Standing outside a car dealership reveals an armada of shiny new vehicles. If you could look behind the curtains of the dealership, you would discover that each and every operation what car dealership makes the most money are passing by is set up as a profit center—all of them competing for the money in your wallet. So who typically wins this war amkes dollars, and how does the dealer actually make any money? The answers might surprise you. Big dollars, factory fresh complete with that new car smell —you would think this is where the big bucks are kept, and in many ways you are correct. Because they are a high-ticket item, new car sales account for over half of the total gross sales at the dealer. Dealers secure inventory by borrowing money, sometimes from the carmaker, to get all those cars into the makse and onto the lot. The longer the cars sit, the more mos the dealer has to pay on the loan. Cash flow, yes.