Sonic Automotive reviews

Constantly changing pay plans to meet the corporations needs of a pre set percentage going to that departments payroll, favoritism shown to select employees

Favoritism runs rampant. Certain favored reps get "spooned" deals that the managers have already negotiated. There is zero opportunity for promotion. To be promoted, one must move to another dealership and if you don't know the right people, you will never get the job. It is an "Old Boys" network. They mostly hire from outside. And they give prospective employees this stupid "Hartman Value Profile" test that asks questions like "What is worse, buring a witch at the stake or blowing up an airliner?" It is impossilbe to have any communication with any executive at Corporate HQ. I don't even know what 90% of them do there. Any communication is either ignored or sent back to the GM, who is now pissed off that one of his employees involved corporate. The name of the game here is give lip service to corporate, pass the audits, be able to recite The Playbook and then go back to business as usual. No one at Corporate wants to hear anything from a sales associate. They routinely roll out new technology without any mechanism for taking feedback. They post nationwide standards that may work in some less competitiver markets but don't work in more competitive ones. The do not tkae into consideration cost of living in setting salaries. $10,000 a month goes a lot farher in Phoenix than it does in Washington D.C. The Sales Managers and General Manager are way overpaid for what they do. There isn't a one of them that could actually do my job. Our GM is rumored to make $25K a month and never has to talk to a cusotmer. Works 7:30 to 3 PM, plus Saturday morning. He takes lots of vacations and micro manages everything, right down to the coffee and the bathrooms. Our General Sales Manger makes about $18,000 a month. Finance Managers make about $10,000 a month and clients are literally dropped into their lap. All the managers may have been great sales people in their day, but they are not leaders. This company promotes based upon sales achievement, not leadership. To be a great sales person means to be totally focused on your personal goals and satisfying your cusotmers. It is a solo game, not a team sport. Great leaders may not be the top performers, They are the ones who think outside the box. And that kind of think is neaither appreciate or rewarded. All ideas for new and better ways to do things are seen as complaints and being negative. There is very little delegation of authority. No one working here except the GM actually knows how much the dealership makes or loses, it is a closely guarded secret. All information is on a need to know basis. Since they are paid on the combined gross profit, a manager never has to work long hours. They can go home and still earn money. But as a sales rep, if I want to leave at the end of my "shift" and a cusotmer wants to come in later in the evening, I have to stay to even have a chance to make the commission. Otherwise, I can choose to split with another rep, but that is like taking $250 out of my wallet and giving it to him. So I stay, sometimes 10 to 12 hours in a day. Even though under the law, we are considered "exempt" employees, we are still required to punch a time clock and be right on time for our "shift" or face discipline. But they don;'t care (and don't pay for) staying late.