There's reasons why only a select few work in auto sales. Not saying you have to sell your soul... but I'm guessing it doesn't hurt.
But in your example, you left out what I think is called "burden" cost. That employee making $22 costs more like $30/hr, maybe more. Benefits add up. Plus it costs money to have a roof over them while working. So the cost of that labor total might be more like $50/hr.
Plus... in the end... most people just pay the cost and move on. Dealerships have learned that. They can bend a bit more on the upfront cost, knowing that they can make up for it on the backend. Sometimes (often?) they win on both accounts, and then they do really well.
It's easy to throw stones at them (and I think they deserve all of 'em) but in sales, there are times when sales goes to nothing. One economic downturn and nothing is to be had. Their fault if they don't stockpile during good times, but its the nature of their business, they have busy times and slow times.
True.
When I bought my F150, it wasn't ceramic coated, or a bunch of other items added. It had undercoating, and mud flaps, I believe that I negotiated them down to half of their asking price on those, it was long ago so not positive on the amount. I did for sure negotiate half off the document fee, and $2500 off the price of the truck.
Then asked them to either remove the license plate bracket, and stick on dealership advertising they applied, or give me $5,000 cash for doing their advertising. They took the stickers, and license plate bracket off, which looked tacky at best.