Roytunno,
If you charge a portion of the service advisor's pay to the parts department, wouldn't it only make sense to charge the service department for the parts advisor that does nothing but sell parts to the technicians? How about parts charging a monthly fee to service for boxing up all those warranty parts that were replaced by the service department. Oh yea, the front parts advisor wants a commission on labor for referring a customer to the service department for installing an accessory.
The list could probably go on and on and on. Gary said it well, as long as the dealer wants it done a certain way it will be done that way. The pletoria of expense programs and practices make it so hard to ever really compare apples to apples when it comes time to go to the twenty-group meetings. Usually most dealers have some very common practices that allow a fair comparison. Then, there are others who will make changes just to stand out in their twenty group numbers.
I have seen and been through enough twenty-group composites to truly understand why it has, in some cases, been referred to as 'liar's poker'.
Anyone else got some feedback on this? I am sure we could keep this thread going for a long time on all the unusual practices, expense structuring, and pay plans that exist in the dealership environment today.
Chuck Hartle'