Wild Ride of Customer Satisfaction May Be Leveling Off

In the more than three years of CDK’s Ease of Purchase Scorecard, there have only been a few months of extreme volatility. Heading deeper into 2026 we’ve encountered three in a row.

The extreme drop in customer satisfaction during November of last year to a record low of 66% of buyers saying the purchase process was easy barely lifted in December to 69% and then shot frenetically back up to 85% in January. That roller-coaster ride makes the drop to 81% in February seem, well, ordinary.

Over the years, the Ease of Purchase Score generally moves a few percentage points in either direction with regularity and anything over five percentage points is considered abnormal. We witnessed a blip like this in June 2025 but otherwise the past few months have been the most extreme moment in the Scorecard’s history.

Most steps in the purchase process also fell in February and were overall lower than the 2025 average but far better than at the end of 2025.

Perhaps the most perplexing was the number of people who said it was easy to find the vehicle they hoped to purchase. That fell from a very strong 79% in January to just 71% in February. This was despite a high number of buyers saying they found the car they wanted in stock, rising from 57% in January to 59% in February. Although both months’ in-stock figures are above the 2025 average of 50%.

There were also significant drops to how many people said agreeing to the final price and applying for credit were easy, both dipping eight percentage points from their January scores and far below 2025’s averages.

These declines were despite positive feedback from some respondents on applying for credit. “It was easy because I applied online and was already approved when I got to the dealership,” one buyer stated while another said, “the process was fairly painless because we qualified for the vehicle we were looking at and we got a decent trade-in amount.”

So where’s the disconnect coming from?

It’s likely the F&I office as only 56% said it was easy to complete the process to finance or lease. That’s down significantly from a very high 70% in January and still far below the 2025 average of 63%. The start to 2026 sales is seeing lower overall volume whether from tough weather or fewer deals to be had. These results suggest those having issues may have not been prepared for sudden shifts in pricing and incentives after the new year. Often these buyers are also in a place more of need and could be soured on having to secure higher monthly payments than they were used to with little flexibility to wait.

Deals also didn’t close faster in February but not by much.

There was a small uptick in buyers who said it took longer than expected to complete their purchase, up from 25% in January to 27% in February. But both of these numbers are better than the average from 2025, 2024 or 2023.

“Financing had begun online for the vehicle of my choice,” one buyer told us. “Printing paperwork and handing keys over was all I had to do next.”

Despite some of the negative drops in February, there are some signs of stabilization in the results and verbatims from buyers. Perhaps that stabilization takes hold as the year progresses, tax season commences, and buyers are more flexible with their purchase timing.