Written by / Qin Xiaochong
Edited / Mao Shiyang
On February 18, 68 Mercedes-Benz owners who continued to "defend their rights" finally let Mercedes-Benz officials admit that the quality was "defective" and recalled almost all of the same models sold. Such cases have inspired many car owners who are defending their rights to Mercedes-Benz. A Mercedes-Benz owner who encountered a "broken shaft" on the highway said that he did not accept official "free maintenance" and insisted on asking Mercedes-Benz for explanations. In the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz is the car company with the largest number of defect recalls in 2021, and in the same year, Mercedes-Benz's global sales fell sharply, but its ability to make money returned to its peak. How many car owners have been "pitted"?
In February 2019, the female owner of Xi'an Benz just mentioned the new car, that is, found that there was an oil leakage problem in the engine, and the dealer did not return or replace, but only promised to replace the engine. More than a month later, she climbed onto the hood of a Mercedes-Benz show car to "cry for rights."
The "rights protection incident" of the female owner of Mercedes-Benz caused an uproar, and in just a few days, it seized a number of hot searches, which triggered the attention of the whole network. In the end, the dealer finally reached a settlement agreement with the female owner such as replacement compensation.
Although it has been three years, the story of "rights protection" is still playing out among the owners of the Mercedes-Benz brand. At the beginning of this year, the rights protection of Mercedes-Benz owners struck again, including the joint rights protection of dozens of car owners and the public shouting of individual car owners through social platforms.
GLK highway broken shaft: car owners do not recognize "free maintenance", ask for explanations
"Our family of three stalled on the highway, and I was afraid of this." The car director champion of the Mercedes-Benz GLK 300 told the Weekly Magazine of Finance and Economics, "I was lucky not to be injured, in case others encountered similar problems (possibly) encountered an accident, and the more I thought about it later, the more scared I became." ”
On February 10, Ren Guanjun posted on Weibo that on February 9, he was driving a GLK300 normally on the Beijing Jingping Expressway, when the vehicle suddenly had a metal knocking sound on the way, and then lost power, even if he stepped on the accelerator, the vehicle could not speed up.
For the details of the incident, the party said that the speed of the vehicle when it had an abnormal noise was about 80km/h, and after about a few minutes of losing power, he turned on the double flash and relied on inertia to park the vehicle to the side of the road.
After the accident, the vehicle was sent to a repair shop for maintenance, and after inspection by the agency, the problem was a broken front drive shaft, commonly known as a "broken shaft", which also damaged many other parts, resulting in high maintenance costs.
According to a detailed cost issued by Ren Champion, the items that need to be repaired include replacing the small drive shaft, replacing the right three-way catalytic converter, replacing the right front and right rear oxygen sensors, replacing the heat shield and bracket, replacing the two engine intake pipes, replacing the differential heat shield and screws, and adding differential oil. Combined with man-hours, consignment costs and other costs, the total quotation given by the maintenance plant exceeds 30,000 yuan. Ren said that if in official channels such as Mercedes-Benz 4S stores, these maintenance costs are expected to require 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.
After the accident, Ren Champion communicated with the Mercedes-Benz 400 customer service three times, and the customer service replied that if there was a quality problem suspected, he could contact the dealer and the manufacturer for testing. However, the Mercedes-Benz 4S store contacted by Ren Champion said that the vehicle had passed the warranty period and was not within the scope of the recall, and it was recommended that the vehicle be opened to the 4S shop for identification and then talk about follow-up.
According to the ticket information presented by Ren Champion, the model of the car he owns is the Mercedes-Benz GLK300 2013 model, which was shipped on January 10, 2014, and has been nearly 8 years old, which is indeed far beyond the warranty time.
However, Ren Champion retrieved information and found that in August 2019, Mercedes-Benz officials had filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation, and all the recalled vehicles were GLK.
According to the recall plan, with effect from April 30, 2020, Mercedes-Benz (China) Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mercedes-Benz China") will recall some imported GLK-class and S-class four-wheel drive vehicles manufactured between October 1, 2011 and October 31, 2013, totaling about 16,500 units. The larger recall, which comes from Beijing Benz Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Benz), involves domesticALLY PRODUCED GLK-class 4WD vehicles from October 18, 2011 to October 31, 2013, totaling approximately 58,900 units.
The official reason for the recall said that "the cardan cross shaft of the front drive shaft is not hard enough and the surface is not smooth", which may lead to "the flange of the front drive shaft universal joint may eventually break, causing the vehicle to lose driving force". In short, there is a hidden danger of "broken shaft".
