The other day I sorted out the bookcase and pulled out a very special car model, the Skoda Superb 913, which was sent by the Czechs when I went to the Škoda factory in the Czech Republic on a business trip. In 1938, the speed pie is a proper luxury car, but now no one wants to break the bone, and the sales of 391 units a month are not as good as the unpopular car KaiYi Xuandu that I test drove last time, giving this old ancestor the ability to live.
Seven years ago, Speedy came to this factory to produce collinear production with Passat, and I was working in it at the time, and I was a stinky technology, participating in the trial production and mass production debugging of Speed. At that time, there was a consensus among our technical personnel that the technology of the speed dispatch was new, the process was good, the price was still cheap, it must be a big seller, and even many employees had booked. The result? After the car was listed, it didn't even bubble up, and the sales volume hit the street.
What is the reason? This was a mystery at that time, and the public itself could not say it clearly, otherwise it would not sell well today. Later, many people simply simplified the complex problem, and attributed the reason to Skoda's standard, I think that is nonsense, brand value is important, but it is only part of the product force, the price of the fast pie has long squeezed out all the brand premium, but still failed to save themselves, has already explained everything, so I firmly believe that a car does not sell well, in addition to the brand, there must be other reasons.
I asked the 4S store to borrow this 2021 model test drive, although it is said to be the 2021 model, but it is actually not much different from seven years ago, because it is the third generation of products, and maybe I can find the answer in it.
If asked what the signature design of ten people is, the answer for at least seven or eight people is hatchback. Hatchback and slipback are two different things, sneakback refers to the shape, hatchback refers to the rear cover can be opened together with the rear windshield, speed pie is not slippery, but hatchback, which brings great dividends to its trunk space and riding space.
For example, my Passat is not a hatchback, so the space from the rear pillow to the rear windshield becomes a dead end, and at most there is some debris, but the speed pai is a hatchback, so this space becomes part of the trunk.
In addition, there are huge hinges on both sides of the back cover of the Passat, which will form a space envelope when moving, which is also wasted, but you see the hatchback of the speed pie, the hinge is placed outside, does not occupy the trunk space, and also increases the volume in disguise.
Because it has enough trunk volume, there is no need to desperately move it forward when arranging the second row of seats, so the second row of space is also huge. The front row is adjusted according to my sitting posture, I don't say normal sitting in the back, even if it is half lying down, there is no pressure, and because it is not a slippery back design, so the head space is also very rich.
To tell the truth, although the wheelbase of the speed pie is not the longest in the same level, the sum of the ride space and the storage space is almost the king of the same level. In this way, the speed is not satisfied, and the design of the small storage compartment is also as much as possible, for example, many people have not noticed that there are special compartments for placing umbrellas on its four doors, and it can be said that the space of this car is squeezed to the extreme.
If you asked me if there was anything else I could get a perfect score on The Speed, I would choose Ergonomics. Whether it is from the dimensions of sitting posture, vision, or ease of operation, there is no fault, this is the most cattle place for Volkswagen models. This LCD screen of the central control you can ignore, because all the functions you can find the corresponding physical buttons, and the placement is well thought out, you can use the smallest arm movement distance to touch all the buttons you want to operate when driving, and the more commonly used the function is closer to your hand.
For example, if you operate an air conditioner, the most commonly used is definitely to adjust the temperature, so the temperature adjustment button is closest to you, and supports blurry drag and drop, which feels excellent. Then the second closest to you is the Auto button, after setting the temperature, press Auto. If you want to adjust the air volume yourself, then drag the air volume bar to the right of it.
Speedpipe is a car that you can operate blindly after you have used it, and this convenience is simply incomprehensible to car owners who are now highly dependent on large screens and voice operations. There are many reasonable functional area arrangements, not one by one, I have test driven many models, and there are some unreasonable places in ergonomics, but I can't find them at all in terms of speed.
Let's try the quality of driving, I don't need to drive too long to tell you this is a Passat, why? No why, because my Passat has been driving for 10 years, this driving experience is too familiar, except for the different grip of the steering wheel and gear handlebars, other aspects are the same, although my Passat is still using the PQ46 platform, this speed is MQB, but in fact there is not much difference in dynamic quality.
The power of this speed is probably a little better, because it uses the third-generation EA888 engine, which is 40 Nm higher than my second-generation torque, and the peak torque speed is advanced from 1700 rpm to 1500 rpm, because we spend most of our time driving at low speeds in the city, so the turbo intervenes earlier and accelerates more violently after the peak speed is advanced.
And it uses a 7-speed dual-clutch, my one is a 6-speed, and it's easier to keep the engine in the efficient rpm range. Try to speed up again, oh, surging unless it's a performance car and an electric car, I don't believe there are any family cars that I can't surpass. Emergency braking is not tried Oh, a car emperor has been measured, 100 zero braking distance of 37.6 meters, or good.
However, the old problems of volkswagen DSG are still there, oh, acceleration under specific working conditions will have a setback, what does it mean? That is, when the gear is in the second and third gears, if you loosen the throttle with one foot in front, and then step on the accelerator after the other foot to accelerate, the body will swoop forward, and when the traffic jam is not well controlled, the throttle will appear, but I think this is not a fatal problem, otherwise many Volkswagens should sell badly.
