Chery's "blind spot"

Text/Leju Finance Li Shanshan

As the main model of Chery Automobile, the Tiggo 8 has supported the Chery SUV family.

In 2021, the Tiggo 8 series is still Chery's best-selling model, with a total of more than 160,000 units sold throughout the year, which is sold in domestic and foreign markets.

However, the power of this Chery brand "business card", the number of complaints has shown a soaring trend.

A few days ago, the national automobile consumer complaint platform Car Quality Network released the Top 30 list of model complaints in February. The list shows that Chery's 5 models are "on the list" due to quality problems, of which Tiggo 8 has the largest number of complaints, ranking fourth in the ranking, while its complaint volume maintains an upward trend.

Specifically, the reason why Tiggo 8 has suffered a large number of complaints is that its headlight illumination angle is too small, resulting in too large blind spots, which seriously affects the driving safety of drivers.

In fact, the headlight problem is the fault of Tiggo for more than 8 years. The 2018, 2019 and 2020 Tiggo 8 models all have the problem of no lights and large blind spots.

In response to this problem, the solution given by the manufacturer is that the owner installs auxiliary lights at his own expense of 2800 yuan. Design flaws, but let the owner pay, this move caused a large number of consumer dissatisfaction.

There have been many complaints of malfunctioning headlights

Since its listing, chery Tiggo 8 has been increasing in the number of complaints every year. Among the many complaints, there are both three major problems in the core of the car, as well as body accessories and electrical appliances, and more people are complaining about the headlights.

There are 2020 Tiggo 8 owners said that when driving at night, the headlight blind area is very large, affecting lighting and driving safety, saying that the Tiggo 8 bought by more than 100,000 people is even not as large as the van lamp illumination area that only costs 4,000 yuan to buy.

There are also car owners who say that because the light illumination area is too narrow, the left and right blind areas are too large, when turning, you can't see whether there are obstacles and pedestrians on the road, and the visual light and dark conversion takes time, resulting in sometimes turning at night, to completely stop the car, put down the window, and observe carefully before daring to continue driving.

More car owners reported that due to the narrow headlights of the vehicle, both sides could not be seen at night when turning on the winding road, especially in sharp turns or single-lane turns, the blind spot was more serious, and even almost fell down the mountain.

The headlight problem is almost a typical fault of the Tiggo 8. Not only the 2020 models after the revamp, but also the 2018 models and the 2019 Tiggo 8 models all have the problems of lightless lights and large blind spots in the headlights.

Some 2019 Tiggo 8 owners reflect that from the area where the headlights shine on the ground on both sides of the vehicle, they are just located in the visual blind spot next to the A-pillar, and the position on both sides of the front of the car that the driver needs to observe is dark.

There are also 2018 Tiggo 8 owners who said that when driving into the parking lot, the vehicle was in a cornering state and almost hit a pedestrian, but fortunately the speed was very low to cause an accident. Afterwards, it was found from the footage of the driving recorder that when the pedestrian passed by the right front of the vehicle, it was in the dark area illuminated by the headlights, and it was impossible to see clearly.

In response to this problem, the solution given by the manufacturer is to install auxiliary lights, but the owner needs to pay 2800 yuan at his own expense.

In fact, the installation of auxiliary lights to the vehicle is "unauthorized change of the registered structure, structure or characteristics of the motor vehicle", even if the owner goes to the vehicle management office for registration, the probability can not pass the audit. If the vehicle is not successfully filed on the road, it will be punished with points and fined, which is obviously not reasonable enough.

The material of the optical cup may be defective

In addition to the illegal modification plan, Chery officials also came up with the term "legal" to prevaricate users.

It said: "The lighting design of the new generation of Tiggo 8 headlights meets the requirements of domestic lighting regulations, and the brightness exceeds the regulatory requirements; as an export model, this LED headlight has also passed the relevant certification of the lighting brightness in the European market; after the body height of the SUV model shines out on the light, it will form a relatively large dark area near the front of the car, which meets the requirements of domestic and foreign laws and regulations." ”

Although the lighting design of Tiggo 8 meets the requirements of the regulations, it actually brings great inconvenience to consumers. If it is not resolved in a timely and reasonable manner, it may even lead to more serious safety accidents.

For the official explanation that "the height of the body of the SUV model shines on the light, it will form a dark area larger than the car in the area near the front of the car", some insiders pointed out that this statement is not accurate.

The person said that the LED lights of automotive products are relatively directional, so it is mainly based on concentrating light, but if there is a defect in the material of the light cup, it will lead to insufficient irradiation range.

In the past, automobile manufacturers designed the angle of headlight illumination, and the light of the right side headlights was adjusted to shine slightly to the left, while the left side headlights maintained a direct angle.

In recent years, with the increase in lumen of automotive headlights and the increase in the safety requirements for the use of vehicle high beams by the state, the design of vehicle left and right headlights is more inclined to adjust to the direct angle. Once the material of the optical cup used is different, the gap in the actual illumination capacity can be reflected.

The person said that if the original car light cup angle is not enough, it is best to upgrade the original car headlights within the legal range; if the light cup angle is sufficient, you can replace the bulb, the lumen degree can be increased, which can better meet the actual driving needs; and if the illumination angle is narrow, it is recommended to replace the lens to adjust the angle of reflection.

5 models "on the list"

A few days ago, the car quality network released the February 2022 model complaint list TOP30, Chery Automobile's list in addition to the fourth ranked Tiggo 8, as well as the top ten Arrizo 5 and the top twenty Tiggo 7, Chery Ant, Tiggo 8 PLUS, a total of 5 models.

As a compact sedan owned by Chery Automobile, the Arrizo 5 achieved good sales results after its listing, but now it is performing average. According to the data, the monthly sales volume of Arrizo 5 in January was 1594 units, down 16.72% month-on-month.

According to the car quality network, the main reason for The arrizo 5 on the list is that there are more quality problems such as body leakage and body rust, and the body leakage problem has continued to ferment since 2016, and the official reply is also consistent.

Another model on the list because of the light problem is the Tiggo 7, which was also complained by the owner of the car because the blind spot when turning was too large.

In addition to the failure of the headlights, the Tiggo 7 has also been criticized by the owner of the car due to the aging of the parts. It is understood that the main manifestation of the aging of the car is that the plastic glue of the center console and the oil sticky hand of the door and the interior panel of the main passenger seat are oily.

In addition to the complaints displayed by the vehicle quality network, on January 27, Chery Automobile officially implemented a recall plan for some Arrizo 5 and Tiggo 7 vehicles in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations on the Administration of the Recall of Defective Automobile Products and the Implementation Measures for the Administration of the Recall of Defective Automobile Products.

The reason for the recall is that the vehicle's transmission cooling tubing is insufficient due to structural design reasons, there is a risk of cracking and oil leakage, there will be transmission oil leakage, fault lights on, extreme cases may cause transmission interruption of transmission power transmission, there are safety hazards.

Chery Ant, which ranked 15th on the complaint list in February, and Tiggo 8 PLUS, which ranked 18th, were more complained by car owners because of charging failures, air conditioning problems and transmission problems, respectively.

It can be seen that the problem of Chery products not only involves auto parts, but also includes the "loss" of the core three major parts and after-sales service problems.

However, at present, from the irresponsible behavior of manufacturers exposed by Chery Tiggo 8, it can be seen that Chery Automobile has not yet had the willingness to improve quality. In the long run, the brand reputation will be hit, and product sales may also decline with the damage to word of mouth.

Source: Automotive V-line