Tada Images/ShutterstockGiven their popularity, it might be a surprise to find the ASCI, or American Customer Satisfaction Index, found GM's entire brand range to have underperformed quite significantly in its 2026 survey. Compared to last year, Cadillac's score went from 81 to 69 (a 15% drop), GMC dropped 6% (81 to 76), and Chevrolet dropped 5%, going from 79 to 75. However, Buick saw the most dramatic fall in customer satisfaction scores, going from 81 to 68 — a 16% year-over-year drop. ASCI cites tariffs and a lack of EVs as possible reasons.Leading the mass-market pack is Toyota with a score of 83, while Subaru trails second despite its score dropping 5% from last year. Honda, Hyundai, and Kia round out the top five (in that order), while Ford, Mazda, and Nissan complete the midfield.Although much of Stellantis is still at the bottom, just like in 2025, some of its portfolio brands have seen improvements, with Ram posting the largest y-o-y gain of 7% across all brands in the survey, going from 69 to 74. And Jeep, despite selling one of the least satisfying SUVs in 2026, has seen a 3% improvement in its score versus 2025. While Dodge's score of 72 remains unchanged, the same can't be said about Chrysler, which, with a 3% drop (from 69 to 67), happens to be the worst-performing among all mass-market car brands.AdvertisementAdvertisementMercedes-Benz tops the luxury rankings. However, except Audi and BMW, all luxury marques have seen their scores go down compared to 2025, with Cadillac taking the biggest hit, followed by Lexus. Interestingly, because customer experience (CX) benchmarks — including dependability, resale value, gas mileage, and other metrics — showed no y-o-y improvement across the luxury landscape, the segment's overall score seems to have converged with that of the mass-market's, according to ASCI.Read more: These Overrated Muscle Cars Are More Trouble Than They're WorthExpanding on the luxury versus mass-market trend and other ASCI findingsACSI Automobile Study 2026Findings from the survey reveal that the gap in the ASCI scores between the two segments has been narrowing over the years. Since 2023, ASCI scores for the mass-market segment have been mostly flat until now — only declining 1% to 78 — whereas the luxury segment saw its scores drop from 81 to 78 over the same period. ASCI attributes the latter's sharp decline to "a rise in luxury complaint rates and deteriorating perceptions of reliability." Although luxury CX benchmarks have remained uninspiring, much of that is also true for the mass-market nameplates, with y-o-y declines observed in driving performance and gas mileage, to name a few. While gas mileage seems to have dropped across the board, luxury brands fared worse overall than their mass-market counterparts, per ASCI's scores.Hybrid vehicle owners report better satisfaction than pure-gas and EV customers, both in the mass-market and luxury segments. However, the delta between the fuel sources isn't as significant in the luxury space as it is among mass-market vehicles. For example, mass-market EV owners have a satisfaction score of 69, which is a lot lower than the respective 78 and 80 across gas-only and hybrid vehicle owners. On the other hand, the 76 that ASCI found among luxury EV owners is not that far off from what's seen within the segment. That said, loyalty across mass-market EV owners have improved dramatically y-o-y, with customer retention jumping from 57% to 71%, repurchase likelihood improving 13%, and likelihood to recommend improving 9%. According to ASCI, this is largely the result of owners investing in home charging and establishing reliable charging routines.AdvertisementAdvertisementWant more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and follow us or add us as a preferred search source on Google.Read the original article on Jalopnik.