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Infiniti dealerships ranked highest in the 2026 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE®) Auto Industry Study, which measured and ranked responsiveness to sales leads submitted through dealership websites.

Now in its fifteenth year, the study measured response to customer inquiries sent to 3,290 dealership websites representing all major auto brands. The average Infiniti dealership achieved a score of 82 out of 100, while the total industry averaged 71, an improvement of nine and six points respectively since last year's study. Following Infiniti in the rankings were Cadillac, Honda, Acura, Subaru and Toyota.

Dealers improved primarily by increasing proactive, multichannel outreach and deploying smarter AI-powered automation for simple inquiries. The study found that 51% of auto dealers industrywide provided a "perfect response" (answered customer's question fast and through multiple paths - fully utilizing emails, texts, and phone), twice the rate from five years ago.

Of the 33 brands studied this year, 26 improved, six declined, and three improved by more than 10 points. The Chevrolet brand experienced the largest improvement in average dealership ILE score, gaining 14 points over last year with an average score of 74 in 2026.

The following are key behavior differences this year causing the increase in score:

Dealerships industry-wide used texting to answer the customer's question 54% of the time, compared to only 38% last year.

Three-quarters of online customers in this year's study received a phone call from the dealership, compared to only two-thirds last year.

Dealerships "did both," answered the customer's question by email and/or text and also phoned the customer, 62% of the time, compared to 49% last year.