A few days ago, a new car recall information that has been listed for less than 5 months has attracted the attention of the editors of "Automotive Professional Network", due to the safety hazards of electronic shifters, Dongfeng Fengshen recalled some of the dongfeng Fengshen's new AX7 Mach version cars produced between August 16, 2021 and October 10, 2021, a total of 1257 vehicles.
You know, this new Mach version of the AX7, which is known as the "road rocket" SUV, is a blockbuster model launched by Dongfeng Fengshen in 2021, so why was it recalled so quickly? Is it because the manufacturer is responsible or the product defect is really worrying?
Recalls and sales are pinched on both sides
Under normal circumstances, the vehicle is in a parked or braking state, and when the driver unfastens the seat belt and opens the main driving door, the TCU (Automatic Transmission Control Unit) and the electronic shifter will jump back to the P gear and enter the parking state, thus ensuring the safety of the vehicle and personnel.
The new AX7 Mach version because of the electronic shifter software strategy has problems, in extreme cases, its electronic shifter may not follow the TCU automatically jump back to the P gear, at this time once the driver gets off the car and does not hang into the P gear in time, it will cause the vehicle to continue to drive automatically in accordance with the original gear, there is a safety hazard.
On the one hand, new cars were recalled shortly after they went on the market, and on the other hand, heavy models with high hopes were sold mediocrely. The biggest product highlight of the new AX7 Mach version is that it is equipped with the "Heart of China" top ten engines - Dongfeng Mach Power 1.5T engine, the maximum net power of the vehicle is 140kW, the maximum torque is 300N.m, and the comprehensive fuel consumption of 100 kilometers is only 6.6L, which meets the needs of strong power and lower fuel consumption.
However, despite such a powerful engine, the sales of the new Mach 7 version are not too good, and only sold more than 20,000 units in the whole year last year, which makes it slightly lower in the compact SUV market and does not deserve the heat before and after the initial listing.
In the independent brand, Dongfeng Fengshen is not remarkable, and the new AX7 Mach version that is now pinned on high hopes has not carried the banner of Dongfeng Fengshen's sales promotion, coupled with this recall, under the double-sided attack, the future road may be somewhat difficult.
Shift failures have a long history
Although the reasons and quantity of the new AX7 Mach version of the recall are not very serious, but there is still a lot of impact, many netizens have also opened a fierce discussion on the Internet, many people said that this car began to appear abnormal a long time ago, large and small problems, affecting their driving experience.
On a car quality complaint platform, the editor of automotive professional network noted that the recalled electronic shifter software strategy problem was manifested on the early Dongfeng Fengshen AX7. Not long before that, another owner of the 2019 Dongfeng Fengshen AX7 reflected this matter on the complaint platform, according to the owner, the vehicle locked in the P gear after starting and could not be shifted.
"The dashboard gear display is flashing, and the fault code shows that the battery positive pole and the shift lock are short-circuited, and the fault has occurred multiple times." The owner said that he replaced the valve body of the gearbox as early as the winter of 2020 due to the shift problem, although the fault of the maintenance rear gear display flashing was not solved, but it could be shifted, and the fault disappeared on its own after the weather became warmer.
However, in January 2022, the fault reappeared, and there was a phenomenon that the P gear locked and stopped and then restarted and could not change gears, this time in the 4S store to replace the gear shift base. But only one night later, when driving at a high speed to about 100 kilometers, the fault appeared again, and the P gear was locked again after the service area stopped and rested, and the parking power failure disappeared. "Now every time the power failure disappears, the fault reappears after a certain period of driving, so repeatedly, the same fault is not good to repair multiple times."
Coincidentally, a 2015 Dongfeng Fengshen AX7 said that there was also a situation where the P gear could not be exited, after repeatedly stepping on the brakes and shaking the gear lever to solve the problem, but the good times were not long, and then there would be a situation where the P gear could not be exited, even if the brakes were repeatedly stepped on, the problem could not be solved, only the emergency button could be pressed to exit the P gear, after several times of pressing the emergency button, the P gear could be exited normally, but then the P gear could not exit from time to time. There are complaints that the 2016 AX7 riders have also had the same situation.
It turned out that the AX7 electronic shifter failure not only had a long history, but also failed to solve several repairs. When the gear shift problem came back to the new Mach version of Dongfeng Fengshen's new AX7, the manufacturer was obviously much more responsible than before, and the problem was found less than five months after the listing and immediately took a recall.
According to the latest data, in January 2022, Dongfeng Fengshen's new Mach version of AX7 returned to 5,000 steps with sales of 5,068 vehicles, winning the opening of the Year of the Tiger. Can the new Mach version of Dongfeng Fengshen's new AX7 under pressure and expectations achieve rapid sales growth in 2022? The editors of Automotive Professional Network will continue to pay attention.