WestwardAI Consulting

Local market data · Car dealerships · Chicago

AI for car dealerships in Chicago

The Chicago metro area had 556 car dealerships in 2022, the 3rd most of 386 US metros and 3% of all in the country. They employed 31,148 people at an average of $82,762 a year. 17% have fewer than 10 staff, so the same few people answer the phone, book, follow up and do the paperwork. Those are the jobs AI tools take on today.

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A free 30-minute call. You leave knowing which part of your car dealership to hand to AI first, what we would build, and roughly how long it takes.

Car dealerships in Chicago vs the US

Chicago metroUnited States
Businesses55621,835
People employed31,1481,110,728
Average staff per business56.050.9
Average yearly pay per employee$82,762$82,170
Share with fewer than 10 staff17%20%

Pay here is about the same as the national average for car dealerships, so an hour of admin costs about what it does elsewhere. The average car dealership here has 56.0 people on payroll, 10% higher than the US figure of 50.9.

How big car dealerships in Chicago are

Fewer than 5 staff72 (13%) US 15%
5 to 922 (4%) US 5%
10 to 1932 (6%) US 9%
20 to 49154 (28%) US 31%
50 or more276 (50%) US 40%

Businesses with paid employees, by number of employees, March 2022.

Car dealerships by county in the Chicago area

Cook County has the most, with 245 of the metro's 556 (44%). Among the 10 big metros on this page, Chicago ranks 9th for average pay and 7th for the share of small firms.

CountyBusinessesEmployeesAvg pay
Cook County24514,612$86,257
DuPage County955,689$87,988
Lake County563,218$79,743
Lake County381,873$75,794
Will County351,566$76,103
Kane County281,643$74,216
McHenry County201,068$75,531
Porter County13528$71,960
DeKalb County9431$57,794
Kendall County7314$66,306
Grundy County495$59,274
Jasper County4101$63,366

Census withholds pay where few firms would make it identifiable.

Where AI helps a car dealership first

A car dealership gets the most from AI in the places where a shopper waits: the web form at 9 p.m., the missed call on a Saturday, the service reminder nobody sent. Start with lead response, then service bookings, then follow-up with shoppers who went quiet. Westward builds these for dealerships, and a person on your team approves what goes out.

What your team's admin hours cost in Chicago

Change any number. The starting values are the Chicago averages above; the hours and the share are yours to set.

Those hours cost you$896,000 a year

The share you would hand off$268,800 a year

Hours your team gets back6,720 a year

See what we would build for this

Guides for car dealerships, one job each

Car dealerships in other big metros

MetroBusinessesAvg payRank of 387
Los Angeles685$101,5762nd
New York894$94,7381st
Miami363$101,4316th
Dallas382$97,7545th
Houston308$92,7779th
Atlanta290$95,31710th
Washington309$86,2888th
Philadelphia386$79,9254th
Boston329$88,7397th

Where these numbers come from

From the U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2022 (released 2024), industry code NAICS 441110 (New car dealers), for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area (13 counties). It counts businesses with paid employees in March 2022, so solo owners with no payroll are not in it. Average pay is total yearly payroll divided by employees. The calculator uses 50 working weeks and 2,080 hours a year. Page checked 2026-11-12.

Find the hours your dealership can get back

A free 30-minute call. You leave knowing which part of your car dealership to hand to AI first, what we would build, and roughly how long it takes.

Related businesses in Chicago

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