New data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that for the first time in recent memory, luxury automakers no longer outscore their mass-market counterparts on customer satisfaction. Both segments now sit at an identical 78 out of 100, with the industry overall dipping a point to match. The convergence isn’t happening because mass-market brands suddenly got better at pampering their customers. It’s happening because luxury brands are sliding, and buyers across every price tier are recalibrating what they expect in return for a car payment that keeps climbing. The Math That’s Reshaping the Market The pressure bearing down on satisfaction scores traces back to sticker shock. Average monthly new-car payments hit $767 in the fourth quarter of last year, up nearly 3 percent from a year earlier, with average transaction prices now topping $50,000. Consumer research from CarEdge found that 42 percent of prospective buyers have already shelved their purchase plans because of price, and nearly two-thirds said they’d walk away entirely if payments climbed just 5 percent further. Tariff-driven cost uncertainty has only sharpened that anxiety. Forrest Morgeson, an ACSI research director emeritus and marketing professor at Michigan State University, frames the shift as less about brand loyalty and more about arithmetic. When a buyer is financing a vehicle for six or seven years, he notes, reliability and value start to matter more than what’s on the badge — a dynamic that luxury brands are discovering they are not exempt from. Hybrids Emerge as the Quiet Winner Amid the broader satisfaction slide, one category held steady: hybrids. They posted the industry’s highest score at 80, unchanged year over year, while gasoline vehicles fell three points to 78 and electric vehicles dropped a point to 72. The appeal is straightforward — hybrid owners get fuel savings without the range