Variety of dealership staffers meet your needs

When you shop for a new or used car or get your vehicle serviced, you usually deal with one or two people. If you're buying, it's the sales and finance people. For servicing or repairs, it's a service advisor. So who are all the other people you see at new-car dealerships and what do they do? Here are some answers.

In addition to the jobs already mentioned, technicians (a.k.a. mechanics) are a well-known employee category at dealerships, which usually employ 50 to 80 people. Titles, department names and functions will vary, but here's what and whom you find at a typical dealership:

Service department - A manager oversees the technicians who work on vehicles. The employee who consumers deal with most is the service advisor, who greets customers when they arrive and handles estimates and service write-ups. It's the service advisor's job to understand what needs to be done to your vehicle and how to write that in terms that techs understand. Some dealerships have a dispatcher who's responsible for routing vehicles to technicians with the appropriate training and expertise for particular problems. Service departments often include parts personnel, someone producing bills (with notes from technicians) and people who move and clean vehicles.

Express lube - Independent express-lube operations have a manager and staff.

Parts department - Another manager and staff often handle everything to do with parts.

Tire department - New tire specialists can be stand-alone departments or belong to service or parts operations.

Detailing centers - Besides new car prep (removing packing materials, making sure everything works, washing/waxing before vehicle pickup, etc.), these centers also recondition used cars, and clean and detail the vehicles customers bring in.

Sales staff - New and preowned car sales managers head groups that make up around 20 percent of a dealership's employees.

Administration - A controller oversees office staff and operations, including billing and payment functions. General managers, vice presidents, cashiers, receptionists and others also work in this area. Whether it's a separate area or not, someone helps customers schedule sales and service appointments, and arranges for items such as loaner cars. Someone also makes follow-up calls to check on service experiences.

Finance department - Here's where buyers obtain financing and decide about extended warranties, gap insurance and other products. This department handles the paperwork and details involved in finalizing purchases, leases and loans.