SAIC Volkswagen. Figure: IC Photo
The problem of car reduction, which has been complained about by consumers from time to time for a long time, seems to have occurred on SAIC Volkswagen Langyi models.
On January 17, the Beijing News shell financial reporter joined the SAIC Volkswagen Langyi car friend group with more than 60 car friends, and many car friends were talking about their "reduction" situation. Riders mentioned that the original car machine that they expected before buying a car became an "Android car machine" after buying a car, and the car networking function was missing. Some car owners wonder whether this is the car company secretly reducing the allocation, or some sales personnel did not update the situation to the owner in time after the reduction.
The reporter called the Langyi 4S store and also encountered the "Rashomon Gate".
On January 18, the reporter called saic motor Volkswagen 4S store, the sales staff said that now the latest Langyi 1.5 version with the car networking function and the original factory car machine, "before a period of time the original factory car machine is out of stock, some Lang Yi equipped with 'Android car machine', now there is no shortage of goods, are the original factory car machine, after the Spring Festival arrived."
Another SAIC Volkswagen 4S store sales staff said that Langyi due to the lack of cores caused by the original factory navigation screen (also known as "car machine") out of stock, no matter which Model the reporter buys, there is no original navigation screen, will be equipped with Android screen, and there is no Car Networking function, the latest Langyi 1.5 version is in stock.
Not only did SAIC Volkswagen Langyi fall into the storm of allocation reduction, Tesla, Euler, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Hyundai and many other car companies have more or less experienced allocation reduction in the recent past.
"In the context of lack of cores, many car companies are facing the situation that individual accessories cannot be installed due to the lack of chips", Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, told the Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter that it is expected that in March and April this year, the lack of cores will continue to ease, and the phenomenon of reduced allocation due to lack of cores will be greatly reduced.
The reporter learned from a number of lawyers that if the vehicle actually delivered to the hands of the consumer is inconsistent with the information released at the time of publicity, the car company will reduce the allocation of the vehicle without informing the consumer, and its behavior has been suspected of violating the law. However, Jiao Liang, a partner at Beijing Zhongce Law Firm, still reminds that in actual litigation, the court generally does not give consumers a judgment of "one refund and three losses".
The Beijing News shell financial reporter contacted SAIC Volkswagen on the above matters, and as of press time, SAIC Volkswagen did not give a positive reply.
A number of SAIC Volkswagen Langyi owners complained about "being reduced" Tesla has been ordered to rectify
On January 17, the reporter joined the group of riders with more than 60 riders, and many riders were talking about their "reduction" situation.
Mr. Wang, who is located in Shanxi, told the Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter that he bought 22 1.5l automatic comfort models of SAIC Volkswagen Langyi in early January this year, and the previous sales told him that this car should have a car networking function, but after picking up the car, Mr. Wang found that there was no car networking function. The sales staff said that the sales of cars should be subject to the actual situation, and online publicity cannot be used as a guideline.
Mr. Song told reporters that he spent 138,000 yuan at the end of August 2021 to buy the 21 1.4T automatic comfortable version of SAIC Volkswagen Langyi. Before the purchase, he checked the actual shooting pictures on a number of automobile websites and forums to show that this car used the original 869 car machine, but in the actual use of the car, Mr. Song found that his car was equipped with an "Android version" of the car, and there was no intelligent car connection function, So Mr. Song believed that his car was reduced.
In addition, Mr. Zhang, who is located in Henan, also said that after he bought the car on January 8, he found that the vehicle was not matched with the original car machine, but the "Android system" car machine.
Regardless of whether SAIC Volkswagen Langyi has reduced the number of allocations, the reduction of parts is already a common phenomenon in the automotive industry.
In November 2021, a number of Euler good cat owners reacted that the vehicle they purchased should have been equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-core processor, but it was equipped with Intel's 4-core processor, and the vehicle was suspected of being downsized.
After the incident continued to ferment, in December 2021, Euler issued a statement saying that the Euler Good Cat model currently on sale has indeed not yet been equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-core chips. In the planning, this configuration was originally intended to be carried on future models, but "Wei Chen was anxious to tell the good news to Her Highness the Princess, but she did not expect to cause trouble to Her Highness, and good intentions were done badly."
"In response to the problem of Euler Good Cat chip caused to the majority of users, deeply apologize", Dong Yudong, general manager of Euler Automobile, publicly stated on December 7, 2021 that he would seriously investigate the ins and outs, properly handle related matters, and give consumers a satisfactory answer.
