Problem Solving

A used car dealer sold one car at a profit of 25 percent of the dealer's purchase price for that car and sold another at a loss of 20 percent of the dealer's purchase price for that car. If the dealer sold each car for $20,000, what was the dealer's total profit or loss, in dollars, for the two transactions combined?

$1,000 profit
$2,000 profit
$1,000 loss
$2,000 loss
$3,334 loss

On this one I totaled up $40,000 for what he would have gotten for the cars at no profit or loss then I totaled theprofit and loss and I ended up with $41,000. I subtract that from the $40,000. I ended up getting a $1,000 profit not a $1,000 loss.

By the way, the answer is a $1,000 loss.

so total he sold them for is 40,000

he paid for car a = 20,000/1.25 = 16,000

For car be = 20000/0.8 = 25,000

Therefore he spent a total of 41,000 for the 2 cars and sold them for $40,000 which is a loss of $1000

Price of car1 = C, car2=D

1.25C=20000
0.8D=20000
C=16000;D=25000

For car 1, profit of 4000. For car2, loss of 5000. So net loss of 1000.