The vehicle purchased by Ren Champion was more than two months away from the scope of the recall, so it was not in scope. At present, Ren Champion himself paid 25,000 yuan for accessories first, but after his Weibo release and attracted attention, on February 11, the staff of the Mercedes-Benz 4S store contacted him again, saying that they could help him repair the car for free.
However, for this lack of responsibility, Ren Champion did not recognize it.
"My car was also inspected by it (4S shop), and after the inspection, it said no problem, and the 4S shop gave me the car back." Ren Guanjun told the "Finance and Economics" weekly, "The next day, the 4S shop towed the car away again and said that it would be repaired for me." ”
"If my car is under warranty, why does the 4S shop have to repair it for me?" Ren Guanjun suspected that the vehicle may indeed have a quality problem, but it was not recalled, "If this accident is a case, I will definitely bear the cost myself, but now there are still some GLK owners who have found me." ”
Ren Guanjun said that after his Weibo release, 5 or 6 car owners have contacted him so far, saying that they have encountered the same situation, "I think the directionality is obvious, and it can even be considered that Mercedes-Benz's recall that year was not complete." ”
The weekly inquiry of "Finance and Economics" found that on a car complaint website, there were also car owners who reflected the same situation.
"How many of these cars are there?" Mercedes needs to stand up and make it clear. Ren Champion told the "Finance world" weekly that he never asked Mercedes-Benz to repair the car for free, but hoped that Mercedes-Benz officials could give everyone an explanation.
"If my car is due to an accident caused by the quality problem of the Mercedes-Benz GLK itself, the 4S shop needs to repair the car, and the transmission shell of the car has also been damaged, I hope they can bear the loss of the subsequent depreciation of the vehicle; if the vehicle itself is no problem, then return the car, I can repair it myself." Ren said he needed a clearer result.
At present, the matter is still being communicated.
Encountering "strong rights protection" before recalling, how did Mercedes-Benz avoid "315"?
In fact, since entering 2022, Mercedes-Benz has encountered more than one "strong rights protection" from car owners, among which the "hard-hit areas of rights protection" include the electric vehicle EQC built by Mercedes-Benz.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, a "joint statement of 68 Mercedes-Benz EQC owners" was circulated online. The owner's statement shows that the purchased Mercedes-Benz EQC has one or more motor failures in use, and most of them will prompt the "fill coolant" style on the vehicle central control screen 1-2 months before the motor failure occurs. Based on this, the owners deduced that this was a failure caused by the leakage of coolant into the motor.
After several months of continuous communication, the owners failed to get a reply, until the matter was concerned by the media, the rights protection owners waited for mercedes-Benz's reply, and their previous inferences were basically confirmed as facts.
On February 18, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice recalling a total of 10,104 EQC electric vehicles with production dates from November 30, 2018 to December 15, 2021, starting from August 15, 2022. The reason for the recall is that the cooling system in the electric drive module of some vehicles may have a weak seal, resulting in leakage of coolant and the in extreme cases the vehicle may not be able to start.
As for the cause of the defect, Mercedes-Benz said that the motor failure involved in EQC was a "manufacturing deviation" of the supplier, not a "design defect" that the owners had previously questioned. But in fact, the domestic Mercedes-Benz EQC was officially launched at the end of 2019, and the cumulative sales of the product in 2020 were 3863 vehicles, and the cumulative sales volume of 2021 was 6098 vehicles. Judging from the number of EQC recalls, almost all EQC models sold have been recalled.
As a remedy, Mercedes-Benz offered extended warranty for the electric drive modules of some of the products involved. Even so, Mercedes-Benz launched the recall after multiple rounds of rights protection by the owner, which is still questioned.
Just after the release of the above-mentioned EQC recall statement, some car owners revealed that the official recall was only implemented in August, and there was still half a year of car time in between, during which the safety risks would be borne by the owners themselves. "The official release of the recall information, but I called the 4S store and said that the dealers have not yet received the manufacturer's recall notice, let alone issued a notice to the customer." An EQC owner said.
In this regard, Mercedes-Benz explained that the electric drive modules involved in this recall are produced by overseas factories of relevant suppliers. Affected by a variety of uncertainties, the current reserve of the accessory cannot meet the spare parts reserve for the immediate implementation of the recall.
"Mercedes had to be recalled in order to avoid the '315.'" An EQC owner said that in his view, Mercedes-Benz did not suddenly file a recall until February this year to avoid the incident from attracting the attention of CCTV's "315" evening party.
