Quite a few consumer companies you worked for provide some discount for employees (hourly as well as salary) as part of the benefit package. One of the best benefits working for a US motor company is that you can get cars at close to wholesale level. You can get up to a few per year. You can get the same price for your immediate family (not cousins or uncles). It makes car buying an enjoyable experience instead of worrying about haggles with salepersons. Car prices are fixed no matter which dealer you go to. Each car company has a similar plan that varies in minor detail except for non-US based car companies. Dealership got about 6 percent commission in addition to the bonuses above quote. Most people already know what kind of car they are going to get under the employee plan anyhow, salesperson makes it up by volume since they spent less time on each customer on the average.
You can save hundreds of dollars for car ownership, especially when you are leasing nowadays. When you lease car under the employee plan, you are paying the different between the whole price and the residue value after incentive common to all buyers. Most of the time when you see an ad on the newspaper about leasing, it shows how much you are paying a month but NOT the discount you actually for the car. It used to be for hot selling trucks, you were actually paying close to MSRP. To quote an example, when the first big SUV came out a few years back, the residue value for that truck after two years is 76% of MSRP. Employee pays 85% of MSRP. So ownership for two years is 9% of the MSRP of the truck plus financing cost. You are taking about a car valued at $30,000, and 9% is about $2,700 or $115 a MONTH. With financial cost, the end cost for leasing that NEW HOT big 4-wheel drive SUV is about $280 a month vs. over $550 a month for any John Doe coming to the dealer's door. (During last two years, the same car for employees was up to about $400 due to lower residue value) Even now, with incentive, the average lease for employee for a brand new small 4-door is about $200-220. This deal is not as good if you are leasing a family sedan or personal luxury car since the residue value is low and most car buyer get close to wholesale price anyhow.
During the last few years when car companies are buying European car companies, employees can also lease SELECTIVE luxury model at wholesale too. Except for the old Chrysler company in which the former US employees are NOT eligible for Mercedes, Ford employees can lease Jaguar, Volvo and Mazda (Not Auston Martin). It used that GM employees had to wait for the lotto for a corvette when it was HOT.
When you are the management of the company, there is an even better deal. When you achieve that level, you can lease a car from the company for about the cost of about 1/60 of the value of the car a month. Now hear this, you get a new car every year, with no mileage limitation AND full insurance coverage. No where in the world except in Detroit suburb you will see so many TEENAGERS driving brand new cars such as Firebirds, Mustang convertibles and even Jaguar, in the street and at the local high school parking lot. Insurance coverage for any teenager is a few THOUSANDS a year. There is no deductible for accidents. It is actually saving money to let your teenager drive you luxury car than to buy a car for him/her. When your car is in the shop, you can check out a pool car (it may be a luxury car or van). For manager level, you have two cars. For executive level, you get cars free, also with fuel refill and wash EVERYDAY. In other words, major decisions were made by persons who DON'T have to pay for the car or worry about car maintenance. This factor as well as the fact that Wall Street like to see good profit margin and higher revenue, no wonder regular people are seeing sticker shock.
A little fact that not many people know is that if when you have a friend who works for the motor company, he/she can sponsor you for a car at 3-4% above dealer cost. You don't have to be his/her relative. As long as he/she is OK to sponsor you, that's all that take. He/she will provide you with an authorization, then you can go to most dealership for any car of you choice, no haggling required. On average, you can save close to $1,000 just by asking. Motor companies absorb part of the cost.
This is getting off topic and I am closing this now.