Very intriging post... though I didn't have the patience to read all the pages but I wanted to chime in cuz I am BMW CA for 7 years now.
To sum this up in a nutshell.
You income as a CA or salesperson anywhere is honestly all dependant on the management team and their structure. Some dealers (managers) wants results by volume so they will sell anything at whatever price to say they have the highest sales and bla bla bla. Doing business this way, they will get a decent profit in the long run by BMW paying the dealer their performance shares. This is different then hold back and also on top. But anyways, this system sucks for a CA unless they have an amazing bonus or tier plan.
Other dealers (like mine
) have a lot of pride in what they sell so they will build value in the BMW (as they should) and work the deal correctly to make the clients happy and yet make a good profit.
Going back to the subject. My CA's make on the low end $70K (we dont really hire brand new CA's, we have a rep to hold so experience only) with an average of $100k and few at close to $200k.
Finance mgers making on average $150-$200k
Finance Directors averaging $250k
SM's averaging $280k
GSM averaging $300-$400
GM's averaging $600-700k
Hope this info helps.