In fact, the relevant person in charge of a car company told The Finance and Economics Weekly that before the broadcast of the "315" party every year, most car companies have mastered the quality controversy that is occurring, and even prepared a statement in advance for response.
Although the claim that Mercedes-Benz launched the EQC recall to avoid the "315" cannot be confirmed, in multiple owners' forums, the call for "315" on Mercedes-Benz has gradually climbed in recent years. Behind this is the frequent product quality defects of Mercedes-Benz.
In the list of domestic passenger car recalls in 2021, a total of 44 car brands issued a total of 155 recall announcements throughout the year, and the cumulative recall of passenger cars reached 8.73 million, an increase of 31.88% year-on-year compared with 2020. Among them, luxury brand Mercedes-Benz ranked first in the recall list.
According to statistics, Mercedes-Benz has recalled 17 times in 2021, involving 2.78 million Mercedes-Benz brand products, including almost all sedans and SUVs. Among them, the sedan Mercedes-Benz C-Class is the most recalled model in the past year, reaching 741,600 units. In addition, in terms of other models, mercedes-benz E-class recalled 587,200 units, Mercedes-Benz GRC recalled 563,800 units.
And this is not the first year of Mercedes-Benz's "massive" recall. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz has 18 recalls, and in 2019 Mercedes-Benz has initiated 28 recalls.
In recent years, there have been many car brands that have been on the CCTV "315" party, and only in 2021, ford, Infiniti and other brands have been named due to quality problems. Among them, many of Changan Ford's models were exposed to water in the gearbox due to design defects, but the manufacturer was reluctant to start the recall, but internally notified 4S stores around the world, trying to make the big thing small. In addition, CCTV also exposed that Infiniti products have abnormal noise, setbacks and loss of power and other failures, manufacturers give solutions to replace the gearbox, but many car owners have replaced the gearbox two or three times after the problem still exists.
And these car brands that have been on the "315", frequent quality problems and "arrogant" attitude to deal with consumers, and eventually encounter difficulties. Changan Ford reached annual sales of 965,000 vehicles in 2016, but with the quality problems such as broken axle doors, odor doors, and transmission water, sales fell to the bottom of less than 200,000 vehicles, and just picked up to 300,000 vehicles in 2021. In addition, Infiniti sold only 13,500 vehicles in 2021, down 46.04% year-on-year.
Mercedes-Benz's ability to "make money" has reached its peak, and the brand image needs to be maintained
Today, in the case of several consecutive years of large-scale recalls, the "rights protection" voice on the quality of Mercedes-Benz products is still undiminished. "Finance and Economics" Weekly flipped through several complaint websites and found that Mercedes-Benz models have been repeatedly complained about, including the black screen of the central control, the abnormal sound of the brakes, the wrong goods, the low-speed driving stall, the arbitrary collection of financial service fees, etc. No less than a thousand, and most of the complaints are still in the unhandled stage.
This has had a negative impact on brand reputation. A car owner who had considered starting a Mercedes-Benz told The Finance world weekly, "Who knows that there are so many quality problems in this car, and some people on the Internet joke that 'Centennial Mercedes-Benz, destroyed in EQ', so I will decisively give it up." ”
Taking Mercedes-Benz's electric vehicles as an example, due to the influence of word-of-mouth, the total sales of Mercedes-Benz's three electric vehicles in China in January 2022 were less than 1,000. Among them, Mercedes-Benz EQC sold 407 units in January, the latest sales of the new car EQA listed in November last year were only 261 units, and the EQB sales were 207 units.
It's not just electric cars. In recent years, Mercedes-Benz has occupied the throne of the luxury car sales champion for five consecutive years. However, in 2021, BMW surpassed Mercedes-Benz in one fell swoop, becoming the global luxury car sales champion with 2.52 million units, while the total sales of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were 2.33 million units, down 5% year-on-year, of which passenger car sales fell to 2.0549 million units, a new low in recent years.
Among them, the decline in Mercedes-Benz's sales in China is an important reason for its concession of luxury brand champions. In 2021, Mercedes-Benz sold 758,800 vehicles in China, accounting for more than 30% of Mercedes-Benz's global sales. Today, because of a series of problems, the pace of Mercedes-Benz's development in China has slowed down significantly, and the decline in sales is a direct proof. In 2021, Mercedes-Benz ushered in negative growth in the Chinese market, which is also the first time in the past five years. For the full year last year, rival BMW sold 846,000 vehicles in China, nearly 100,000 more than Mercedes-Benz.
