The auto industry saw many trends in 2025 that affected dealers, who responded by adjusting their strategies and striving to keep cars within the reach of consumers’ budgets.
Dealerships continued to change hands, with some of them expanding into new markets and others absorbing existing businesses. Used Ford cars became available on Amazon Autos and Carvana made further gains in the used market.
By year’s end, new-vehicle prices had declined somewhat from September’s record levels. But affordability still remained a challenge for consumers, particularly for subprime borrowers facing tightened credit from lenders.
As we start 2026, WardsAuto decided to collect last year’s top-performing dealer stories, which reflected the trends above. Take a look at the 12 most-read stories from 2025 below.
