Texas Border Business
Texas Border Business is examining nine automotive retail predictions made by Car Dealership Guy founder and CEO Yossi J. Levi. Each article looks independently at one prediction, the changes behind it and what would have to occur for the forecast to become reality by 2029. The predictions are Levi’s and are presented as forecasts, not established outcomes. Texas Border Business will publish the nine-part series one article at a time, beginning September 30, 2026, with a new article released each day.
By Roberto Hugo González / Texas Border Business
Automobile dealerships could dramatically reduce the number of technology vendors they use by 2029 as software companies consolidate multiple dealership functions into broader platforms, according to a prediction by Car Dealership Guy founder and CEO Yossi J. Levi.
Levi predicts a dealership software stack that can now involve about 30 vendors could shrink to about 10 over the next two years.
It is the fourth of nine predictions he published Sept. 29 about the direction of automotive retail.
The prediction addresses a different side of automotive technology than forecasts centered on job reductions or artificial intelligence replacing individual tasks.
Modern dealerships can rely on numerous technology providers for different portions of their operations. Levi’s forecast anticipates consolidation as dealers move away from collections of separate products and toward fewer platforms that can perform multiple functions.
Car Dealership Guy said dealerships have become frustrated with paying for numerous disconnected technology products. Its analysis points toward platforms combining functions that previously required separate vendors.
Levi predicts that consolidation will become the normal dealership technology structure by 2029.
The forecast is specific enough to measure. The question is not whether dealerships will continue purchasing software; it is whether the number of separate companies supplying that technology will fall substantially.
Car Dealership Guy has already reported examples of dealerships reviewing and modifying their technology stacks. In August, the publication reported on Passport Auto’s effort to improve its technology structure, part of broader industry attention to dealership software expenses and efficiency.
Technology spending has also emerged in discussions about dealership profitability. Haig Partners reported that vendor spending and technology subscriptions have multiplied as dealerships face pressure to control operating expenses.
Those developments do not establish that Levi’s prediction will occur. They provide current context for the trend he expects to accelerate.
A reduction from 30 vendors to 10 would represent a two-thirds decrease in the number of separate providers in the example used in Levi’s forecast.
Such consolidation could occur through dealerships canceling products, software companies combining services, acquisitions among technology providers, or broader platforms replacing specialized systems. Levi’s published prediction does not specify which path would dominate.
The forecast ultimately concerns simplification. By 2029, dealerships should show whether automotive retailers are moving toward the smaller technology structure Levi predicts or continuing to depend on numerous specialized providers.
Until then, 30-to-10 remains a prediction with a clearly defined benchmark.
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