As new car brands like Tesla grow in popularity, as electric powertrains take off broadly, and other previously high-end technologies become commonplace in even the most basic new cars, it often feels like the lines between luxury automakers and mainstream car brands are blurring more than ever.
Still, no matter what type of powertrain is under the hood, there are plenty of car buyers who want the prestige, performance and extra amenities that come with these luxury brands, and they’re happy to pay the extra to own them. This market position is so pronounced that luxury brands have their own separate category when ranking things like reliability and customer satisfaction. When it comes to the number one luxury brand for customer satisfaction, the winner shouldn’t be too surprising to those who have followed the industry for a long time.
Toyota’s Lexus ranks highest among luxury automakers in the 2025 U.S. Consumer Satisfaction Index Automotive Study, moving up two spots from the previous year’s ranking, surpassing Mercedes-Benz and Tesla. A big part of this is the breadth and high quality of Lexus’ hybrid lineup, which overall earns higher satisfaction rankings across all brands, especially compared to electric vehicles.
Read more: 10 Toyota models with extremely low resale value
Hybrids are the way to go
Lexus RX Hybrid parked on vineyard road, front 3/4 view, silver exterior – Lexus
ACSI conducted its Automotive Satisfaction Survey between 2024 and 2025, surveying nearly 10,000 owners across a variety of categories to summarize the ownership experience. The list includes traditional satisfaction categories such as drivability, efficiency, comfort and reliability, as well as two new categories added for 2025: total range on a tank or charge and expected resale value.
Lexus topped the list of luxury brands with a total score of 87 out of 100, five points ahead of second-place Mercedes-Benz. The results aren’t shocking, as the brand’s parent company, Toyota, also ranks highly in customer satisfaction. The main driver of Lexus’ rise this year is its hybrid vehicles. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids (such as the popular Lexus RX 500h crossover) account for a large portion of the brand’s sales, with the vast majority of models in the Lexus range offering some form of hybrid powertrain.
When breaking down all luxury brands by powertrain type, hybrids received the highest satisfaction score at 83 out of 100, followed by gasoline vehicles at 80 and electric vehicles at 78. While Lexus does have electric vehicles in its lineup, the brand has largely followed parent company Toyota’s lead in focusing on hybrid models rather than pure electric vehicles. For now, the decision appears to be paying off, especially compared to European luxury brands that are more aggressively pursuing electric vehicles.
Other findings from the luxury car market
Blue Lexus NX hybrid car on the road, side view – Lexus
Overall, across the luxury segment, customer satisfaction scores fell slightly in 2025 from the previous year, with much of the decline attributed to the underperformance of electric vehicles, particularly those from Audi and BMW. ACSI noted in its findings that high levels of driver dissatisfaction with these German electric vehicles would not only drag down individual brands’ rankings, but also increase customer satisfaction across all brands.
One of the new customer satisfaction categories added for 2025 is particularly interesting, looking at distance traveled on a full charge or with a full tank of gas, as it represents a true interpretation of range and may differ from official specs or EPA ratings. Here again, the luxury hybrid wins, with a score of 76 points, compared with 74 points for gasoline cars and 71 points for electric cars.
As for the future, with U.S. EV sales trending downward, brands like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes may be able to regain some lost ground if EVs make up a smaller share of their sales in the future, but for now, Lexus appears to be at a disadvantage. In addition to the luxury brand rankings, ACSI’s research also covers mass-market brands, with another Japanese automaker taking first place in the 2025 mass-market automotive customer satisfaction rankings.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