According to reports, Euler Good Cat was officially listed in November 2020, priced at 103,900 yuan, is an electric vehicle based on the Great Wall Motor Lemon + Coffee intelligent platform, which was praised by the market as the most high-end model of the Euler brand at that time.
Previously, Tesla has also been caught in the storm of allocation reduction many times, and even ordered to rectify.
In March 2020, some consumers complained that the Tesla Model 3 they bought should be equipped with HW3.0 chips, but in fact equipped with HW2.5 chips.
Tesla then issued a statement acknowledging the change, saying the situation was due to the impact of supply chains during the epidemic. Tesla expected at the time that with the recovery of production capacity and supply chain, Tesla will continue to provide free replacement of HW3.0 for owners of the Upgraded Model 3 with a Chinese-made standard endurance model with controller hardware for HW2.5 as planned.
At the same time, the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interviewed Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. about the illegal assembly of HW2.5 components on some vehicles of Tesla Model 3 models. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ordered Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. to immediately rectify in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Measures for the Administration of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Product Access", effectively perform the main responsibilities of the enterprise, and ensure production consistency and product quality and safety.
In November 2021, the US media reported that the recently delivered Model Y and Model 3 were found by consumers to lack the USB-C connection hole of the center console and the lack of wireless charging of 2 groups of mobile phones. According to reports, Tesla said that this is because of the shortage of chips and materials, and the above parts will be reinstalled after the parts arrive.
In January this year, domestic consumers complained that the domestic Model 3 they purchased did not have a knee airbag, while the Model 3 in the US market was equipped with a knee airbag. Tesla responded that according to the regulatory requirements of different markets, there may be slight differences in the functions of models sold in different countries. The domestic Tesla is indeed not equipped with knee airbags, but it has passed crash tests and meets production standards.
Lawyer: Car companies are suspected of violating the law by reducing allocation without authorization, but it is difficult to achieve one refund and three losses
"The vehicle actually delivered to the hands of the consumer is inconsistent with the information released at the time of publicity, and the car company has not informed the consumer of the vehicle allocation without authorization, and its behavior has been illegal," Fu Jian, a lawyer at Henan Yulong Law Firm, who has repeatedly represented the owner of the car in the case of rights protection, told reporters that according to the provisions of the Advertising Law, if the advertisement deceives or misleads the consumer with false or misleading content, it constitutes false advertising. False advertisements may be imposed by the market supervision and management departments, and administrative penalties such as fines may be imposed on them depending on the circumstances.
So, after consumers find that car companies have reduced their allocation, can they apply for a refund of one and three losses?
Jiao Liang, a partner at Beijing Zhongce Law Firm, told reporters that if the operator deliberately informs the other party of the false situation, or deliberately conceals the true situation, inducing consumers to make false expressions of intention, it can be found to be fraudulent. If fraud is constituted, according to the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, it may claim a refund of one and a loss of three.
Lai Peng, a lawyer at Guangdong Legal Shengbang Law Firm, also said that if it is determined that the operator has the subjective intention to commit fraud, it should also bear three times the liability for compensation.
However, it should be noted that in practice, this demand may not necessarily be supported.
Jiao Liang specifically explained to reporters that according to article 55 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, "if a business operator provides goods or services fraudulently, it shall increase the compensation for the losses suffered by the consumer in accordance with the requirements of the consumer, and the amount of the increased compensation shall be three times the price of the consumer's purchase of the goods or the cost of receiving the service; if the amount of the increased compensation is less than 500 yuan, it shall be 500 yuan." Where the law provides otherwise, follow those provisions".
From the perspective of this provision, the provision of "one refund and three compensation" is punitive damages, which is applicable to more serious fraudulent acts, generally manifested as shoddy, false, adulterated and other fraudulent behaviors, that is, the secondary products are turned into good products through forgery and alteration, and sold at the price of good products to obtain illegal benefits.
Whether the false publicity of a car constitutes fraud also needs to be combined with the provisions of Article 148 of the Civil Code: "If one party fraudulently uses fraudulent means to cause the other party to carry out a civil juristic act against its true intentions, the defrauded party has the right to request the people's court or arbitration institution to revoke it." "The following four conditions must be met to constitute fraud: one is the intent to commit fraud, the second is fraudulent conduct, the third is the misperception that arises from fraud, and the fourth is the expression of intent due to error.
Specific to the issue of SAIC Volkswagen, it is first necessary to verify that consumer complaints are true and effective. Nowadays, temporarily assuming that SAIC Volkswagen Langyi does have the above problems, the car manufacturer should be very clear about the model of the vehicle actually carried by the vehicle, but still make a publicity in the official publicity that is inconsistent with the actual product, which is obviously a deliberate fraud, and consumers have a wrong understanding because of false publicity.
