A New Route to the Dealership
How auto buyers shop and OEM dealers sell today. Findings from the sixth annual Urban Science Harris Poll Study, fielded among 3,012 buyers and 252 dealers.
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Download the 2026 Urban Science Harris Poll Report Today!
For Dealers
See where follow-up falls short and how defection insights sharpen conversion.
What’s inside the 2026 Urban Science Harris Poll report for Dealers:
- Where dealers place their confidence in 2026 across sales teams, BDCs, AI tools and outsourced partners
- Buyer preference when it comes to dealership follow-up
- How long most dealers actually spend on follow-up, and what that says about sales process design
- The defection visibility gap and the single conversion metric dealers most want to improve
- How buyers feel about in-person vs. fully online car-buying options
- The limitations dealers cite in their current sales process ranked by frequency
- The four areas dealers say would benefit most from predictive intelligence and why 94% see it as critical to staying ahead
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For OEMs
See how sales, service and network expectations are redefining the buyer journey.
2026 Urban Science Harris Poll report insights for OEMs:
- The proximity numbers shaping sales versus service network strategy
- What share of service visits include a multipoint inspection, a trade-in offer or a sales team introduction
- What buyers say keeps them from purchasing recommended services after a multipoint inspection
- The hybrid versus EV split between buyers and dealers
- The federal policy effect on EV intent
- Dealer perspectives on brand audits and facility standards
- Buyer attitudes toward traditional dealerships, direct-to-consumer retailers and fully online manufacturer purchases
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For AdTech
See how media spend, buyer behavior and sales attribution are changing measurement.
Key findings from the 2026 Urban Science Harris Poll report:
- How dealers are splitting marketing budgets between digital and traditional channels
- The full ranking of measurement methods dealers use
- What changing consumer behavior means for ad measurement design
- The role of dealership websites versus OEM websites at each stage of the buyer journey
- Generational differences in how Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomers research vehicles and where social and AI-enabled apps actually rank
- How buyer comfort with sharing personal data has shifted year-over-year and what now earns the form fill
- What share of dealers tracking offline sales rely on daily industry-wide sales data versus registration data
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About the Study
The 2026 Urban Science Harris Poll Study was conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Urban Science among 3,012 U.S., 1,001 Germany and 1,001 UK adults aged 18+ who currently own, lease or plan to purchase or lease a vehicle in the next 12 months, and 252 U.S. OEM automotive dealers in Sales Manager, General Manager or Principal/VP/Owner roles.
Auto-buyer fieldwork ran from January 5 to January 28, 2026. Dealer fieldwork ran from January 5 to February 4, 2026. Sampling precision is ±2.3 percentage points for U.S. auto buyers and ±7.2 for U.S. OEM dealers at a 95% confidence level.
Download the Key Findings Overview
