2026 U.S. Aftermarket Service Index Study Highlights Customer Satisfaction Trends

JD Power recently released its 2026 U.S. Aftermarket Service Index Study, giving insight into the current areas of strength and weakness within the aftermarket.

As shared in a press release, year-over-year changes in customer satisfaction across the three segments in the index are mixed, with improvement in quick oil change (+4 points on a 1,000-point scale) but declines in tire replacement (-3) and full-service maintenance and repair (-7).

The index results showed aftermarket providers as being perceived more convenient than dealers, particularly in speed of service. Even among same-day dealer visits, fewer than one in five dealer service customers have work completed within an hour, compared with 52% of tire replacement customers and 49% of full-service maintenance and repair customers at aftermarket providers. At the same time, a growing share of customers also cite lower costs as a factor.

Perceptions of Less Expertise

Despite consistently strong performance in fixing issues correctly the first time—with segment averages above 95% over the past five years, and annual outperformance versus dealer service within the metric—aftermarket providers still face a perception gap in the study.

Customers continue to trust aftermarket providers less than dealers, particularly in their perceived ability to maintain peak vehicle performance and handle complex repairs. In the full-service maintenance and repair segment, trust scores in these areas average 6.07 and 5.89 (on a 7-point scale), compared with 6.31 2 and 6.20 among dealer customers.

Advisor Communication and Responsiveness

Two service advisor measures were added to the study this year, with aftermarket providers performing well on both: the advisor being completely focused on customer needs (the most impactful index KPI) and clearly communicating when the vehicle will be ready before service begins. 

Aftermarket providers also slightly outperform dealers in setting service timelines up front, with dealers achieving this just 80% of the time.

Texting Your Customers

Across all three segments, more customers reported communicating with their service advisor via text message compared with last year, with texting now more common than phone calls in the tire and oil change segments. 

More than half of customers across all segments now prefer texts for service updates, and aligning with that preference meaningfully impacts satisfaction. Among customers who prefer texts and receive them, satisfaction is 854, but dips to 840 when they receive a phone call instead. 

Text messaging also enables advisors to share photo and video multi-point inspection results, more than doubling the likelihood that customers will approve recommended work, yet the industry has displayed no meaningful improvement in providing this documentation.

Brand Rankings

Goodyear Auto Service ranked highest in the full-service maintenance and repair segment with a score of 846. Tuffy Tire and Auto Service Centers (843) ranked second and Christian Brothers Automotive (834) ranked third.