Car dealers are frequently seen as intermediaries between consumers and manufacturers. Dealerships provide jobs for local people while making the process of purchasing a vehicle and its associated paperwork easier and offering financing solutions that make vehicles more affordable. Furthermore, dealers ensure safety issues are resolved efficiently.
As dealerships look to increase their profit margins in an increasingly competitive market, dealerships must constantly find ways to expand their profit margins. Some strategies dealerships employ include improving digital marketing efforts, increasing white-label F&I products penetration rates and broadening their presence with additional collision services and crash parts to broaden their scope of work.
Car dealers understand that repeat business is key to their bottom line during economic hardships, so they make efforts to stay abreast of industry trends while offering their clients a variety of car types and sizes.
Consumers can gain valuable insights by understanding how a car dealership works. For instance, knowing this will allow them to make more informed purchasing decisions. Even when selling below invoice price, the dealer still includes their profit (called a “dealer hold-back”) into the deal as a profit margin; additionally many dealers add their own markup which tends to be higher for luxury cars than compact or utility vehicles; additionally they may incur costs related to reconditioning used vehicles sold from inventory.
