Yes, car salesmen and dealerships can lose money on individual vehicle sales, even while aiming for overall dealership profitability through finance, add-ons (like extended warranties), and meeting manufacturer volume targets, but high overhead, rising advertising costs, and slow-moving inventory put significant pressure on them to break even or make slim margins on the car itself.
Car salesman commissions in Australia are typically a percentage of the profit (gross margin), not the sale price, varying greatly by dealer, car type (high-margin vs. high-volume), and individual performance, often adding hundreds to over a thousand dollars per sale, plus bonuses for hitting targets, making total earnings highly variable but potentially reaching six figures with high sales. Structures include a base salary plus commission or commission-only, with bonuses for volume and selling extras like finance.
January is the best overall month to find a used car deal, with 55.6% more deals. July 4th ranks as the worst holiday to buy a used car, offering 22.4% fewer deals than average. June is the worst month for used car deals, with 22.8% fewer deals.
Industry analysts and companies are predicting sales will fall in 2026 as automakers start to pass tariff costs onto customers unable to take the hit to the budget. Cox Automotive is forecasting new sales to fall to 15.8 million in 2026, a 2% decline from 2025 but also not a total collapse.
23 September 2025 – Most US car dealers expect artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly impact their operations, with half predicting AI will cut jobs by 2030. By 2035, 87% believe AI will fully replace some human roles. Only 5% think AI will never replace dealership staff entirely.
A "$900,000 AI job" refers to a specific Machine Learning Platform Product Manager role advertised by Netflix in 2023, offering total compensation between $300k-$900k annually, highlighting the high demand for AI talent, especially as industries raced to adopt the technology, noted during Hollywood's AI-focused strikes, with similar roles emerging across tech and other sectors for specialized data scientists and engineers.
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The most common Gen Z slang for a car is "whip," used casually for any vehicle, often a cool or new one, but they also use personal nicknames like "Baby," "Beast," or "Rocket," with "flex" to describe a showy car. While many still use "car," these informal terms reflect appreciation for the vehicle's style, performance, or the owner's pride in it, sometimes adding context like "that's a big W" (win) for a great car.
All three car companies have blamed the sky-high Aussie dollar, the low five per cent import tariff, the high cost of Australian labour and the impending free-trade agreements with Japan and South Korea. Also cited have been market fragmentation and reverse economies of scale.
Stellantis sold 332,321 vehicles in the fourth quarter for a second consecutive quarterly increase. But the struggling automaker's full-year sales numbers still fell 3% below 2024 levels, or about 43,000 fewer vehicles.
The cheapest months to buy a car are typically December and January, when dealers clear out old inventory for new models, and during the End of Financial Year (EOFY) sales in June, as they race to meet targets. Other great times include the end of the month/quarter (for sales quotas) and around new model releases, when older versions get discounted.
The best months to buy a car in Australia for deals are typically December and January for end-of-year/plate clearance sales, and June for End of Financial Year (EOFY) targets, with discounts often extending into February for leftover stock, as dealerships clear out older models to make way for new ones. You can also find good deals at the end of each quarter (March, June, September, December) when sales targets are being met.
January and February are typically considered the slowest months for retail as consumers recover from holiday spending and focus on post-holiday savings. According to statistics, e-commerce sales experienced a significant decline during the summer months, with a drop of up to 30% compared to the high sales of December.
Australia's "25-Year Rule" allows importing classic and collectible vehicles (cars, motorcycles, light commercials) older than 25 years, under the Road Vehicle Standards (RVS) laws, by obtaining a Concessional RAV (Register of Approved Vehicles) approval to avoid strict compliance with modern Australian Design Rules (ADRs). This "rolling" rule means the vehicle must be at least 25 years old at the time of application, simplifying imports for enthusiasts but still requiring compliance with ADRs relevant to its original build year, plus some modifications for safety like VINs or child restraints.
High Paying Car Sales Jobs
BMW Group pay FAQs
The average salary for a Sales is $75,000 per year (estimate) in Australia, which is 23% higher than the average BMW Group salary of $61,000 per year (estimate) for this job.
SUVs dominate as passenger car sales continue to slide
SUV sales rose 5.5 per cent year on year to 733,831 units, while passenger vehicle sales fell sharply by 22.6 per cent to 157,484 units, continuing a long-term structural shift away from traditional sedans and hatchbacks.
United States. General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler are often referred to as the Big Three, although Chrysler has been surpassed as the third-largest U.S. automaker by Toyota of America.
Toyota stopped manufacturing in Australia by the end of 2017 due to an uncompetitive environment, primarily driven by the strong Australian dollar, high local production costs, and low economies of scale in a small domestic market, making exports unviable and operations loss-making despite efforts to transform the business, following similar decisions by Holden and Ford.
A "poor man's Ferrari" is a nickname for more affordable sports cars, especially the Toyota MR2, that share similar mid-engine layouts, styling cues (like pop-up headlights), or performance characteristics to classic Ferraris, offering a taste of that exotic experience at a fraction of the cost, with the Ferrari 308 also sometimes called this for being an earlier, more accessible model. Other cars, like certain Honda NSX models or even modified cars, also get this moniker for similar reasons.
Whilst boomers and millennials may use the 😂 emoji, this has long since been deemed 'uncool' (or 'cheugy') by Gen Z. Instead, this has been replaced by the skull (💀) or the crying emoji (😭), dramatising the idea of 'dying with laughter'.
In recent teen slang, 41 (pronounced "forty-ooooone" with a descending tone and sideways hand gestures) is a nonsensical, memetic trend similar to the older "67," used playfully in response to questions about age or quantity, or just for the humor of replicating the viral sound and movement, originating from a TikTok video by Blizzi Boi. It doesn't have a deep meaning but signifies being in on the trend, much like its predecessor.
A "$900,000 AI job" refers to a specific Machine Learning Platform Product Manager role advertised by Netflix in 2023, offering total compensation between $300k-$900k annually, highlighting the high demand for AI talent, especially as industries raced to adopt the technology, noted during Hollywood's AI-focused strikes, with similar roles emerging across tech and other sectors for specialized data scientists and engineers.
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Companies in many sectors of the economy will need to help their employees make the transition to an AI-centric workplace so that no one gets left behind. And customers should always know when they're interacting with an AI and not a human. Finally, I encourage everyone to follow developments in AI as much as possible.