However, Jiao Liang stressed that even if SAIC Volkswagen has the above problems, whether this misunderstanding is enough to induce consumers to make a purchase, whether consumers will refuse to buy this model of car because Langyi does not use the original main engine or lacks MOS or carplay functions, and whether there are circumstances that affect the fundamental purpose of the car buyer's contract are one of the important elements to determine whether fraud is constituted.
Jiao Liang said that if consumers cannot produce evidence to prove that they purchased the car because of the original main engine and MOS and carplay functions, without the above functions or configurations, they will not purchase the model of vehicle, although the manufacturer's behavior has a certain impact on the buyer's right to know, it does not constitute fraud.
He believes that even if all the above assumptions are true and the consumer files a lawsuit, it is difficult to determine that the case situation has become a more serious fraud such as shoddy charging, false filling, adulteration, etc., and even if compensation is required, the court will decide the amount and cannot reach the level of "one refund and three losses".
For the above situation, Fu Jian also said that in judicial practice, the court will generally only find that it publishes false advertisements, does not defraud consumers, and car companies bear corresponding administrative responsibilities, and "one refund and three losses" cannot be claimed.
Fu Jian further said that the court's judgment on whether the car company can refund one loss and three losses depends on whether the operator has "fraud". Fraud refers to the act of the operator to make the consumer make a transaction due to the wrong understanding out of the intention of deception.
In the case of such a reduction, consumers can claim to the merchant to terminate the contract and claim compensation for the losses caused by the breach, and cannot only rely on the "vehicle allocation" to propose a refund of one to the merchant, "In fact, in judicial practice, it is only a 'reduction' that requires a refund of one and three, and it is difficult to get support," Fu Jian said.
Mercedes-Benz and BMW play a reduction prevention needle The lack of core is expected to improve in April
Unauthorized allocation reduction is illegal, but in fact, many car companies have informed consumers in advance before the allocation reduction. The reporter noted that this "forced" reduction behavior is mostly due to the lack of cores.
In May 2021, BMW said that due to the global chip shortage, many of its models have ushered in configuration adjustments at the same time, involving models including domestic 3 series, X1, X3, 5 series and imported 4 series and X4 a total of six models.
BMW said at the time that the 3 Series (G20/G28) model, the vehicle production batch from May 2021, the vehicle configuration will be cancelled: the automatic driving assistance system Pro (including traffic congestion assistance) function. The 3 Series (G20/G28:G30), which will be produced on June 1, 2021, will eliminate the Harman/Kardon high-end sound system feature in the entertainment package. The new BMW X3, etc., which will be produced from May 31, 2021, will not provide the induction opening of the luggage compartment cover function.
In July 2021, an announcement issued by Audi to domestic distributors circulated in the industry. This announcement shows that due to the impact of the global epidemic, Audi remote control is insufficient production capacity of key chips. From July 5, 2021, some domestic Audi models will only provide one remote control key and one mechanical key tooth at the time of delivery, and the affected vehicles can be identified by the new equipment number "SOP".
Audi said that after the recovery of production capacity, the sales division will issue the remote control key in time, and the dealer will deliver the second remote control key for the user.
In October 2021, Mercedes-Benz publicly announced that due to the lack of chips, it would no longer guarantee a full line of configurations for all new cars. Affected consumers can choose to get a low-end car at a discounted price, or they can choose to wait for a new car with fully equipped parts, or cancel the order directly. The move is currently concentrated in Germany, and it is unclear whether the same move will be taken in other markets. According to media reports, the main thing missing from Mercedes-Benz is lighting accessories.
"In the context of lack of cores, many car companies are facing the situation that individual accessories cannot be installed due to the lack of chips", Cui Dongshu told reporters that many consumers urgently need to use cars, car companies will not take the initiative to reduce sales because of the lack of individual accessories, the best choice is to deliver vehicles to consumers first, and then compensate consumers after the chips are sufficient, and then install the accessories.
Cui Dongshu said that now the problem of chip missing has been greatly alleviated, although it is not yet able to meet all models on the market, but the mainstream models have been satisfied, only a few models are still in short supply. "It is expected that in March and April this year, the lack of cores will continue to ease, and the phenomenon of reduced allocation due to lack of cores will be greatly reduced."
Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi Editor Xu Chao proofreading Liu Baoqing
Reporter's disclosure email: [email protected]
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