33% of Premium-Car Intenders Ended Up Buying a Mass-Market Brand, ConsumerInsight Finds

SEOUL, South Korea - May 21, 2026 - ConsumerInsight today released the third report in its `The Say-Do Gap` series, examining how consumers` stated auto purchase intentions changed by the time they actually bought a new car. The analysis compares plan realization rates by origin, brand tier, vehicle type and segment, and fuel type.

The central finding: among consumers who said they intended to buy a premium brand within one year, one in three, or 33%, ultimately bought a mass-market brand instead. By contrast, only 5% of those who intended to buy a mass-market brand moved the other way and bought a premium brand. The results show that aspirations formed before shopping - for an imported or premium car - are often revised downward by the time of final purchase.

The Say-Do Gap was largest in brand tier and vehicle origin. The plan realization rate - the share of buyers who purchased a car with the same attribute they originally intended - was 67% for premium-brand intenders and 71% for imported-car intenders [Table 1]. By comparison, 95% of mass-market-brand intenders bought a mass-market brand, and 94% of domestic-car intenders bought a domestic car. Roughly three in ten consumers who set out to buy a premium or imported car ultimately scaled back to a mass-market or domestic model at the point of purchase.

Results also varied sharply among the three major premium brands covered in the report. BMW had the highest plan realization rate at 65%, followed by Mercedes-Benz at 52% and Genesis at 42%, with gaps of more than 10 percentage points between each brand [Table 2]. Among BMW intenders, 19% chose a Hyundai Motor Group brand (Kia, Hyundai or Genesis combined), while only 2% moved to Mercedes-Benz.

Among Mercedes-Benz intenders, 17% chose BMW and 13% chose Kia - together accounting for more than half of Mercedes-Benz`s 48% attrition. BMW`s win over Mercedes-Benz was decisive: only 2% of BMW intenders moved to Mercedes-Benz, while 17% of Mercedes-Benz intenders moved to BMW. The shift may partly reflect the wave of rumors linking Mercedes-Benz and Chinese-made components that followed the August 2024 Incheon Cheongna apartment fire.

Genesis had the lowest realization rate among the three at 42%, but 39% of Genesis intenders chose a Hyundai Motor Group brand - nearly matching its own realization rate - which limited real losses to brands outside the group. Notably, defectors from both BMW and Mercedes-Benz chose Kia over Hyundai by a wide margin, suggesting that an affinity for premium imports may correlate with resistance specifically to the Hyundai brand rather than to Hyundai Motor Group as a whole.

By vehicle type, practical choices were more likely to hold. RV intenders had a 91% realization rate, compared with 73% for sedan intenders [Table 3]. Looking at segment and body type together, midsize RVs had the highest realization rate at 81%, followed by small sedans (67%), small RVs and large sedans (66% each), and large RVs (62%). Midsize sedans - once the standard family car - recorded the lowest rate among all attributes measured in the report, at 55%, with nearly half of midsize-sedan intenders switching to a different segment or body type. The result points to a broader consumer shift toward larger vehicles alongside continued RV strength.

Fuel-type results point to a `hybrid paradox.` Gasoline and electric vehicle (EV) intenders posted plan realization rates of 71% and 72% respectively, while hybrid (HEV) intenders recorded 63%; diesel and LPG intenders were lowest, at 33% and 22% [Table 4]. ConsumerInsight said the pattern likely reflects real-world constraints on hybrids - higher prices and long delivery waits - rather than cooling demand, as consumers who originally wanted a hybrid shifted to other fuel types when faced with those obstacles.

The Say-Do Gap has long been one of the toughest challenges for marketers. This report gives them a clearer picture: realization rates run consistently higher for domestic, mass-market, RV and EV choices, and the data point to some of the reasons why. ConsumerInsight said further analysis will refine these explanations and support a more evidence-based approach to understanding automotive consumers.