Car Dealer Profit Calculator

What this calculator does

Buying and reselling a vehicle involves more costs than just the purchase and sale price — reconditioning, transport, registration, holding costs while it sits on the lot, and sales commission all eat into the actual profit. This calculator adds all of that up to show your real profit, margin, ROI, and the minimum price you'd need to sell at just to break even.

How to use it

Enter the purchase price and every cost involved in getting the vehicle ready to sell — repairs, transport, registration and fees, holding cost per day times how many days it sat in stock, and anything else. Set the commission as either a flat amount or a percentage of the sale price, then enter the actual (or planned) sale price to see your results.

Worked example

Buy a vehicle for $10,000, spend $800 on repairs and $200 on registration/fees, and sell it for $12,500 with no commission — total cost is $11,000, profit is $1,500, margin is 12.00% (profit as a share of the sale price), and ROI is 13.64% (profit as a share of what you spent).

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is forgetting holding costs — a vehicle that takes three months to sell costs money every one of those months (lot space, insurance, financing interest if applicable), even though nothing changed hands. A second is comparing margin and ROI as if they were the same number; margin tells you how much of the sale price is profit, ROI tells you how hard your invested capital worked. A vehicle can have a modest margin but an excellent ROI if it sold quickly, or vice versa if it sat on the lot a long time before selling.