More than 300,000 bought Mercedes-Benz cars, just opened for two years the engine has exploded, the dealer after-sales department not only refused the free warranty for new requirements, but the owner must first take out 180,000 to bear the maintenance costs, this kind of thing is you, can you accept?
Recently, Ms. Li from Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, caused a dispute with the dealer over the maintenance cost, and the focus of the conflict between the two sides was whether the car was still a vehicle under warranty. At this point, of course, things are far more complicated than we think. Today we will review in detail, who is in charge?
01
Third-party repair shops back to the pot again?
According to Ms. Li's recollection, she went home from work that day to drive, and during the driving process, she heard a strange noise from the front of the car, and the whole car also appeared to have a sudden slowdown, which felt like it was sliding in an empty block, and the engine failure light was also on.
Because I have never encountered such a situation, I was a little confused at once, I couldn't help but pull over the car and wanted to get out of the car to see, I didn't expect that at this time the engine cover began to emit white smoke, which really frightened Ms. Li, thinking that the car was going to catch fire and spontaneously combust, so I hurriedly drove the car to an empty place on the side of the road, and waited until the engine cover did not smoke before walking over to see.
Ms. Li had heard about the "pot" of the engine before and thought that she had encountered such a situation, but it was obvious that the problem she encountered that day was far more serious than this. Because she found that the oil began to flow from under the chassis of her Mercedes, and there were still many metal fragments on the ground, as if something had exploded.
She then called the police to call for a trailer and towed it to the repair shop of a nearby dealership. After inspection, the after-sales staff of the 4S store said that ms. Li's Mercedes-Benz car engine block was broken, which is commonly known as "burst cylinder", which produced a large number of fragments.
The after-sales manager also told Ms. Li that the engine of the car has been completely scrapped and cannot be repaired, and can only be replaced by a new one to continue to use, and the total cost needs 180,000 yuan, because Ms. Li has "released" all the costs to bear herself, pay first and then repair the car.
Ms. Li believes that this Mercedes-Benz car has only been open for two years, it should still be in the warranty period, and it should be reasonable to take the warranty process, why is it inexplicably out of warranty?
In response to this question, the after-sales manager took out a repair order. This repair slip shows that Ms. Li's vehicle came to the 4S shop for repair and testing last year due to a wading accident, but in the end she did not repair it in the after-sales shop of this shop for some reason, so it is equivalent to her giving up the warranty service of the engine, and there is also Ms. Li's signature on this repair slip.
Ms. Li responded that at that time, the vehicle was stopped because someone in the next lane overtook and splashed water, and then dragged the car to the 4S shop for inspection and repair. But at that time, the after-sales maintenance staff told her that if she wanted to find out the problem of the vehicle, she needed to open the cover of the car for a thorough inspection, and the cost of removing the cover alone was more than 10,000, and she thought that there was excessive maintenance, so she chose to go to the repair shop outside.
In the end, Ms. Li spent more than 4,000 yuan to repair the car, and the vehicle is now just a few months after the last maintenance incident, and her car has a cylinder burst problem, which she believes is a vehicle quality problem. At the same time, she also checked the relevant information on the Internet, and found that her same car had the same report problem many times, so she suspected that this was a common problem of this Mercedes-Benz. The store insisted that the explosion cylinder accident was caused by the last wading accident that was not handled well.
In this regard, legal professionals said that if the engine suddenly fails, the owner should retain the evidence for the first time, if there is a disagreement on the maintenance issue, it can be identified by a third-party agency to clarify whether it is the defect problem of the engine or the maintenance problem in the later stage.
At present, Ms. Li has asked a third-party agency to conduct testing, saying that she will choose to protect her rights and interests through legal channels.
02
Does the Mercedes-Benz engine really have a water inlet quality defect?
Since 2015, China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest single market, and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler said in its 2018 annual report that Mercedes-Benz's position in the Chinese market has played a key role in ensuring its leading position in the global market.
