A Future Beyond Brick and Mortar- disruptive change ahead in automotive retail by McKinsey is well-researched and directionally sound. It correctly identifies persistent customer pain points, rising digital expectations, margin compression from ACES (autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification, shared mobility) trends, and diverging buyer behaviours across markets. The core conclusion is unassailable: the traditional retail model is under pressure, customer journeys are fragmenting, and inertia will no longer protect legacy economics. Doing nothing is not a neutral option. But history suggests caution when translating structural analysis into assumed outcomes. Automotive retail has seen many confident forecasts—supported by strong logic and compelling data—that proved more complex in execution. The agency model is instructive: widely predicted as inevitable, it has been rolled out unevenly, adapted locally, and in some cases partially reversed. Not because the analysis was wrong, but because regulation, capital structures, franchise law and human behaviour resisted the script.

The Adaptability Discount

McKinsey identifies four distinct buyer archetypes coexisting globally. Yet established dealer groups already operate in this reality. They serve customers who want speed and transparency, as well as those who value reassurance and relationships. This isn't a future capability; it is a learned operating discipline. The report’s recommendations—omnichannel journeys, transparent pricing, improved digital tooling, redefined dealer roles—reflect changes many operators are already implementing. Process optimisation, better CRM utilisation, digital finance journeys, and learner formats: these are not theoretical constructs. They are active priorities.

Between 2019 and 2023, UK dealer groups invested over £1.2 billion in digital infrastructure and facility upgrades. In the same period, customer satisfaction scores improved across all major markets despite pandemic disruption. This is not an industry awaiting transformation—it is an industry in transformation. Dealers rarely talk in the language of disruption. They adapt relentlessly instead. Thin margins, high fixed costs and intense local competition leave no alternative. Continuous improvement is not a strategy; it is an economic necessity.

Five Models, One Reality

The report’s five future archetypes are useful strategic lenses, particularly for OEMs rethinking distribution costs. But the future will likely look less like a decisive shift from one model to another and more like gradual convergence—blending direct sales, agency mechanics, fulfilment roles and advisory functions by brand, market and customer type. The most valuable insight in the McKinsey report may be this: there is no universal solution. Regional, brand-specific and evolutionary approaches are unavoidable.

Automotive retail will continue to change—not because it has finally been “disrupted,” but because a highly adaptable industry keeps optimising under pressure, as it always has.

Signals, Not Scripts

Industry reports like this are best read as provocations rather than predictions: valuable for framing debate, poor substitutes for lived operational reality. Dealers who improve customer journeys every day understand something analysts sometimes miss.

The job is never finished. That is precisely why they will still be here.

Have a great week.