Profit and accounting
What is front gross?
Also called: front-end gross
Front gross is the profit on the vehicle itself: sale price minus total vehicle cost minus pack, before any financing or product income.
Total vehicle cost is the number that gets people. It is not the hammer price. It is purchase price plus buy fee, transport, recon parts and labor, detail, and the floorplan interest the car accrued while it sat.
A lot that computes front gross as sale price minus purchase price will overstate itself by roughly a thousand dollars a car, every car, and then wonder why a profitable year ends with no cash.
Example
Sold at $17,995, all-in cost $15,233, pack $300. Front gross is $2,462.
Handle this automatically
Loturn tracks every cost against the VIN and shows live profit on every car, with real dealer accounting built in.
Related terms
Back gross
Back gross is the profit from the finance and insurance office: lender reserve plus what you make on service contracts, GAP and other products.
Pack
Pack is a fixed internal amount added to each vehicle's cost before commissionable gross is calculated, covering overhead the individual deal did not directly cause.
Recon
Recon is everything you spend to make a bought car frontline ready: mechanical repair, tires, body and paint, and detail.
Floor plan
A floor plan is a revolving credit line used to buy inventory, secured by the vehicles themselves, repaid as each car sells.
General information for US dealers, not legal advice. Rules change and vary by state, so confirm specifics with your state agency or counsel.