JD Power, a leading global consumer insights and market research firm, today released its 2026 China Customer Service Satisfaction Index (CSI) study . The study shows that in 2026, the overall customer service satisfaction score for the industry is 794 out of 1,000, an increase of 5 points from the previous year. Among them, luxury brands saw a return to rapid growth, with a score of 809 in 2026, up 11 points from 2025. Mainstream brands achieved a customer service satisfaction score of 789, an increase of 3 points from 2025. Domestic brands outperformed mainstream international brands for the second consecutive year, achieving a satisfaction score of 801 in 2026 (up 13 points from 2025), while mainstream international brands scored 782 (down 3 points from 2025).

JD Power's China Customer Service Satisfaction Study (CSI) is now in its 26th year. This study assesses the satisfaction of owners of gasoline-powered vehicles with ownership periods of 13 to 48 months with their service experience at authorized dealerships over the past 12 months. Customer service satisfaction is scored on a 1,000-point scale.

Research shows that competition in China's auto market is intensifying. While overall after-sales service satisfaction has generally improved over the past five years, the growth rate slowed significantly in 2026, narrowing to 0.6% (+5 points). This year, users' focus on after-sales service experience is rapidly shifting towards "soft service value"—from "how good the hardware facilities are" to "how reliable the service is." This signifies that users' mindset is shifting from "passively accepting services" to "actively evaluating service experiences," with "convenience" and "sense of gain" becoming the new core drivers of satisfaction. Automakers are striving to build differentiated advantages by optimizing service efficiency and perceived value, while the end-to-end collaborative mechanism is still in a phase of continuous refinement and improvement.

Xie Juan, General Manager of JD Power China's Automotive Digital Retail Consulting Division, stated that in 2026, the Chinese automotive aftermarket is undergoing a profound adjustment driven by three intertwined trends: First, the effectiveness of warranties is weakening, unauthorized channels are becoming mainstream, and there is a clear trend of losing high-frequency services; second, under profit pressure, dealers are reducing investment in customer care, leading to a decline in the perceived warmth of high-value, long-term vehicle owners and an accumulation of long-term customer loyalty risks; third, the digital penetration rate is rising, offline fulfillment is disrupted, and the gap between expectations and reality in the entire experience is widening. These three trends reveal a shift: competition has moved from resource-driven to mindset-driven operations. Manufacturers need to move service touchpoints forward, streamline high-frequency demands, and create a closed loop between online and offline channels to solidify their customer base and achieve sustainable value growth amidst this changing landscape.

Here are the key findings of the study: 

• Domestic brands leap forward, luxury brands lead in value, and mainstream international brands face comprehensive pressure: In 2026, domestic brands' scores surpassed 800 points for the first time, narrowing the gap with luxury brands to just 8 points, thus entering the ranks of brands with high customer satisfaction. Domestic brands achieved double-digit growth in all three factors: "Service Team" (+14 points), "Reception and Diagnosis" (+14 points), and "Service Value" (+13 points). Luxury brands saw the fastest growth in the "Service Value" factor (+15 points), with the overall experience returning to a rapid upward trajectory. Meanwhile, mainstream international brands experienced a significant decline in the service appointment factor (-9 points), with the deterioration of the first-touchpoint experience triggering a chain reaction of problems across the entire value chain, putting comprehensive pressure on after-sales service satisfaction.

  
  

• The Disconnect in End-User Experience Amid High Digital Penetration: In 2026, the core commonality of digital after-sales services in the automotive industry will be a significant gap between the increasing weight of digital value and the declining offline fulfillment capabilities. Specifically, the penetration rate of digital services will continue to increase, such as the further increase in the usage rate of digital appointments to 44.7% (43.6% in 2025). After-sales users' stickiness to mobile digital services during the service process has increased significantly; the usage rate of maintenance inquiries via "mobile apps/WeChat mini-programs" in 2026 will be 1.8 times that of 2025, and the younger generation's reliance on digital services continues to rise. However, in terms of the effectiveness of digital experience, the industry has entered a new stage of digital equality, where digital services have moved beyond their value-added attributes and become a basic minimum experience. Data from 2026 shows that when digital services fail to meet users' core needs, the negative experience diminishes significantly compared to 2025. For example, the experience gap between "self-selection of appointment time slots" and "instant closed-loop confirmation after appointment" was 2.5 times and 1.5 times larger than in 2025, respectively, indicating that users' expectations for digital services continue to rise. In 2026, the brand's official digital platform gained a significant advantage in user mindshare. However, due to a break in the connection between the manufacturer's front-end digital functions and the dealer's back-end services, the last mile of the end-to-end experience failed. For instance, in 2026, the proportion of dealer stores' intelligent systems automatically recognizing appointment users decreased by 6.4%, while the proportion of users not being recognized increased by 7%; the proportion of users needing to provide information again after arriving at the store increased by 3.3%-4.7%. The lack of data integration resulted in repeated fulfillment costs and negative user perceptions.

