A car dealer sells an SUV for $39,000, which represents a 25% profit over the cost. What was the actual cost of the SUV to the dealer?

First of all, you should know that 25% profit on the actual price means that we have multiplied the original price by 1.25 : (1 + 0.25).
So, in order to find the actual price of the SUV, we divide it by 1.25.
$39000 ÷ 1.25 = $31,200, which is the original price of the SUV.