of time keeping up to date with the latest features and benefits of the vehicles we sell, ensuring I can provide the best possible service and advice to customers. Throughout the day, I interact with a wide range of clients, each with unique needs and preferences. My role involves listening to these needs, finding suitable car options, and guiding customers through the purchasing process.

What I've Learned
One of the key things I have learned is the importance of product knowledge. Being certified with the brand allows me to confidently answer customer queries and offer tailored solutions. This knowledge, combined with the art of sales, has helped me build trust with clients, resulting in successful sales and satisfied customers.

Management
Management is a blend of art and knowledge, and it's evident when either is lacking. While I've worked with managers who are supportive and skilled problem-solvers, I've also encountered those who act more like bosses, focusing solely on targets rather than team development. A good manager should inspire, guide, and solve problems, creating a more productive and harmonious work environment.

Workplace Culture
The workplace culture can be quite demanding, often putting pressure on sales consultants to meet targets. There are times when it feels like management passes on the pressure rather than providing solutions or support. However, this environment has taught me resilience and the ability to thrive under pressure.

The Hardest Part of the Job
One of the toughest aspects of my job is dealing with vehicle shortages. Finding the right car that matches a customer's desires and budget can be challenging when inventory is limited. This requires creativity and resourcefulness, as I strive to find alternatives that satisfy the customer's needs.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job
Despite the challenges, the most rewarding part of my job is seeing customers leave happy with their new car. It’s incredibly satisfying to know I’ve helped them find a vehicle they love and that meets their requirements. Positive reviews and referrals from satisfied customers are a testament to the hard work and dedication I put into every sale. These moments make all the challenges worthwhile and motivate me to continue striving for excellence in my role.

In conclusion, working as a car sales consultant has provided me with valuable experience and skills. It has taught me the importance of product knowledge, resilience in the face of challenges, and the joy of customer satisfaction. With each day, I aim to deliver outstanding service and build lasting relationships with my clients.

I've worked there for a few years. There is a lot I can say but I wont say everything.  I've seen every department and how they operate. I this place made me feel suicidal more than once and I couldn't realistically go to appointments to take care of myself because of how busy I was. It was common for me to not take a lunch break and be worked into overtime because that's how hard they work you.

-The sales department is a hostile, apathetic and undisciplined. They manage though intimidation and have adopted bootcamp-esk communication skills by getting in your face about something really insignificant. They do this to you day one of working there and it continues everyday. Each sales manager undermines each other so you get pulled and several directions at once. 

-The service department seems to struggle with keeping good employees and not firing bad ones. There's no camaraderie. Its a free for all environment and blame gets thrown around a lot. They haven't had a legit manager in years. You easily become overwhelmed. Nobody seems to be experienced because the good once have all left or are about to leave. (Which is a common theme in sales as well.)

-The parts department are a nice group of people but they getting out of shape, and contention is growing down there like cancer. The people in parts have 20+ years of experience which is amazing...but it doesn't show because of the bad habits they have formed over the past year or so. They make a lot of mistakes and errors. 

I promise you nothing has been done to fix this place. Corporate doesn't care and it doesn't help that the office manager (HR?) is a crazy person as well.  

Some things to consider: Lots of smokers, so, a lot of people taking several breaks and people are disappear from their office or stations all the time. People get burnt out. A lot. Very few people know how the other departments work yet ignore and disrespect each other on what their needs are through out the day. Since I have worked there, there are maybe (not counting managers) five people I know of still working there out of maybe a hundred. Out of those five, only one of them has kept his composure the whole time I have worked there. 

I definitely learned a lot there. There were times I loved working there and took pride in my job but it is absolute mayhem and its getting worse. There is no way I can recommend someone working here because its not a sustainable place to work. It will mentally break you.

