Text/Leju Finance Li Shanshan
"A car has been passed down for three generations, and people are still walking." This sentence circulating in the car circle refers to Toyota.
In today's domestic car market, GAC Toyota definitely has a place, because in the inherent cognition of domestic consumers, Toyota brand cars are synonymous with reliability and durability.
In 2021, the best-selling of GAC Toyota's models is Leiling, with cumulative sales exceeding 220,000 units, ranking 11th among all passenger car models.
Although GAC Toyota Leiling has achieved good sales results, its quality performance is not satisfactory, and it has single-handedly played "a good hand of cards", subverting consumers' impression of Toyota.
A few days ago, in the January automobile quality complaint ranking released by the national automobile consumer complaint platform Car Quality Network, GAC Toyota Ralink ranked fourth in the ranking with 62 complaints due to the setback of the gearbox and the abnormal sound of the transmission, while its complaint volume maintained an upward trend. As of press time, the number of complaints related to the 2021 Ralink transmission soared to 247.
In addition to the gearbox problems that plague users, Leiling has also been recalled many times due to safety hazards. Among them, the vehicles that will be recalled at the end of March this year account for more than 70% of all sales of Leiling in 2021.
Leiling broke the "Toyota that can't be broken" quality myth.
Transmission problem
As an economic car under GAC Toyota, Ralink has achieved certain sales results since its launch in the Chinese auto market.
Since its listing, Leiling has sold 38,674 vehicles in 2014, to the first time in 2018 to exceed 200,000 vehicles, and then to 229859 vehicles in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 29%, continuously expanding the user base, and the cumulative sales volume of 7 years of listing exceeded 1.36 million vehicles, which is quite dazzling in the environment of the epidemic and chip shortage.
However, the eye-catching sales performance is a double day of ice and fire compared with its quality. According to the vehicle quality network platform, the user's satisfaction rating with GAC Toyota Leiling is only 1.6 points.
According to the list of complaints released by the Association for The Ride, Leiling ranked fourth. This is not the first time that Leiling has entered the top five of the complaint list, last year Leiling has repeatedly ranked in the top five of the list, and even entered the "top three" of the list.
The reason why Leiling has become a "regular customer" in the complaint ranking list is because of its long-standing quality problems. Specifically, the failure of this model is mainly manifested in the problems of transmission setbacks, transmission noise, body rust, and engine oil leakage.
Among them, the gearbox setback and the gearbox noise are the problems that plague users the most.
The gearbox is one of the three major parts of the car, is the most important component of the car's transmission system, once there is a problem, not only will it cause a large maintenance cost, but also seriously affect the owner's driving sense and safety.
These two more serious problems exist in the 2021, 2019 and 2017 models of Leiling, especially in the 2021 model, and the number of related complaints on the car quality network is as high as 247.
According to the owner of The Leiling, he purchased the car in August 2020, and the vehicle had a feeling of frustration when driving at a low speed of about 20KM/h, and when it accelerated again, the body would shake significantly.
Another owner said that when the vehicle is driven between 10-40 yards, the loose throttle and throttle will be accompanied by bumps and abnormal sounds, which seriously affect the driving sense, and the 4S shop responded that it is a normal phenomenon and will not be repaired.
Some car owners said that when the vehicle is in a low-speed state, the gearbox will have a significant sense of frustration, resulting in a significant sense of impact on the body, and when receiving oil, the gearbox will also be accompanied by a strange sound, and even will sneak forward, seriously affecting safe driving.
Although the owner's complaints about Leiling continue, it has not attracted the attention of the manufacturer, and even the model has undergone many changes, and the problem of transmission setbacks and transmission noise still exists.
This is in stark contrast to the widely spread Toyota quality myth.
Recalls account for more than 70%
In addition to transmission failure, GAC Toyota Ralink has also been recalled several times due to safety hazards.
On January 27, GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulations in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations on the Administration of recalls of defective automobile products and the Implementation Measures for the Regulations on the Administration of recalls of defective automobile products.
It was decided to recall some of the Ralink vehicles produced between April 8, 2020 and November 19, 2021 from March 25, 2022, with a total of 161614 vehicles, and the vehicles recalled this time accounted for more than 70% of all Ralink sales in 2021.
According to the official explanation, the engine ignition coil manufacturing problem. In extreme cases, the operation of the engine may cause a short circuit in the 1-stage coil and the central iron core, causing the fuse to fuse, cutting off the power supply to the spark plug, causing the vehicle to stop during driving. Serious security accidents may cause irreparable risks to the user's property and personal safety.
The solution to the recall is to contact the relevant users through the dealer's initiative to replace the improved ignition coil free of charge. Although the solution worked, it had to sweat for the owner's previous driving time.
It is worth noting that the recall was not initiated by GAC Toyota on its own initiative, but was carried out under the investigation of the State Administration for Market Regulation, which can be regarded as a microcosm of the decline of GAC Toyota's "craftsman spirit".
In July last year, Leiling was also recalled once. According to the official website, some of the Leiling Dual Engine vehicles produced between May 29, 2019 and July 19, 2021 were recalled, with a total of 109034 vehicles.
The reason for the recall is that the brake lights are not lit, and GAC Toyota explains that due to the imperfect program of the brake control computer, the brake lights are not lit when the system performs minor braking in some speed ranges.
As we all know, if the brake lights are not lit, it is very likely that there will be a rear car rear-end accident, and there are more serious safety hazards. The official solution is to recall the adaptive cruise control program of the brake control computer to the relevant vehicles free of charge.
In addition, in February 2018, Leiling was also recalled due to the problem batch of acceleration sensors in the airbag control system, which caused the airbag to fail to unfold normally and there was a safety hazard, and the total number of recalled vehicles was 104022.
A few days ago, GAC Toyota released the latest sales data for 2021. According to the data, GAC Toyota's production and sales exceeded 100,000 units in December, with production 103195 units and retail sales reaching 100059 units; the total sales volume in 2021 was 840396 units, an increase of 11% year-on-year.
From this point of view, GAC Toyota, which has repeatedly overturned its car on quality issues, has not been affected by its sales. However, the of a thousand miles collapsed in the ant nest, and if the quality decline problem was ignored, gac Toyota would eventually smash its own signboard.
Source: Leju Finance