In the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz's main models in 2021, such as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, C-Class and GLC, have declined at a high level. According to the statistics of the Association of Automobiles, the sales of Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Mercedes-Benz C-Class fell by 9.3% and 14.8% respectively; in the 2021 high-end SUV retail sales ranking, the sales of Mercedes-Benz GLC models fell by 17.7%.
It is worth noting that these products are on the list of recalls due to defects. Compared with Mercedes-Benz, BMW 5 Series sales increased by 8.3%, BMW 3 Series increased by 12.1%; in the 2021 high-end SUV retail sales rankings, BMW X3 increased by 11.6%, Ideal ONE, NIO ES6 These two new energy vehicles increased by 177.4% and 48.4% respectively.
While sales declined, Mercedes-Benz's revenue and profit achieved significant growth.
On February 24, Mercedes-Benz Group released its 2021 financial report showing that mercedes-Benz Group's turnover was 168 billion euros, an increase of 8.88% year-on-year, and net profit was 23.4 billion euros, an increase of 485% year-on-year. Among them, mercedes-benz group net profit (excluding Daimler truck and bus related business) rose to 14.2 billion euros, up 255% from 4 billion euros in 2020.
As for the reason for the "surge" in profit reverse sales, Mercedes-Benz CEO Kang Linsong explained that in addition to the good sales of high-priced products such as Maybach, "the continuous improvement of cost control efficiency" is also an important reason. But whether Mercedes-Benz's effective "cost control" sacrifices product quality is difficult for the outside world to know.
In the view of some car owners, due to the excessive emphasis on profits, the problem of Mercedes-Benz is not only in quality.
In fact, in order to achieve higher profits, compared with Audi and BMW, the pricing of many of Mercedes-Benz's peer products is often higher. However, the high price consumers get is not necessarily a better experience, but instead is "wool" in multiple links of using the car.
In the automotive industry, the "zero-to-piece ratio" refers to the ratio of the sum of the prices of all parts and components purchased from the official maintenance channel to the sales price of the vehicle guide, which is used to reflect the maintenance costs of the owner. According to the "zero-to-integer ratio" data released by China Insurance Research Automobile, the zero-to-integer ratio coefficient of Beijing Benz C-Class car reaches 823.59%, and the zero-integer ratio coefficient of Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC reaches 614.69%, which is much higher than that of competitors. This means that the owners of the two Mercedes-Benz cars will bear a higher price if they are repaired from the official.
China is the largest market for Mercedes-Benz, and Mercedes-Benz, which is now at the peak of its profitability, needs to maintain its own brand image.
"As an automobile company, taking the initiative to recall the problem vehicle before '315' can be said to be a responsible performance to a certain extent." An industry insider said that the car quality problems are frequent and frequent, according to the past situation, "after the party to issue a statement of the company will often be more passive, such as Volkswagen imported cars and Jaguar Land Rover, although the problem has been admitted and announced the recall plan, this is just a practice of making up for the sheep, the brand will be hurt in the later stage." ”
Over the years, the "315" party has exposed inferior products, exposed black-hearted merchants, and safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Cars are the focus of consumer complaints, often due to quality problems on the "315" party.
In 2011, the "315" party exposed the unspoken rules of 4S store sales, which mortgaged the vehicle qualification certificate of consumers' newly purchased vehicles to the bank, which may eventually lead to the new cars purchased by consumers not being able to be listed as "black cars". In 2014, the "315" party exposed the market chaos of the old scooters, and also named the joint inspection departments of Haima, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and Jianghuai Automobile, and arbitrarily modified the fuel consumption data of the car to defraud the national energy-saving car subsidies; in 2015, the Land Rover Evoque was listed at the "315" evening due to transmission problems, resulting in reverse gear failure and stalling during driving; in 2016, the car was exposed; in 2018, the engine failure of Volkswagen imported cars was named In 2021, Changan Ford and Infiniti made consecutive lists.
However, in the view of industry insiders, enterprises should pay more attention to the quality of the "315" party than pay attention to the "315" party, and at the same time make positive and positive responses when problems occur.
According to the statistics of the State Administration of Quality Supervision and Administration of China, in terms of automobile recalls, by the end of 2021, the mainland has implemented a total of 2423 recalls of automotive products, involving 91.3 million defective products, and the problems are mainly concentrated in electronic appliances, engines and other powertrains. In the past 5 years, car safety recalls have occurred on average once every 1.6 days.
It has become the norm for auto companies to take the initiative to find problems and initiate recalls.