Local new-car and -truck dealerships are among the most impactful businesses to local communities. They don’t just sell and service cars—they provide the foundation for an ecosystem that impacts not only their business but all kinds of supporting businesses as well.
Here are six ways dealerships benefit local communities.
Employment. Local dealerships employ more than 1.1 million people in good-paying jobs in 16,000 stores across the country. Dealership jobs in sales, service and management average more than $70,000 in compensation across occupations, and provide opportunities for advancement into management roles, even without a college degree. Few industries compare with dealerships when it comes to offering employees a path to management or even ownership.
The tax base. Local dealerships and automotive sales are responsible for nearly $100 billion per year in state sales taxes paid. Dealership payrolls pay nearly $20 billion in federal and state income taxes, providing funding for key local government services.
Jobs in the automotive ecosystem. Beyond the 1.1 million-plus jobs created at local dealerships across occupations, dealerships are responsible for supporting another 1.2 million jobs in allied industries—from advertising agencies, to finance sources, to auctions, to truck drivers and transportation workers, to building contractors. Money spent at dealerships spreads far and wide into local communities.
Dealerships provide diverse working environments. Local dealerships reflect the communities in which they operate. Employees from all ethnic and religious backgrounds work at dealerships, which hire and train local workers from their communities.
Dealerships are local businesses. Of the 16,000-plus dealerships across America, the vast majority are owned and operated by local businesspeople—many of whose families have been in the car business for generations. Dealerships have invested more than $200 billion in land, buildings and infrastructure in their local communities to sell, finance and service vehicles for customers seeking transportation, ranging from affordable used cars to top-of-the-line luxury models. New‐car dealerships are in nearly every community in the United States, and dealerships make sizable contributions to local charities and civic causes.
Competition. Local dealerships compete fiercely with one another for customers on sales and service. Price competition on sales has been shown by economists to lower the price of new cars by about $500, and competition on service means there are options for customers to service their cars at multiple locations, and at virtually any time.
Bottom line, dealerships benefit communities in multiple ways—chiefly through local employment opportunities. For more than 1.1 million Americans, dealerships provide a ticket to a middle-class life.
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