For decades, automotive brands have competed on horsepower, features, and engineering. Today? The race is on to deliver something far less tangible—and far more powerful.
By Dan Regan, CPTD – TiER1 Principal / Learning Strategist
For decades, automotive brands have competed on horsepower, features, and engineering. Today? The race is on to deliver something far less tangible—and far more powerful.
Welcome to the customer experience gold rush.
In our latest insights paper, Chasing the Customer Experience Gold Rush with Modern Luxury, we explore how OEMs and dealerships are rethinking what “premium” really means, and why the next decade of brand leadership may hinge less on what you sell—and more on how it feels to buy it.
It started with a few scattered client calls, each describing new experience-driven initiatives. One luxury OEM positioning under “modern luxury.” Another mass-market brand aiming to deliver “hospitality-driven experiences.” Then came the RFPs. One after another, brands across the spectrum started asking the same question:
As vehicle features become harder to distinguish, especially in the EV era, the customer experience is quickly becoming the new battleground for loyalty and margin. Today, every brand is rewriting its customer experience (CX) rulebook.
In a world of compressed specs, shared platforms, and omnipresent access to information, customer loyalty now hinges on a deeper, more human connection. Modern buyers want:
The traditional “sell-a-car-and-move-on” mindset is giving way to a new approach: guide the customer, earn their trust, and move them closer to the brand over time.
What was once about exclusivity of ownership is now about memorability of experience.
In the paper, we break down key behavioral shifts among modern luxury consumers—particularly younger, affluent buyers—who value tailored experiences over flashy possessions. They want to be known, not just sold to. They respond to service that’s seamless, anticipatory, and highly personalized.
In the automotive space, that requires rethinking everything—from how vehicles are presented and test-driven, to how post-sale service and follow-up is delivered.
Every OEM is talking about customer experience. Only a few are actually doing it well.
The paper outlines what separates vision from execution:
Without internal alignment and top-down/bottom-up activation, even the best training or change initiatives risk becoming a pointless exercise in “fish-washing”—a metaphor we explain in full in the paper.
Download Chasing the Customer Experience Gold Rush with Modern Luxury
In this position paper, you’ll find:
Experience is the new differentiator. Getting it right could be your brand’s competitive edge.