Pros
Fun, loose environment in the dealerships. The computer system is excellent. It is very easy to get detailed information on your business trends and the performance of the sales team. The company is very transparent and you can see how any unit in the entire system is performing on a daily basis. The in house financing program is very flexible and is one of the best options for customers with credit challenges.
Cons
The hours are horrific. I was initially working a 45 hour week with 2-3 closing shifts (til 9pm). Things were fairly flexible and I usually got to leave by 5 or 6pm on one of the weekend nights. After an upper management change we were bumped up to a 50-55 hour work week and had to work until 9pm every Friday and Saturday night. The company made several changes that made it more difficult to approve customers. Increased down payment requirements, lowered max payments, raised pti guidelines, and required more documentation at the time of sale. They also stopped a program that paid sales associates at competing dealerships to refer in customers they could not get financed (this accounted for 20% of Drivetimes business). With all of these changes and a challenging economy as well, they increased the budget in my dealership by roughly 10% over last year! The entire company is tracking roughly -15% and we are being held accountable for not attaining a budget that is way out of reach.
