Chinese car brands dominate new Customer Experience Index
By Karen Parry
At a glance
Chinese car brands, including Omoda, Chery, and Jaecoo, have topped the Carblah Customer Experience Index in the UK, outperforming traditional premium brands like Lexus, which is the only premium brand in the top ten. The index, based on customer reviews, highlights a shift in consumer expectations, with new entrants excelling in customer satisfaction by offering clarity and simplicity, while established brands face pressure to modernise their retail experiences.
- Omoda retailers lead the entire market
- Chery, Jaecoo, Leapmotor, GWM, Changan, Geely and BYD also in the top ten
- 54 car makers’ retailers rated by customer sentiment
- Only one premium brand - Lexus - makes it into the overall top ten
The latest Carblah Index has revealed a dramatic shift in the UK’s automotive landscape, showing how much UK consumers are loving the experience of buying a new Chinese-brand car.
The Carblah Customer Experience Index - which analyses and aggregates real customer sentiment from almost a quarter of a million customer reviews across sales, service and ownership touchpoints - shows that the value‑driven, emerging brands are now setting the benchmark for customer satisfaction. Customer experience from 54 car brands’ retailers have been included in the index.
Top of the pile is Omoda, followed by its sister brands Chery and Jaecoo, with Leapmotor and GWM also making it into the top five. Lexus is the highest‑performing of the premium brands, while Rolls-Royce tops the luxury and performance sector.
The premium brand category** shows the widest performance spread of any segment. Lexus stands out as the only premium brand to break into the overall top ten, outperforming all other premium competitors by a significant margin. Many well‑known premium marques sit behind several mainstream brands and far behind the new challengers - the bottom five premium brands score lower than the lowest‑performing mainstream brand. This signals a structural inversion of the traditional hierarchy, suggesting that customer expectations are evolving faster than some established brands are adapting.
In the mainstream brand category* established car makers show a tight, competitive cluster of scores, led by Dacia, Abarth, Cupra, Renault and Hyundai. While consistency is strong, no mainstream brand reaches the performance levels now being achieved by many of the new Chinese brands.
In the luxury and performance category*** brands continue to deliver the high‑touch, high‑consistency experience expected of the segment, with Rolls-Royce leading the group.
Insight from this latest Carblah Index shows a huge shift in customer expectations, highlighting a fundamental change in the market:
- Customers no longer equate price with experience
- New entrants are winning on clarity, simplicity and consistency
- Premium brands are being judged more harshly against rising expectations
- Mainstream brands are stable but no longer aspirational
- Customer experience is delivered by retailers, not OEMs - and some OEMs will be disappointed in the networks representing them.
This shift is reshaping the competitive landscape and accelerating pressure on established OEMs to modernise their retail and aftersales experience.
Steve Fowler, journalist and Carblah co-founder said, “What this Index shows is simple: customers reward brands that treat them well. Challenger and value‑driven brands are winning because they make things clear, fair and easy - and that’s what people want. When new entrants outperform long‑established premium names, it’s a sign that the market is finally listening to consumers rather than relying on reputation.”
Michael Yeates, Managing Director & Co-Founder of Carblah, said, “The data is unambiguous: customer experience drives trust and trust drives margin. The brands that simplify the journey and remove friction are the ones outperforming the market. Customer experience is delivered by retailers, not OEMs - and some OEMs will be disappointed in the networks representing them. The strongest performers in this Index are proving that when customers trust you, they don’t just stay with you, they spend more with you.”
* Carblah Mainstream Brand Customer Experience Index
- Omoda
- Chery
- Jaecoo
- Leapmotor
- GWM
- Changan
- Dacia
- Geely
- BYD
- MG
- Abarth
- Cupra
- Renault
- Hyundai
- Toyota
- Peugeot
- Kia
- Mazda
- Seat
- Skoda
- Citroen
- Suzuki
- Vauxhall
- Honda
- Fiat
- Nissan
- Subaru
- Jeep
- Smart
- MINI
- Ford
- Volkswagen
** Carblah Premium Brand Customer Experience Index
- Lexus
- Alpine
- Genesis
- Alfa Romeo
- Polestar
- Volvo
- DS
- Land Rover
- Mercedes-Benz
- Jaguar
- BMW
- Audi
*** Carblah Luxury and Performance Brand Customer Experience Index
- Rolls-Royce
- Aston Martin
- Ferrari
- Lotus
- Maserati
- Lamborghini
- Bentley
- McLaren
- Porsche
- Ineos
Issued by KP Works. Distributed by WebPR UK.
About KP Works
About the Carblah Customer Experience Index The Carblah Customer Experience Index is a set of indices measuring customer experience in the automotive world. It uses advanced AI to extract sentiment, behavioural patterns and operational signals, producing a single, comparable score for all the big brands and their franchise dealerships in the UK market. Unlike traditional surveys, the Index reflects what customers actually experience, not just the star rating they give. About Carblah Carblah is a data-led platform that aggregates and analyses customer reviews of cars and car retailers, transforming consumer sentiment into actionable insight for the automotive industry. By combining large-scale review data with advanced analysis, Carblah helps dealer groups and manufacturers understand not just what customers think, but what to do about it - linking real-world feedback to performance, reputation and growth. Carblah was co-founded by Steve Fowler, one of the UK’s most experienced automotive journalists, and Michael Yeates, a board-level advisor with extensive experience delivering transformation across global financial and retail businesses. Together they combine deep automotive expertise with data and digitally driven transformation of major businesses to bring greater transparency to car buying and improve retail performance.