"With Santana, I'm not afraid to go all over the world"
How popular was Santana in the past? At its peak, it held more than 60% of the domestic market share and occupied the throne of domestic sales champion for 22 consecutive years.
However, such a classic model has recently been "reduced to zero production capacity". Although it is not the first time that production has been discontinued, after the news came out, it still caused quite a stir on the Internet.
Santana, why not?
01: Brilliant
Santana, which is now despised by many people, was a real "hard currency" decades ago.
In the last century, in the early 1980s of reform and opening up, except for a few old Hongqi and Shanghai cars, there were only bicycles and buses on the domestic streets.
All over the country, even domestic commercial vehicles can not be built, and because of this, the introduction of foreign production lines is urgent.
The central authorities also issued a special order to this end, and finally sent the minister of machinery to Germany for negotiations.
Germany was chosen because the German masses have the highest sincerity and can provide support, both in terms of capital and technology.
Even so, the negotiation process was extremely painful, and the negotiations lasted for six years before the agreement was signed at the Great Hall of the People in 1984.
It is naturally common sense that the negotiations are more detailed, but more critically, the Germans question whether China can complete Santana's independent manufacturing.
I have to say that compared with Germany, a "manufacturing power", the domestic foundation at that time was indeed very weak.
The first Santana, all the parts were imported, not so much made as assembled. And even if it is assembly, the workers are also made to be haggard, unfamiliar with modern manufacturing, they have never seen a car with so many parts, the original two-day assembly deadline, raw and delayed for a week to complete.
If you want to complete the self-production of parts in China, the difficulties can be imagined.
In the past, the shape of the parts was flawed, and the workers picked up the hammer and knocked it, but it could still be used, and it could be sent to Germany, and the strength test could not pass.
Exactly two years later, Santana had only three things to produce: antennas, wheels, and tape recorders.
The Germans, however, far underestimated the determination of their countrymen.
Zhu Rongji, then mayor of Shanghai, issued a "military order": If santana's localization could not be completed, he would resign himself!
Seven years later, that goal was achieved, and production soared to 150,000 units.
After the increase in production, Santana began to "popularize the whole country" and became the official car of a large number of government personnel, perhaps for this reason, Santana was put on the halo of "official car" and "luxury car".
For the first time, even if you have money, you may not be able to buy Santana, because before you buy, you still need to apply for indicators and letters of introduction.
Many scalpers, just selling indicators will make a lot of money.
The more "hunger marketing", the more serious the Santana plot of the countrymen, so that after the purchase restriction was lifted, many bosses put millions of Rolls-Royces and had to use Santana town yards.
For them, Rolls-Royce is just arrogant, and only Santana is really domineering.
In 1998, the cumulative sales of this "god car" exceeded the 1 million mark, and it should be known that the domestic car market at that time had not yet taken shape.
02: Debilitation
No one expected Santana to decline so quickly that, by 2012, its total sales had reached the 4 million level.
Hey, 4 million, isn't that nice? In 1998, it was only 1 million, a fourfold increase.
But people familiar with the matter know that this is not enough, and this data is far from worthy of its "god car" title.
In fact, with the development of the domestic automobile market, the sales of various car series have ushered in significant growth after 2010, but when the industry is booming, Santana has collapsed, and sales have not increased but decreased.
At the end of the day, Santana is getting lazy.
In the early stage of market competition, Santana was famous, and fame was not a false name, it was based on strong hard power.
Those who have driven Santana have said that it has good performance.
At that time, the 1.8-liter EFI engine of The Sanata, the horsepower can despise all the mid-level cars; the five-speed gearbox, which was originally dedicated to luxury cars, Santana was also stunned; the quality of the leather was "saved" the lives of passengers in many car accidents.
To enhance the driver's sense of operation, Santana even promised to "improve the powertrain every year".
However, I don't know when Santana began to get lazy, saying that the performance of the improvement was changed to the performance "declined".
Not to mention the appearance that has not changed for twenty years, even the plastic in the car can not be changed for twenty years.
Santana, who fell off the altar, had a decline in reputation, and Han Han commented that it was a "Shanghai taxi", thinking that it was really cheap to drive out.
A good god car has become a "garbage truck" in this way.
In 2010, Santana sold 210,100 units, and by 2011, it had fallen to 204,000 units. A thriving car market, the decline in sales is extremely glaring.
Finally, in 2012, Santana was forced to rebuild it amid a wave of consumer complaints.
However, the new Santana created has disappointed many old car fans even more.
What disappointed was not the appearance, but the new look was too ugly.
The original standard car parts are replaced by the new model and transformed into "additional services".
The so-called extra service is what you want, you have to add money!
For example, on the anti-collision beam, the screw holes are all punched out for you, but the screws are not given.
The public has feelings for Santa, but Santana clearly prices the feelings and wants to cut leeks.
03: Why "Died"
The new version in 2012 failed to revitalize the brand after all, and many fans said bluntly: Sanata died in 2012.
The original price of 200,000 is in short supply, but since then it has been repeatedly slow to sell, even the fracture price of 20,000 or 30,000, 4S stores have to look at the face of consumers.
Some people say that Santana was "abandoned" by SAIC Volkswagen because of the fine for carbon credits, which led to the loss of selling one car; others said that it was because of the shortage of chips that Santana's production line had to be stopped.
But if you want to electrify, why does SAIC not want to take Santana? The same is the lack of chips, why a knife on its head.
Say a thousand ways and ten thousand, or santana brand can not do.
In the eyes of the public, Santana is really "lack of sincerity".
Look at people's red flag, although there is no sales pressure, but the enthusiasm is not bad at all, heard some people question its lack of innovation, it turned around and redoed the design, with "red flag H9" to prove that its "domestic first luxury car" name is not covered.
Even in Japan, an auto powerhouse, many people have become fans of it.
Then there is BYD, which has been working hard for several years to produce a blade battery that shocks the four seats.
Because of this, these classic brands are not only not buried by the years, but more and more fragrant.
This spirit of service, once Santana can also be seen, as long as the user puts forward reasonable feedback, it will be renovated in time.
However, this kind of change, the back has changed the taste, and the more it is changed, the more annoyed the user.
For brands, feelings should not be leek knives, but the driving force that spurs them to keep moving forward, but Santana just doesn't do it.
Looking back at the past, the domestic Santana started from a very high point, turned out in the eyes of the world, and has been booming for decades since then, but with the development of the times, it has been slowly marginalized by the market. Now everyone is still speculating, whether this suspension of production is the same as the general "suspended animation" in 2012, or a complete farewell?
Santana, is there still a comeback?
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Author: Xiang Nan