As someone who was a car salesman for 8 years, this was surprisingly accurate. Normally these style articles are just hilariously wrong, but I was impressed by the accuracy here. I will say though, the profit levels that Edmunds and other companies suggest just aren't levels a salesperson can survive at. Most dealerships have a minimum commission around $100, and if you're buying the car at the prices you see recommended online, that is all the salesman will make. Increased profit is often a question of survival. If you know you're only going to sell 10-12 cars a month on average, they can't all be for $100 commissions or you're going to starve. Even the "unfair" deals, where he made $300-$500 from a sales persons perspective is about as low as they want to go.

I think there really does need to be some kind of change to the process here, sales people just literally cannot survive on what Edmunds would consider a fair price. As a sales person though, I can't tell you how many times someone had a fair price worked out before coming in to the dealership and then expected to negotiate more. Most people just seem to expect it, so you're in a weird limbo land where it's difficult to A sell a car to most people without a big negotiation, and then at the end the same people complain they have to negotiate, but had you just given that price up front, they never would have bought. Lots of interesting psychology :)