Sales and service gains are reshaping competition among automotive brands, a new study finds
Filipino vehicle owners are reporting better purchase and ownership experiences, according to Differential Singapore’s second annual Philippines Customer eXperience Index (CXI) Study℠.
The industry’s Overall Customer Experience Index rose eight points, from 856 in 2025 to 864 in 2026. Behind the increase is a more striking story: sales and after-sales service are improving substantially faster than satisfaction with the vehicles themselves.
The majority of the 11 automotive brands assessed in both years recorded higher Sales and Service Index scores. Across the industry, the Sales Experience Index increased by 24 points and the Service Experience Index by 21 points, underscoring the growing importance of dealership interactions in shaping customer perceptions.
WHAT THE STUDY MEASURES
The independent study evaluates customer experience across three pillars: vehicle sales, after-sales service, and product satisfaction. It examines the touchpoints that matter throughout the vehicle purchase and ownership journey:
- Sales and Purchase Experience covers the customer journey from initial inquiry to vehicle delivery, including pre-sales consultation, dealership facilities, salesperson interaction, vehicle selection, price negotiation, and post-sales follow-up.
- After-Sales Service Quality evaluates service reliability, communication and transparency, convenience, pricing fairness, and the professionalism of dealership personnel.
- Product Satisfaction examines vehicle styling, driving performance, interior comfort, ergonomics and user interface, storage practicality, entertainment systems, and safety features.
Together, these dimensions offer a broader view of automotive customer experience, helping consumers look beyond specifications and giving manufacturers actionable insight into where customer expectations are changing.
“The encouraging news is that customer experience is improving across the Philippine automotive industry, particularly where customers interact directly with dealerships,” said Sigfred M. Doloroso, country manager at Differential Singapore.
“As competition intensifies, manufacturers and dealer networks are raising the bar for sales and service. That is good news for Filipino motorists, who stand to benefit from better support before and after buying a vehicle.”
KEY INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Dealership experience leads the gains, while product satisfaction largely holds steady
The biggest industry-wide improvements came from Sales (+24 points) and After-Sales Service (+21 points), compared with just two points for Product Satisfaction.
- Sales: Pre-Sales Information and Consultation (+33 points), Salesperson Interaction (+32 points), and Dealership Facilities (+27 points) posted notable gains.
- Service: Both Service Quality and Personnel and Facilities improved by 25 points, while Convenience and Accessibility rose by 22 points.
- Product: Results were more mixed. Interior Design and Comfort improved by seven points, while Safety and Security Features declined by five points and Vehicle Sound Systems by two points.
For OEMs, the message is clear: stronger dealership execution is lifting customer evaluations, but product experience remains a critical area for differentiation.
Chinese brands narrow the gap as customer experience competition intensifies
Chinese automotive brands recorded the largest year-on-year gain among the four country-of-origin groups assessed, improving 50 points from 839 in 2025 to 889 in 2026. That moved them from fourth to second place, ahead of Japanese and Korean brands on numerical scores.
American brands remained in front at 894, but their lead over Chinese brands narrowed from 29 points to just five. Korean brands improved by 24 points and Japanese brands by three. The changing scores suggest that competition among automotive brands is increasingly about the full purchase and ownership journey, not just vehicle features or price.
BYD outpaces rivals in year-on-year gains
BYD posted the largest improvement in Overall CXI among the 11 brands assessed in both years, climbing 52 points from 848 in 2025 to 900 in 2026. Its gain exceeded those of Kia (+38 points), Isuzu (+31 points), and Ford (+26 points).
BYD also made substantial progress across the three pillars: After-Sales Service (+63 points), Sales (+61 points), and Product Satisfaction (+48 points). Beyond its top overall numerical score, the breadth of BYD’s improvement is a signal to OEMs that competitive positions can change quickly when customer experience advances across multiple touchpoints.
Communication and service processes show tangible progress
Dealerships are also strengthening how they communicate with customers and manage after-sales visits. While the share of buyers using the internet before purchasing a vehicle declined to 83 percent, reported use of email in salesperson-to-customer communication increased by 37 percentage points. It was followed by SMS (+12 points), messaging applications (+9 points), and face-to-face contact (+3 points).
Service processes also showed measurable gains, including walkaround inspections (+14 percentage points), service advisors’ familiarity with vehicle service history (+14 points), and service notifications (+12 points). For OEMs and dealers, these findings underscore the importance of proactive communication, service transparency, and consistent execution at key customer touchpoints.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE RANKINGS
The three highest Overall Customer Experience Index scores in 2026 were:
- BYD: 900 index points
- Ford: 894 index points
- Isuzu: 885 index points
BYD also recorded the highest numerical scores across the three individual pillars: Sales and Purchase Experience, After-Sales Service Quality, and Product Satisfaction.
Beyond the overall rankings, the study provides brand-level benchmarking and detailed customer feedback across individual touchpoints, helping manufacturers identify where to defend strengths and where to prioritize improvement.
“The most important finding is not simply which brand leads the rankings. It is that every brand evaluated in both years improved in sales and service, pointing to a wider industry effort to deliver better customer experiences,” Doloroso added.
“For consumers, the ownership experience deserves as much attention as the vehicle itself. For OEMs and dealerships, the opportunity is to turn these insights into consistent, meaningful improvements at every stage of the customer journey.”
ABOUT THE STUDY
Conducted from April to July 2026, the Philippines Customer eXperience Index (CXI) Study℠ independently assesses customer satisfaction with authorized automotive dealer networks in the Philippines.
The study covers 11 mass-market automotive brands and 1,200 respondents nationwide who purchased vehicles between January and December 2025 and had them serviced during the same period. It measures experiences across vehicle sales, after-sales service, and product satisfaction, providing manufacturers with a structured view of customer expectations and competitive performance.
The full study includes brand-level results, benchmarking across key customer touchpoints, and detailed findings to support improvements in customer engagement and ownership experience.