According to the calculation data, the gross profit of each domestic Mercedes-Benz car sold is 88,900 yuan, and the gross profit is more than 3 times its global gross profit.
It can be said that the importance of the Chinese market is self-evident. However, with the continuous fermentation of incidents such as the protection of the rights of female owners of Mercedes-Benz oil spills last year and the on-site questioning of media reporters at Guangzhou Station this year, Mercedes-Benz has been questioned in recent years in terms of product quality.
Searching for Mercedes-Benz engine cylinders on the Internet found that there were many such incidents. Some even said that the problems with mercedes-benz engines are likely not unique, but without exception, they all said that they encountered various difficulties in safeguarding their rights.
Moreover, in recent years, mercedes-Benz engine cylinder explosion incidents have focused on the M274. Surprisingly, the cause of the cylinder burst is quite consistent, and the piston linkage is directly broken or pulled, and then breaks through the bottom of the engine. The response given by Mercedes-Benz manufacturers is also surprisingly consistent, which roughly means that the failure is caused by incompressible substances, that is, liquids entering the engine.
However, after a later investigation, the owners of the cylinders that exploded were not caused by accidents caused by water ingress at the intake port, that is to say, the vehicle was not caused by the owner re-igniting after wading through the water. Therefore, the probability of engine defects has increased.
According to the analysis of relevant industry insiders, the accident that caused the explosion of the cylinder may be antifreeze coolant. Because the engine is at high temperature, causing the cylinder pad to deform, the coolant surrounding the engine's cooling system enters the cylinder, and this serious cylinder failure may also cause incompressible substances to enter the engine, and eventually cause the piston connecting rod to bend after the work fatigue leads to breakage and break through the bottom of the engine.
03
The automobile maintenance market is difficult to prove and identify
Relevant industry experts said that there are three main difficulties in the current auto maintenance market, but it is these three major difficulties that make consumers gradually lose confidence in rights protection.
The first is the difficulty of proof. Some consumers do not pay attention to collecting relevant maintenance documents when maintaining and repairing in ordinary times, and the owner lacks professional knowledge of the car, and only when the rights protection needs to be proved does it find that there is no way to start. Although there is now a statement of inversion of evidence, from the current situation, there are few cases in China that use this method of proof.
The second is the difficulty of identification. When the owner does not recognize the manufacturer's test results, it is necessary to carry out quality identification by itself, and the only few appraisal agencies in China do not accept unilateral entrustment, if the owner requires the identification, it also needs to obtain the written consent of the manufacturer, which is not a small difficulty for the owner.
Although there is now a new three-pack law to protect consumers, there are still many car owners who cannot enjoy this policy because of the lack of relevant legal basis when returning and changing cars.
As we all know, service satisfaction has always been an important criterion for evaluating after-sales stores. Relevant data show that in the satisfaction score of auto service stores, the third and fourth-tier cities reached 51%, while the first- and second-tier cities were only 30% and 35% respectively.
According to the data given by the satisfaction survey of auto service stores, whether in terms of overall satisfaction or in terms of store environmental satisfaction and price satisfaction, compared with first- and second-tier cities, third- and fourth-tier cities are superior, and careful analysis can get these conclusions: car owners in third- and fourth-tier cities are more inclined to score higher scores for products and services, and because the market competition in third- and fourth-tier cities is far less intense than that of first- and second-tier cities.
Of course, the breadth of information received by car owners in first- and second-tier cities is greater than that of third- and fourth-tier cities, seeing more and listening more, the standards of store service are raised in the heart again and again, and the standards of evaluation satisfaction will gradually increase the grade, so there will be higher requirements for products and services.
To put it simply, for car owners in third- and fourth-tier cities, they are more likely to get satisfaction, while first- and second-tier car owners will be more picky.
At present, most of the end car owner users, from the bottom of their hearts, believe that the biggest advantage of maintenance in the 4S shop is the technical expertise of the maintenance master, the quality of accessories and the supply are guaranteed, but this does not mean that the 4S shop has no problems.