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America’s Car Dealership Profits: Who Pays the Price?
The sticker price tells only part of the story. Financial filings reveal how dealerships make their money.
New cars remain expensive, but selling the vehicle is only one part of a dealership’s business. Financial reports show where the money goes.
An American car dealership can earn more gross profit from arranging financing and selling related products than it earns from the vehicle itself.
That surprised me when I examined AutoNation’s financial reports. In 2025, new vehicles accounted for nearly half the company’s revenue, but only 13.4% of its gross profit.
The figures made me look again at the price of buying a car in America.
I have already written about Americans keeping their old cars and the difficulty of manufacturing affordable new ones. There is another question worth examining. What happens to the customer’s money after the vehicle reaches the showroom?
Americans Are Paying Close to $50,000 for a New Car
In September 2026, the average new vehicle sold in the United States cost $50,562, according to Kelley Blue Book’s analysis published by Cox Automotive.
