The author's series of reports "Every Car Company Has a Head "Elephant in the Room"" has opened the "scars" of the automotive industry, causing readers a lot of repercussions. Next article, talk about the two common "phenomena" of automotive after-sales service, vehicle "extended warranty" and 4S shop repair "can not be repaired"...
The "extended warranty" routine
Consumers are most worried about the vehicle after-sales service is not good, so how to reduce the consumer's anxiety, "extended warranty" came into being. Literally, it is to extend the warranty period of the vehicle, as long as there is a quality problem during the warranty period of the vehicle, the manufacturer and the 4S shop are free of charge and bear the costs incurred.
It does sound very tempting, but is it really so... The author understands that the "extended warranty" actually has an "unspoken rule", that is, consumers must obediently go to the 4S shop to maintain the vehicle.
For example, a car can enjoy an extended warranty of 10 years or 200,000 kilometers, but the premise is that the owner must ensure that every time the vehicle is maintained, it will be consumed in the 4S shop, even if the owner forgets, less maintenance, once the engine and transmission are broken, they cannot enjoy the extended warranty.
In addition, the extended warranty and the owner play "word games", for example, some car companies stipulate that the extended warranty is only for the engine host warranty, as for the generator attached to the engine, the starter, the belt, the chain, etc., are not covered by the warranty.
It's like if you buy a computer and only give you a warranty screen, hard disk, and motherboard, CPU, and so on. That is to say, the manufacturer or 4S shop underwrites those mechanical parts that are almost not broken, while the wearing parts and consumable parts are not covered by the warranty. The author observes: car companies take the extended warranty as a promotional gimmick, and consumers mistakenly think that the extended warranty shows that the quality of the car is good, in fact, they do not know that the manufacturer's routine is "selling the car to lose money, maintenance to make money", so that the routine consumers buy a car, and even the routine consumers in the 4S store "excessive consumption", this behavior is simply "cutting leeks". And the author found that the routine of extending the warranty is more common in the field of new energy vehicles: although the manufacturer provides a battery with a long or lifetime warranty, if the owner finds that the battery is not charged enough, when it is required to be replaced, it must be tested first in accordance with the manufacturer's process, as for whether the battery can be replaced, whether the battery is new, it is entirely up to the manufacturer. Manufacturers are both referees and athletes, and extending the warranty has become a "decoration".
4S shop "can change or not repair" routine
The author of a friend's car transmission reported a fault code, the car can not drive, 4S shop told to replace the transmission assembly, more than 20,000 yuan. The solution of the repair shop is to disassemble the transmission, replace the clutch friction plate and other parts, and get it done for a few thousand yuan.
Why can the 4S store be replaced or not repaired? The author understands that the main reason is that the accessories used in the 4S store are original parts, ordered directly from the manufacturer, and most of the parts sent by the manufacturer's parts library only provide assemblies, and do not provide decomposition parts.
Therefore, even if the 4S store wants to take it apart and repair it, there is no original accessory, so it can only replace the assembly. The 4S shop can change the transmission assembly at every turn, which is a typical example. Moreover, in order to ensure the quality of maintenance and word of mouth, some accessories do not advocate maintenance, in case the repair is not good, it is very troublesome to be complained by consumers. Therefore, under the "guidance" of the manufacturer, 4S stores are often replaced as much as possible without maintenance.
From the perspective of after-sales profit, replacing new parts is more profitable than repairing, and replacing new parts takes less time than maintenance. For example, the maintenance of transmissions, this is a very time-consuming technical work, if the dismantling and decomposition maintenance, not only the cost of man-hours is high, and the fault is difficult to find, for the 4S shop is too troublesome, after-sales not only can not earn money, the quality can not be guaranteed, there is a problem to repair again, so replace the assembly.
For car owners, they go to the 4S shop to repair the car is not the quality of maintenance, but the use of original accessories. Because I can't find a reliable repair shop, and the accessories can't be distinguished by themselves, I can only go to the 4S shop for repairs.
The author observes: Whether you can change or not repair is a common phenomenon in the automotive industry, but it is not excluded that there are individual 4S stores that make you spend money unjustly.
In this regard, although car companies will also consider the convenience of vehicle after-sales when compiling maintenance manuals, after all, the after-sales profits of cars are considerable, and whether they can be replaced or repaired will become the "cash cows" of car companies. Zero ratio, I believe many consumers have heard, this is the product of the car company's "can change or not repair" business philosophy. For example, a Mercedes-Benz C-class sedan priced at more than 300,000 yuan, if the entire parts of the car are replaced, it will cost 3 million yuan, which is equivalent to a 1:10 zero ratio, that is to say, repairing the car is far more profitable than selling the car.
The after-sales routine is too deep, and there are clues to tell me
Vehicle extended warranty, "can be replaced or not repaired" routine, is the "elephant in the room", the car company obviously knows that this situation exists, but is not willing to manage, because the car after-sales profits are considerable, lip service said to sell the car to lose money, secretly through the after-sales "cutting leeks". The author believes that the automotive industry urgently needs to introduce relevant regulatory regulations and say no to the above-mentioned "routines"...