With high cost performance and the concept of "big four seats", Wuling Capgemini has successfully "gone out of the circle" in the 100,000-level family car market, but with the successive efforts of competitor models such as Trumpchi M6, Wuling Capgemini does not seem to be "fragrant", and sales are getting lower and lower. In order to regain the recognition of consumers, Wuling launched the Wuling Capgemini 280T equipped with a 1.5T high-power engine in response to the "voice" of the masses.
On February 22, Wuling Capgemini 280T was officially launched, and a total of 2 models were launched for the new car, priced at 115,800 yuan and 125,800 yuan respectively, an increase of 9,000 yuan compared with the previous corresponding configuration models. The new car has not changed in terms of styling design and seat layout, and is mainly aimed at upgrading the powertrain and intelligent configuration. Among them, the 1.5T high-power engine has a maximum power of 130 kW (177 hp) and a peak torque of 290 N·m, an increase of 30 hp and 40 N·m compared with the current model. In addition, equipped with the new Ling OS Lingxi system, the intelligent interaction experience has been improved. So with the arrival of this new car, can Wuling Capgemini really "bring the dead back to life"?
The answer may be no. Because of its poor practicality, quality defects and cheap brand image, factors are restricting the sales of Wuling Capgemini.
Three rows are arranged, and the "big four" is just a false proposition
As we all know, the biggest selling point of an MPV is the practicality of space, but the second row of seats of Wuling Capgemini exclusively enjoys the entire rear space, and the third row has become a "real-life" decoration. According to capgemini owners, the third row is not to mention the adults, and the half-grown children are crowded! At the same time, there is no MPV exclusive side sliding door design, and the body is still very low, which makes the passengers in the third row very embarrassed regardless of whether they get on or off the car. The most unacceptable thing is that the seats in the second row must be pulled forward, pulled to the front and then moved to the left and right sides, in order to barely free up a passage into the third row, which is very troublesome and the experience is very poor.
It is no wonder that when Wuling promoted Capgemini's car, it directly ignored the third row and called it a "big four-seater" family car. Then carrying passengers is not OK, pulling goods can always be it - no! If you think about it too much, it still doesn't work. When the third emission is reversed, it can only form a cramped tail box space, and with the low body, the cargo carrying capacity is much worse than that of the "purebred" van. You know, as a tool car, one is to be cheap, the other is to be able to install, and Capgemini is not cheap, and the loading can not even be loaded with half of the people, so why is this bitter? It is worth noting that the fuel consumption of the old 1.5T engine has reached about 8-9L, and the fuel consumption of the new 1.5T high-power engine may be higher.
Quality problems occur frequently, and the "four-star" results have hidden dangers
Although through the stacking configuration, Wuling Capgemini replaced the silver label to move towards the high-end, but Wuling Capgemini does not seem to change the "common disease" of Poor quality control of Wuling. Judging from the complaints of the vehicle quality network, problems such as engine failure lights, audio-visual system failure, brake noise, body resonance, steering noise, transmission setbacks and other problems occur from time to time on Wuling Capgemini. And the inaction of the after-sales also had to make the owner chill, a car owner said, "the manufacturer's customer service treats the quality problem and does nothing." The so-called people's Wuling, there may be traffic with fans of the up master is really can enjoy the after-sales service of the people, like me such people are not worthy to do Wuling people, manufacturer customer service or local 4s store customer service, reply is always waiting, endless waiting! ”
Zhang Yiqin, brand and marketing director of SAIC-GM-Wuling, once said: "Let users combine with sales, marketing, service, production, manufacturing and other links to truly achieve user-centricity." Today, Zhang Yiqin's statement contradicts the user's complaint and is extremely ironic.
If these "small problems" only affect the driving experience, then the "four-star" results of the "five-star wholesale department" are related to the life safety of the owner. In the crash test announced by C-NCAP last year, Wuling Capgemini only received a four-star score, becoming the only model in C-NCAP to receive a "four-star" rating in 2021. The reason is that within 3 minutes of the frontal crash test, an open flame was observed in the foreshadow of Wuling Capgemini. Then this situation is put into real life, and its serious consequences can be imagined. In addition, The active safety aspect of Wuling Capgemini is also relatively poor, although the test vehicle is equipped with an active braking function, but in the actual vehicle-to-pedestrian automatic braking test, it has not played a role, so this score gets 0 points.
I have to say that as a large factory and the price is "expensive" enough, Wuling Capgemini is not only poor in practicality, but also quite worrying about quality and safety, and these problems eventually regurgitate to terminal sales, and it is not surprising that the decline is not surprising. The listed Wuling Capgemini 280T has not made changes, although the power has caught up with the mainstream level, but the price has increased by nearly 10,000 yuan, so that its cost-effective advantages have not been highlighted, accompanied by quality problems and declining word of mouth, undoubtedly becoming a "roadblock" for its sales.
Aren't the red label and the silver label both Wuling?
What the people need, Wuling will create what, from the light, Hongguang to MINI EV, they have indeed become the absolute hegemon in their respective fields, which is inseparable from Wuling's product concept of "making ordinary people can afford to buy a car", which is Wuling's "way of dealing with the world" and the cornerstone of its deep domestic users. But it is precisely because this image has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so everyone will label it as "cheap" as soon as they talk about Wuling. Now suddenly a 100,000-level MPV, consumers are actually very difficult to accept.
Although as a Wuling brand upward products, the silver label Capgemini and the red label Hongguang are different, when just exposed, whether from the shape design, or space layout, it does make many people feel that the "grade" has come up, but how high the grade, silver label Wuling in the final analysis or Wuling, for more people, spending more than 100,000 to buy a Wuling car seems to be somewhat worthless, and can not pull down this "face". Take trumpchi M6 as an example, in the case of its strength in all aspects is not worse than Capgemini, it also only sells for more than 100,000 yuan, at this time you will find that the face bonus of the GAC Trumpchi brand is much stronger than Wuling?
Besides, do consumers really need models like Capgemini today? The answer is debatable. Judging from the recent MPV sales rankings, the mid-to-high-end MPV led by buick GL8 and Trumpchi M8 occupies a large part of the market, and now there are hyundai Kustu, Toyota Xena and Kia Kahua and other models continue to enter the game, so it is not difficult to see that the mid-to-high-end MPV market is the next outlet. Zhang Yiqin once said that formulating product delivery strategies based on market demand and creating high-quality products for the majority of the people has always been the direction of Wuling brand efforts, but Wuling launched Capgemini, obviously did not keep the original intention of "what the people need, Wuling will create".
All in all, the launch of the Wuling Capgemini 280T has not changed substantially, the power has increased and the price has also increased, and the problem of poor practicality still exists objectively, which also determines that Capgemini's road will become narrower and narrower. And the change of standard ≠ change of life, Wuling does not have technical accumulation, the so-called "high-end products" created is only on the basis of the existing model to improve the appearance of the model, increase the configuration, is not really a higher level of quality of the product, which is also a frequent quality problems, one of the important reasons for the existence of safety hazards, while causing Wuling's low-end image is difficult to erase, but also makes Capgemini go difficult, but also let Wuling Silver Label have more uncertainty in the direction after that. Wuling, it is recommended to seriously reflect on whether the cost control can continue to be applied at present?