What all is involved with opening a car dealership such as Ford or Chevrolet factory dealership?

Answer 1

First you need a location that has the traffic to support your dealership. Secondly you need the cash for the start-up which can go to over 100 grand easily. The fifty that Ford wants for the franchise does not include the location and the cost of the buildings. Secondly you need a savvy sense of business and a good sales and service crew, which are not easy to find. I have worked at small dealerships where one of the partners was the salesperson and the other partner the service person, and their wives did the books, and their son was the mechanic and lot boy.
Next you have to have excellent credit because the bank "floors" the cars, which means they own them while you try and sell them. There are a lot of expenses in owning a dealership and the profit is very small when you begin. Volume is what gets you wealthy in this business.

Answer 2

I work for a car dealership so this will be an easy question to answer. First, opening a new car dealership isn't easy. Depending on which city and state you live in depends on whether you (with approximately $1.0-$2.0 million in capital, land for building, zoning, permits, etc) will even be considered by Ford, GM, Nissan, Toyota, and so on. Your best bet is to take your money, plus any connections you may have with a bank and approach a current dealer for a possible buyout. This is also difficult, but more realistic. Obtaining a franchise is so hard and some manufacturers are looking in cutting back on allowing new dealerships to start.

Answer 3

Ford dealership make future owners go to Dealer Development school for a few months at first. You can buy into a dealership for about 50,000 with ford franchises. Ford also has a dealer development program that help minority owners. With this program you must own the store for 5 years. While you are a DD (dealer development) store they do alot more audits.

Answer 4

a lot of money