Typical corporate environment. Convoluted pay plan, with hard to meet bonus structure. There is no UA on trades, and the entire used inventory have negative gross. New cars are scarce, the brand is on allocation. Lexus does not produce the cars people want with any sense of urgency. You’ll find yourself taking reservation deposits on cars that are two months from arrival, then crossing your fingers and stressing that your customer doesn’t cancel, or buy elsewhere, before it arrives. Sales floor is flooded, internet department has a lock on all in transit units being reserved before they hit the ground. The schedule favors openers, and it's not a turn store. All reps want their own full deals, the mentality half of something is better than nothing does not exist here, which is a bi product of the poor pay plan. Regarding the clientele, it's a "want" brand not a need. Your sales will often be a long game, requiring constant follow up for weeks, to keep the opportunities engaged. Saturday's are an absolute nightmare... it’s the epitome of information day. It’s the worst I've seen in 5 + years selling cars. The only way to make good make money at this store is to bump your head on a loaner car deal, sell 25 +, or stack up GX deposits on build status units, which have mandatory accessories. Remainder of the inventory are all loser deals, with negative gross.  15-20 cars won’t pay much w/out a loaner or a couple GXs. Chances are you'll find yourself chasing minis 99% of the time. Forget hours as well, Lithia's pay plan will pay your commissions or hours (which ever is more) but never both. At the end of the day, if you've been in the business for a while and have high expectations from your employer, Lexus of Roseville is not the store for you. If you have a high expectations of your coworkers, and expect a fair bit of teamwork, this store is also not for you. If you expect to have your car sales talent exemplified by your ability to UA a trade, build value, hold gross and get same day shuts, this store is also not for you.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. This company is a start up, and they often describe it as "Flying the plane while still building it." I worked as a shop agent for Driveway. I was hired on & was so excited to start! Great base pay plus commission, 3 weeks of paid training, friendly trainers... too good to be true. One month in, away went the commission. Not only was it a MASSIVE pay cut for great performers, but when asked how we, as "sales people", were supposed to stay motivated, we were told that "Helping customers is our main priority"-- no longer sales people, rather, customer service agents. After the pay cut and many schedule/management changes later, then came the massive layoffs. Shop/sell agents, managers, supervisors... for not meeting SALES QUOTAS. After being told we were no longer sales people, we watched many people within the office get laid off over performance that we were told was no longer being looked at. There are many, many other things I could go on about, but I will leave it at this: This company is full of hypocrisy, deceit, and lies. You will be burnt out, strung out, and mentally exhausted from the constant change and adaptation with little to no explanation on extremely short notice. (They did warn us about constant change in training, however, the change I experienced was not anything you can prepare for.) I will mention that the coworkers and direct managers/ supervisors were awesome. They will teach you what you need to know within the automotive industry. The higher up management & parent office is questionable. With this said, if you like being taken advantage of, fed lies, and constantly fearing whether or not you'll have a job the next day, Driveway is for you. (Even if you are a GREAT worker.) BEWARE. 
P.S. this all happened within 6 months.. 

When I was hired I was told I would be working a weekend here and there as there was a girl who preferred to work weekends. Within my first month, I worked 3 of 4 weekends. The second month 2 weekends and was told the following month each person (4 people in my department) would work one weekend a month. When the new month rolled around, I was the ONLY person working a weekend and 2 of the 4 weekends at that. 
There was no training. I trained for 2 hours at an employees house and was then thrown to the wolves to figure it out. 
The work flow changed multiple times within the three months I was there. There were no rules or guidelines. Just ever changing daily tasks. 
No matter how much you asked for assistance or complained about the sales team butting in on your conversations with a customer, nothing ever changed. You did get paid a bonus for each appointment you scheduled if they purchased a car. However 9 times out of 9 if you were texting a customer a salesperson would start texting them mind conversation. When saying something to management, the response was “let them have it”. Despite the salesperson getting paid no matter who scheduled the appointment. Truly felt like you were bottom of the totem pole and doing the grunt work while still be told you aren’t doing enough so here’s some more tasks. Feeling unappreciated is an understatement but management didn’t seem to care. When asking a question about a vehicle, like “is XYZ car still available?” There was always an immediate answer without checking to see if it really was and half of the time the answer was incorrect. There are so many things wrong with the hiring, training and day to day operation of the BDC team. 

This review is specifically about the Corporate Office, I did not work at a dealership but your experience at each one will vary. What i can say about the dealerships is don't expect it to be a 40hr/wk job. You'll be expected to work hard but in return if you have a commission position your hard work will pay off. 

This is not true at the home office. You work as support for the dealerships and are secondary to them. As such you are paid less than the industry average for your work. They debatably make up for this with their generous benefits offerings but most of these you have to opt into and will be deducted from your paycheck. Depending on your position in the home office you can be offered the opportunity to work from home, and starting out you are given 10 paid days off per year (and additional unpaid days off, stacking and increasing yearly) since the dealers work year round you are only given major holidays off though. 

My biggest gripe and the reason i no longer work there is the management. During my time there i watched some of smartest and hardest working people leave or stick around long enough to be fired (including some management). Pathways to job advancement seemed very unclear, it certainly wasn't based on hard work and effort and more just whoever can suck up to the managers the most. You can tell the top of the company is trying to change this but i don't think it's worked out quite as they've planned. As a final note i will say the company does let you move around between job positions internally (when there are openings) so that's a plus. 

