Automotive market research
Automotive market research that reflects how people really buy
Automotive market research is how manufacturers, dealers, mobility and fleet brands understand how people really choose a car, across the long, self-directed journey from the first spark of intent to the final decision. It spans brand health and mental availability, path to purchase, proposition and model testing, and segmentation. Basis runs it across the US, UK and globally.
A car is one of the most considered purchases anyone makes. People research for weeks or months, read reviews, watch videos, ask people they trust, and increasingly ask AI, long before they set foot in a showroom. In our 2026 study, 95% of car purchases were planned, the most deliberate decision of any category we measured.
In cars, buyers rationalise a choice they’ve already made
Ask a car buyer why they chose their brand and you get a rational case: value for money (72%), a reputation they trust (69%), a belief it makes the best products in the category (62%). It sounds evidence-led. And cars are considered, 95% of purchases are planned. But when our 2026 study forced buyers to rank what actually decided it, the rational case fell apart. “Came to mind first” jumped to the top at 54%. “Best products” collapsed from 62% to 19%. Product superiority is the story buyers tell themselves, not the lever that wins.
What wins is mental availability, being the brand that surfaces first and easiest across a long, self-directed journey, and holding up when buyers check. Because the real threat isn’t losing an argument about specs. It’s reviews. 38% say they’d have switched had they seen better reviews for another brand, the single biggest pull away from a chosen car. And the loyalty the category is famous for is thinner than it looks. Automotive has long been a badge you keep, the household that always buys the same make, but nearly half now say switching would be easy and 39% expect to, and EVs and a wave of new far-east entrants are loosening allegiances that used to hold for life.
So the job in automotive isn’t proving you make the best car, buyers say that matters, then don’t act on it. It’s owning mental availability and defending review credibility, the two things that actually decide and hold the choice. That’s what our research is built to read: not the reasons buyers give, but the ones that move them.
What great automotive research delivers
In a category decided over months of research, the job of research is to show what actually moves the choice, not just who turned up at the end.
We help automotive brands:
- Understand how people really decide, across the long road to purchase
- Track brand health, mental availability and trust, the things that actually decide the choice
- Map the full path to purchase across search, social, reviews and AI
- Test propositions, models and messaging before launch
- Understand how AI is reshaping discovery and the shortlist
- Build segmentations grounded in real attitudes to driving and ownership
- Sharpen positioning across a portfolio of models or brands
How an automotive study comes together
No off-the-shelf template. We build every automotive study around the decision in front of you, then choose the methods that answer it.
That usually means a mix. Qualitative work to get inside how people actually shortlist and decide. Quantitative research to size the drivers and rank what really moves the choice, separating what buyers say from what wins. Organic Intelligence, our AI and big-data practice, to read the reviews, forums and conversations shaping brands long before a buyer walks in. Cultural and trend analysis to track how attitudes to driving, ownership and AI are shifting. And journey work, through Touchpoint 360°, to follow the path to purchase across search, social, reviews and AI.
AI runs through all of it, from how we read conversation at scale to how we model the decision. The judgment about what it means for your brand stays human.
Automotive market research FAQ
What is automotive market research?
Automotive market research is how manufacturers, dealers, mobility and fleet brands understand how people really choose a car, from the first spark of intent through months of research to the final decision. It covers brand health, mental availability, path to purchase, proposition and model testing, and segmentation. Basis runs it across the US, UK and globally, for car brands and commercial fleet alike.
How do people choose which car to buy?
Over months, and more on instinct than the rational case they give. Buyers research heavily across search, reviews, video, word of mouth and increasingly AI, but when Basis forced them to rank what actually decided it, “came to mind first” topped the list and “best products” collapsed. Mental availability and review credibility do more to win and hold the choice than any spec argument.
What research does Basis do for automotive brands?
Basis works across brand and mental-availability tracking, path-to-purchase mapping, proposition and model testing, segmentation, and AI-led category landscaping, for manufacturers, dealers, mobility and fleet brands. Every project is scoped around the commercial question rather than a fixed template, from a single launch to a full portfolio strategy.
How is AI changing car buying?
AI assistants are becoming part of the research journey, sitting alongside search, reviews and forums as buyers narrow a shortlist. Because the car decision is long and self-directed, where AI shapes discovery, and how answer engines represent your brand, is now part of reading how cars get chosen. Basis tracks where AI is entering the journey and what it means for the shortlist.
How is automotive research different from other categories?
A car is the most planned purchase Basis measured, decided over months rather than in the moment. So the useful questions are about the whole arc of consideration, mental availability, review credibility and where you enter or fall off the shortlist, not footfall or the dealership moment alone. It also spans consumer car buying and commercial fleet, which behave differently.
Can Basis help both car brands and fleet or mobility businesses?
Yes. Basis works across consumer car buying and B2B fleet and mobility, from a manufacturer sharpening model positioning to an energy company sizing the shift to fleet electrification or a mobility brand rebuilding a driver journey.
Which markets can Basis run automotive research in?
Basis runs automotive market research in the US, the UK and globally from a single team, rather than stitching together separate local suppliers. That means consistent method and comparable results across markets, with local nuance where it matters, across manufacturers, dealers, mobility and fleet.
Automotive research in action
Automotive and mobility questions rarely stop at the showroom. We work right across the category, from manufacturers and dealers to rental, mobility and commercial fleet, turning hard questions into commercial decisions.
Owning the replacement rental moment
Touchpoint 360° traced 8,000 driver journeys and 438 million conversations to find the two moments where replacement rental is won or lost, feeding a leading mobility brand’s 2027 roadmap.
Learn more →
Sizing the shift to fleet electrification
We mapped how commercial fleet managers, from micro-fleets to thousands of vehicles, are approaching electrification, sizing the opportunity and grounding a new business unit.
Learn more →Why automotive teams choose Basis
We understand that in automotive the decision is won or lost in the long consideration, well before a buyer reaches a dealership. So we don’t hand over a deck and disappear. We work with your team to make sure the insight drives the next move.
What we bring:
- Deep automotive and mobility expertise, from manufacturers to dealers and fleet
- A decision-first approach, built around how people actually choose a car
- Fluency in consideration, trust and the role AI now plays in the choice
- End-to-end capability across qual, quant, Organic Intelligence and cultural insight
- The confidence to challenge when it helps, and the focus to move fast when it counts
Understand how car buyers really decide
We help automotive brands see how the choice actually gets made, across the months before the showroom, so you can win it while it’s still being made.
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