Hi all! Got a job down at my Mazda dealer on Wednesday. (Sunridge Mazda here in Calgary.) I simply walked in, talked to the guy I bought my car from (who is also the assistant manager) and asked if a job position he had offered was still standing. He replied with "how soon can you start?"

I'm responsible for washing and gassing all of the cars on the lot, prior to their sale, and just to keep the lot looking clean. (My technical names are "Lot Attendant" and "New Vehicle Delivery Representative.")

A typical day involves me going out onto the lot, and writing down the stock numbers of a given row of cars. I then go inside to the key board, and select the corresponding keys. One by one, I drive the cars into the maintenence garage wash complex, and pressure wash, chamois, and rinse all of the cars. If there are any new vehicles that have been sold, I pull it off the lot, take it down the street and gas it up, wash it, then turn it over to the detail department, where the plastic will be removed from the carpets, and it will get the hell cleaned out of it for delivery.

After my first day on the job, I washed a variety of P5's, Protege's, MPV's and B4000's... It sounds boring, but I actually get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it, and for a good hourly wage too!

Just wanted to share my new position, and say that I look forward to serving existing and future Mazda customers to the best of my ability.

After being hired, I've gained a new understanding for what happens in the garage, so if you have any questions as to what happens to your car after you hand over the keys to the guy at the desk, I'll be happy ot answer them.

 

...cool

 

Wil,

It is one sweet job to have, and yeah, the detail guys are on the bottem end, but the two that always do it really like the job they have, just as much as I like mine.

As for wage, I'd prefer not to disclose it on the forums, but I will tell you that it is very respectable for the line of work I'm in. I'm not really sure what I'm worth, but I can be sure it's not what they're paying me. The dealer was VERY generous with my starting wage, and for a 17 year old kid, with only a car and a girlfriend to support, that money will go even farther.

 

I agree with Richard - update your sig, it will make the rest of us feel just a teeny bit less old!

Good deal on getting the job. I hope you enjoy it, and that they treat you well!

Dale.

 

Rich and Dale,

Sorry guys, I was rounding up. I'll be 17 on the 24th, so I figured why not? Like you said, it makes you geezers feel a little less old!

 

Don't worry, it will get boring

I was a "Lot attendant" aka lot bitch for 2 summers at a mazda dealership, wait till it starts getting into the 90's and you're walking around on black tar, getting into black cars w/ black leather and sunroofs... not fun...

Hmm what advice would I give to a 1st time lot boy... Dont let the sales people boss you around, if they want a car washed, they can go out there and wash it, answer only to your boss.

At the place I was at, the recon guys were higher on the pay scale than me... but that could be cause i was 16 and they were 35 and damned good at what they did.

If you want to get your lines REAL straight, buy a chalk line type dispenser of string then set it up so you can pull the cars right up to it, and get them PERFECT

Does your dealership sell anything other than mazda or is that it? We had GMC, Chevy, Pontiac, Cadillac, Mazda - lots of cars, lots of places to dissapear for a while...

Well this is one long post... anyway, good luck! Its actauly a good job, if i wasnt spending the money i earned last summer on a trip to spain, id be working there again definately

 

Oh ya, i forgot.... DONT CRASH THE CARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had just renovated the outside of our building and this kid who worked at a car rental place in the building backed right up into one of our brand-new pillars, knocking out bout 5 sg feet of it... yeah, he was fucked

 

Mp4life,

I havent had any problems yet with the sales people, and my lines are actually really straight already. In fact, I found them quite easy to do! The MPV's and Tribute's aren't bad to park, and the Protege's are no sweat, but the damn pickups are a real bitch. Those things DON'T TURN WORTH A DAMN!

The dealer I work for is one fo the largest volume dealers in Western Canada, and we deal strictly with Mazda. Who were you with? Sounds almost like a wholesale place or something with all of thsoe mixed brands...

 

gf? ummm, they're gonna have to pay you a lot more! lol
my gf sux up all my hard earned cash, and smiles the whole time.

congrats on the job tho!

 

The I was at is actualy a fairly low volume dealership in Manchester NH. It's actualy two separate stores that share a lot, but have two different buildings, but are owned by the same guy. Basicly one store w/ tons of lines.

Ya our biggest seller was GMC pick-ups, those were a real bitch. You'll get used to them tho.

Thats good your sales staff is cool, the first year i was there i absolutely hated them, but last year they werent bad at all.

Possible the best thing about working there was the deal i got on my Pro, practically gave it to me