5 Trends Reshaping Auto Retail in 2026

1. The Affordability Ceiling Has Been Hit

Reports from Car Dealership Guy and Automotive News consistently highlight that while inventory is normalizing, consumer wallets are not. We are seeing a hard "affordability ceiling,” and the days of unlimited pricing power are over.

For dealers, this means that the ones staying on top aren’t necessarily the ones holding out for gross on every unit, but rather the ones who master payment-based selling, market affordable CPO units, and offer financing solutions that keep cars moving off the lot.

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‍2. AI Is Now the Operational Backbone, NotJust a Trial

For the last two years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a buzzword. In 2026, it becomes infrastructure. Most dealerships rely on 40+software solutions to keep the dealership running, and in the last year, we’ve seen most companies launch AI integrations or introduce AI-powered tools in their software, moving beyond simple chatbots and now handling BDC calls, automating merchandising and personalized marketing, predicting service retention, and more.

In the past, dealerships were hamstrung by a lack of time and workforce for strategies such as one-on-one follow-ups or personalized marketing campaigns for recent buyers' service intervals, but now technology can bridge the gap. The gap between dealers who operationalize AI and those who don't will widen rapidly next year.

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3. The EV Market Resets to Reality (Used EVs Emerge OnTop)

In Q3 of 2025, the market was best described as chaotic, with EV buyers flocking to lots to take advantage of federal incentives and dealers purchasing every used model they could get their hands on. 2026 is the year of transition, where hard economics take over. The hype is gone, the incentives to overcome are over, and actual salesmanship has to take its place.

It’s not all bad news for EVs, though. As lease returns from the 2023-2024 peak hit our lots, prices on used EVs are likely to become attractive enough to tempt budget-conscious buyers. The trend for 2026 is not electric, hybrid or gas, but value.

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4. Fixed Ops Returns as Hero

As front-end GPU normalizes, the back of the house once again emerges as hero. Dealers will need to focus on service retention as new car margins become increasingly compressed. As the average age of vehicles on the road remains at record highs, the service drive presents an opportunity for a reliable profit center. That means pivoting from sales or securing all the service opportunities in one visit to establishing a long-term relationship where customers view your service technicians as trusted advisors, not sales people.

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5. Scale is No Longer Optional

The consolidation of public groups isn’t slowing down, and these groups are using their size to negotiate better vendor pricing, more favorable insurance rates, and improved tech stacks. As we enter 2026, the small or independent dealer model is under siege, and dealers need to find opportunities to achieve the economic scale of the giants without selling out to them.

That’s exactly what drove me to found AutoTrust — to give dealers the purchasing power of a top-tier group while you keep your name on the building.