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Audis have notoriously low margins for new cars.
But, pretty much every manufacturer pays a "Business Builder" type of rebate for new cars sold.
This is basically a "holdback." It's a payment the dealer gets for every qualifying new car sale.
It's a way for the manufacturer to control the sales. To get the money, the sales has to meet qualifications. For example, generally it has to be a sale to an end user consumer. It can't be a sale to someone who exports the car. It needs to be a sale in a defined territory, etc. etc.
These payments are a huge part of a dealership's profitability. It probably varies from brand to brand, but the dealership financials I have seen generally show that these payments can pretty much be the entire profit of the dealership. In other words, they operate at a break even, except for those payments.
Of course, those payments can be $1, $2, $3 million or more per year, depending on the size of the dealership.
So, the bottom line is, yes, a dealership can sell a car for exactly what it actually paid for it, or even less, and still make a profit on the car.
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