• A large-scale shift of customers from warranty periods to unauthorized channels is causing authorized stores to lose high-touchpoint business:  In 2026, the outflow of scheduled maintenance and electromechanical repair services decreased by 10.5% and 5.3% respectively, indicating that authorized channels successfully retained high-value, essential services through packages, benefits, and trade-ins. Meanwhile, the outflow of bodywork and paint services and car wash/detail services increased by 8% and 7.2% respectively, indicating that "exterior damage + light service" is rapidly shifting to independent channels. Research shows that among users who have experience with unauthorized channels, 89.9% of their first choice occurred within the warranty period, an increase of 5.2% compared to 2025. Six out of ten users choose to skip authorized stores before maintenance, significantly weakening the traditional warranty "moat." This indicates a fundamental shift in the logic behind after-sales customer channel selection, with the highest increase in demand for convenience based on location and business hours, while demand driven by price discounts and emergency repairs has declined significantly. Despite a significant decline in VIP membership penetration through unauthorized channels in 2026 (down 16.7%), user service selection patterns have shifted from "deeply integrated with a single store" to a "multi-network, dispersed, high-frequency, light-service" consumption model. Against this backdrop, the operational logic of manufacturers simply relying on locking in warranty customers and converting them into packages after the warranty expires to build customer loyalty has become unsustainable. Manufacturers need to extend the window of opportunity for customer mindshare management to 2-2.5 months after purchase. Manufacturers should develop lightweight touchpoints for high-frequency, light services such as car washes and vehicle inspections, addressing convenience shortcomings through optimized spatial coverage and digital efficiency upgrades. By leveraging proactive operational intervention during the warranty period, manufacturers can lock in long-term customer consumption habits.

• Under pressure to generate profits, dealers are selectively shrinking their services, prioritizing transactions over customer relationships, thus depleting long-term customer assets. Due to profit pressures, dealers are systematically and selectively reducing low-output touchpoints, soft-care actions, and labor-intensive relationship-based services, while maintaining or even strengthening technology-based/transactional services that directly generate revenue. Data shows that in 2026, the usage rate of door-to-door services and vehicle pick-up and delivery decreased by 9.3% and 11.4% year-on-year, respectively. Data on vehicle age stratification also confirms this, with long-term customers experiencing a greater decline in their experience with these two types of services. Channels are continuously tightening the supply of value-added services to high-value existing customers. This contraction trend has also spread to low-cost, standardized proactive outreach. For example, the overall industry coverage of advance service reminders declined in 2026, significantly impacting service experience, resulting in a 2.4-fold increase in customer satisfaction between those without reminders and those with reminders. In conclusion, the "ebb at the level of customer experience" is earlier and deeper than the "ebb at the level of transactions," posing a greater long-term risk, and is more pronounced among high-value, long-term vehicle owners. In 2026, satisfaction rates among users with vehicles aged 37-48 months showed a decline across all five humanistic service indicators, including courteous reception and after-sales follow-up. Across the entire industry, 35.6% of paid benefits faced obstacles in redeeming, with an even higher proportion of issues among users with longer vehicle ages, indicating a serious challenge to the integrity of the user's entire lifecycle experience.

Top-ranked brands and models in China's after-sales service satisfaction rankings 2026

Land Rover ranked first in after-sales service satisfaction among luxury brands with 819 points, Mercedes-Benz ranked second with 813 points, and Audi ranked third with 812 points.

Chery and GAC Honda tied for first place among mainstream brands with 817 points. Chery also ranked first among domestic brands. Geely  ranked second among domestic brands and third among mainstream brands with 815 points . Changan Automobile and GAC Trumpchi tied for third place among domestic brands with 812 points.

JD Power's China Customer Service Satisfaction Study (CSI) examines six key factors—service appointment (14%), reception and diagnostics (17%), service facilities (19%), service value (17%), service quality (15%), and service team (18%)—to provide a comprehensive analysis of the customer service experience and an evaluation of customer satisfaction.

The 2026 study is based on feedback from 11,129 car owners from 34 brands who purchased new vehicles between January 2022 and March 2025. Data collection will take place between January and April 2026 in 81 major Chinese cities.