I was a service adviser at a two different Lithia dealerships and they were both pretty crooked. The first dealership I worked for focused on great customer service through our service department and it showed. That alone carried the sales department of the dealership. The sales department was pretty crooked though with their used vehicles. Not fixing necessary things and trying to get things for free, constantly. Most people don't know this, but sales departments are typically a customer of the service department in most dealership settings. Commission earned pay for the advisers came from the service department as a whole so there was no competitive environment and we worked collectively as a team. 

The second Lithia dealership I worked with was all around crooked, top to bottom. I took an open position at this store in an effort to move to my desired location. The service department compensation pay focused on competition between advisers and the general and service managers made selling add on (most of the time unnecessary)  services a priority. On multiple occasions I refused to play along with their sale goals and focused on what I knew, customer service. I ultimately befriended a local engineering firm owner and secured an internship with his company as I was attending school after work. When I told my service and general manages I was leaving they both yelled at me and told me I was fired. A reaction I expect from a 5 year old, not adults. 

I think the company has its benefits but it all depends on the location. I also got the sense that the employees are last on the list when it comes to being taken care of.

I really enjoy my job and working with the customers, but the enjoyment stops there.  Several of the agents are related to each other, including their supervisors, creating a huge conflict of interest; but the 2 hiring managers on the floor choose to ignore this fact.  I can't speak for the Shop side of Driveway, but my department feels like a, 'family owned-family ran' business.  There are two supervisors in particular, where the boundries between them and their agents are blurred to almost invisible.  They hang out with their direct subordinates, and gossip about other agents and supervisors.  Don't be the unfortunate one who gets fired from Driveway, rather than respect your privacy,  we will all know about it before the end of the day.  

There is a monthly individual bonus structure that is being severely abused by  a couple the top agents, but when this has been brought to the floor managers (with proof),  the cycle begins:  they defeand the agent; the unethical behavior of agent ebbs for a ouple of months; and agent goes right back to doing it again. 

The worst thing I've witnessed in the past couple of years...when Driveway decided
 to downsize, they fired groups of employees rather than lay them off and risk their reputation.  Thus, making employees ineligable for unemployment.

The only reason I am still here is the pay and benefits.  I have created a way for myself make this job tolerable by: keeping my nose down, doing my job as best I can, and keeping my mouth shut...until now, I guess.


Title: Poor Management and Toxic Work Environment

I worked for Lithia Driveway for over a year, and it was one of the most disappointing professional experiences I’ve ever had. The company portrays itself as employee-focused, but the reality is far from it.

Cons:
	1.	Toxic Management: Leadership is more focused on micromanaging than supporting employees. There’s little to no guidance, and you’re often left to figure things out on your own.
	2.	Unrealistic Expectations: The sales goals are absurdly high, with little acknowledgment of market conditions or challenges. Instead of motivating employees, it creates unnecessary pressure and stress.
	3.	Lack of Work-Life Balance: The hours are long, and the company expects you to be available 24/7. It feels like you’re working around the clock with no regard for personal time. Days off? It’s only guaranteed Sunday because the store doesn’t open, otherwise, they’d find a way to make you work as well. 
	4.	Poor Communication: Policies and procedures constantly change, and are really shady. You’re always playing catch-up, which makes it difficult to succeed.
	5.	Minimal Training: They throw you into the role with inadequate training and expect immediate results. When you struggle, you’re blamed rather than supported.


If you value your mental health and a supportive work environment and make money, I strongly recommend looking elsewhere. Lithia Driveway may look good on the surface, but it’s a nightmare once you’re inside.

After our dealership was acquired by Lithia Motors, the day-to-day work environment changed significantly from what had been communicated during the transition.

A typical day involved high performance expectations with reduced administrative support and evolving processes. Sales staff were expected to adapt quickly to new pricing structures, revised pay plans, and updated operational procedures. In stores operating within the Lithia Southeast platform, the pace of change and performance pressure felt especially intense

Management turnover was frequent during the transition, which created inconsistency in direction and expectations. Workplace culture shifted from collaborative and relationship-driven to more metrics-focused, which impacted morale for many team members.

The hardest part of the job was maintaining consistent earnings and stability amid restructuring and pricing strategies that made deals more challenging to close. The most enjoyable part remained working directly with customers and teammates who supported one another despite the changes.

For employees considering a role during or after an acquisition of your store by Lithia, especially within the Southeast region, I would strongly recommend carefully reviewing compensation plans, leadership continuity, and operational support before committing long term.


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