There is nothing to say about the control, it is the moderate style of the public, the master of the water, you don't expect to go to the track to split a corner or something, but the home will be very comfortable. The suspension is also a moderate tuning, neither tight nor slack. It can be said that in terms of driving quality, although the speed pie can not get a full score, but the high score can definitely be taken.
It is reasonable to say that there is nothing wrong with the space, ergonomics and driving experience of the speed dispatch, the price and the cost of post-maintenance are not high, in addition to the brand, it can be said that the basic elements of a good car are satisfied, why sell so badly? I think about it, the problem should be in the following three aspects.
First, the appearance is old
Don't believe that what appearance is not good or bad, benevolent people see wisdom this kind of nonsense, the public aesthetic is absolutely regular to follow, the appearance of the fast school design really meets the taste of modern people, don't say today, even if I put it 7 years ago I feel old-fashioned, to be more accurate, that polygon straight waterfall grille is too classical! I know that this grille is the symbol of Skoda, but in the field of automotive design there is an iron law, if there is no strong brand power to support, the tradition must be compromised to the trend, after all, you are not BMW, you can keep the millennium unchanged double kidney grille, you are not Porsche, you can keep the unchanged frog design for thousands of years, you are just Skoda, no one will be proud of your polygon straight waterfall grille, and even many people say that your grille is touching porcelain BMW, you are simply indefensible.
I never saw the word "tide" on the speedy. Some time ago I was amazed by a Skoda concept design on the Internet, the front face of the grille finally became closed, both simple and did not lose the characteristics of Skoda, and when I saw the real car photo, the heart was cold and half cut, the grille was still firmly poking there, it seemed unusual, Skoda's attachment to the straight waterfall grille may really kill it. In fact, in the past seven years, there have been seven opportunities to change it in the annual revamp, but they have not seized it, perhaps due to the rigid Production System of the Public, which does not allow it to do so, anyway, it is a pity.
Second, the interior is not aesthetic
Speed pie is too geng, only care about ergonomics but regardless of aesthetics, but ergonomics can only be regarded as a hidden product force, because this kind of thing can only be experienced after a long time of use, and people rely on the first feeling when buying a car, the cockpit atmosphere is not cyberpunk, the sound effect is not around the beam for three days, the material is not pure natural and pollution-free, but these aspects of the speed pie are perfectly avoided, which is equivalent to actively giving up the first impression of consumers, which is like you are full of warp but sloppy, If you can succeed on a blind date, there will be a ghost.
In fact, speed Pai can completely enhance the sensory stimulation while retaining ergonomics, but it has not done so, and today's interior is not fundamentally different from seven years ago, which is very undesirable.
Third, NVH performance is poor
The car's suppression of wind noise and tire noise is really a bit of a fire, especially tire noise, which can be clearly felt as soon as the speed comes up. Because most ordinary consumers have insufficient test driving experience, it is difficult to judge the quality of machinery at the first time, but on the contrary, NVH is very sensitive, sound and vibration will directly stimulate the driver's senses, as long as NVH is good, even if the mechanical quality is poor, users will also feel that there is a sense of high-grade, but even if the mechanical quality is perfect like Speed Pai, as long as the tire noise is large, it will also make people feel less advanced.
In addition, the suspension adjustment of the speed pie is also too focused on mechanical quality, and ignore the texture, when crossing the bumpy road can feel the fine aftershocks, not clean and neat, and my Passat a virtue, the first test driver may not have the way to experience what is called mechanical quality at the first time, but it can feel that sitting up is not "advanced" enough, no way, people are intuitive animals, you can not work with intuition.
Fourth, hatchback design
The fourth problem that the speed pie sells well is the hatchback design, yes, you heard it right, the success is also Xiao He and Xiao He, the biggest advantage of the speed pie is precisely the last straw that crushed it. The space of the speed dispatch is indeed the existence of a BUG level, and the reason why it is a BUG is because it is so large that it far exceeds the actual needs of the owner. To know that people's demand for space is not so strong as the mouth says, people buy cars have gradually become rational, no longer pay attention to the bigger the better, especially in China, a B-class family car pays attention to balance, rather than the back row can not lie down, can not load a lot of luggage, if this is the case, should introduce the travel version of the speed of the right, not the sedan version.
However, in order to pursue a large space, Speed Pai just chose the hatchback such a highest cost program, to know that want to do a good job of hatchback needs to do a lot of strength tests, body matching, rain experiments, the accuracy of stamping parts, manufacturing processes have higher requirements, formally because it occupies too much cost, so there will be the first three problems, in a word to summarize that the speed of the hatchback is a marginal effect of the extremely small advantage, and it is precisely the original sin of all shortcomings.
I tried to summarize the reasons for the poor sales of Express from the perspective of an ordinary consumer, and I have answered a doubt in my heart for seven years. But even though the sales of the speed pie are dismal, in the moment of returning the car, I still feel that it is a good car, perhaps because I have invested in it and cannot be objective, or it may really be buried, who knows? Anyway, that's what I really think.