Audi bottom "BBA"

Text/Leju Finance Li Shanshan

When it comes to luxury brand mid-range cars, the BBA has always been an unavoidable topic, after all, in this segment, the Audi A6L, BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class are well-deserved hot models.

Compared with the three, audi A6L does not have an advantage in terms of brand power, but with its higher terminal discounts, it has a fairly good market, and has long been in terms of sales volume to beat the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, becoming the preferred medium and large car for the luxury level.

"Adhere to the user-centric, work together to create the ultimate pleasure experience." Zhang Qiang, deputy general manager of FAW's Audi sales division, has said publicly many times.

However, contrary to expectations, Audi A6L brings users not a safe and reassuring product, but frequent failures, and even life-threatening accidents.

A few days ago, a car owner from Hebei complained that the 2020 Audi A6L he purchased had many problems such as jittering and flameout, highway steering failure, etc., which seriously affected driving safety, and hoped to return the vehicle.

It is understood that there are indeed problems with the car, and the regulatory authorities have also intervened, but the current owner's demands have not been achieved, and they are still "struggling to protect their rights".

In addition to the problems reflected by Hebei car owners, Audi also has widespread transmission setbacks, engine shakes, headlights into the water, center console abnormal sound and other large and small complaints, the quality of Audi A6L is going downhill.

Sales data for January showed that the Audi A6L sold just over 13,000 units a month, down 34.5% year-on-year and 13% month-on-month. The monthly sales of its competitors BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class both exceeded 20,000 units, achieving year-on-year growth, and Audi lost in the BBA competition.

Rights protection storm

"On July 28, 2020, the first time on the way to the jitter stall, tried to successfully ignite many times, opened to the 4S shop to do the engine system upgrade, it was 4046 kilometers at the time, august 23, the second time there was the same failure, and then opened to the 4S shop to do the engine system upgrade, on the morning of December 4, 2020, the same failure occurred for the third time, and the engine system upgrade was done, and the same problem appeared for the fourth time in the afternoon, and the maintenance plan was to polish the camshaft adjustment valve spool, The issue is temporarily resolved. ”

A car owner from Baoding, Hebei Province, purchased a 2020 Audi A6L45 Premium Elegant model at the Baoding Xuanyu Xinyue 4S store in June 2020, and during the use of the car, there were four jittering and stalling phenomena reflected above.

Although the fault of shaking and stalling was finally effectively solved, the experience of almost causing disaster after that still makes the owner feel afraid.

The owner of the car reported that when her husband was driving the Audi A6L on the highway on the afternoon of January 11, 2022, the steering system suddenly failed, the steering wheel could not move, and the car was almost destroyed.

The vehicle was then towed to the Audi 4S shop with a trailer, and after testing, the staff said that the steering machine assembly needed to be replaced, but there was no guarantee of complete troubleshooting.

Because the vehicle has experienced many sudden failures and involves personal safety issues, under the premise that the safety hazard cannot be completely eliminated, the owner refused to repair, and the owner submitted a refund request to the 4S shop in accordance with the provisions of the "Car Three Guarantees Law".

The first paragraph of Article 20 of the Automobile Three-Guarantee Law stipulates that if the repair is carried out twice due to a serious safety performance failure, but the fault cannot be eliminated or a new serious safety performance failure occurs, if the consumer chooses to replace the family car or return the car with the car purchase invoice or the three-guarantee voucher, the seller shall replace or return the product.

For the owner's requirements, the 4S shop acknowledges that the vehicle is a quality problem and meets the return standard, and agrees to return the car.

However, after a day, the 4S shop did not agree to the cancellation procedures for the car to be cancelled, and proposed to recycle the car as a second-hand car, and then carry out the second sale of the plan, for which the owner firmly disagreed.

So far, the problem of car owners has not been solved, and they are still protecting their rights.

Quality slippery slopes

The problem of Hebei car owners is not unique. According to the complaint information of the vehicle quality network, the Audi A6L model alone has had nearly 20 complaints since February this year, mostly involving engine shaking, engine abnormal sound, transmission setbacks, body accessories and electrical problems.

In 2021, the owner of the audi A6L has repeatedly sent the Audi A6L to the top 30 of the monthly complaint list, and it is "among the best". According to the ranking information of the car quality network, the Audi A6L ranked second in the complaint list of medium and large vehicles from January to December 2021, with 265 complaints.

According to the owner's complaint, a 2021 55 TFSI quattro premium dynamic model purchased by the owner has been used for less than a year, driving 17,700 kilometers with an engine shortage and unable to drive, and dragging the vehicle to the 4S shop for nearly a month has not solved the problem.

What annoyed the owner even more was that the 4S shop still drove the vehicle at a high speed for more than 100 kilometers after knowing that the vehicle was short of fire and the three cylinders were not working, and the owner suspected that it had caused new damage to the car.

At present, the 4S shop asks for the engine to be dismantled for inspection, and the owner does not agree with the plan because it is a new car. Therefore, the owner of the car launched a complaint to the manufacturer, but only got a reply that "will communicate with the 4S store", and there was no substantial progress.

As we all know, the engine is the heart of the car, which determines the power, economy, stability and environmental protection of the car. Therefore, the dismantling of the engine is a car overhaul, and the performance of the car cannot be completely restored to the level of the new car.

The engine problem of the new car largely means that the car has a problem at the time of leaving the factory, and the owner has the right to claim compensation from the seller in this case.

In addition, a 2020 model 45 TFSI quattro premium elegant owner reflected that the vehicle had found that the headlights were foggy during the recall inspection, but the after-sales was sent off with normal phenomena, and then the owner found that the headlights of the car would fog when it rained, which seriously affected the lighting and had safety risks.

There is also a 2021 model 40 TFSI luxury dynamic owner, who also complained about multiple problems with the vehicle, including the automatic opening of the trunk after closing, the abnormal sound when hitting the turn signals, the shaking of the body when refueling at high speed, and the failure to produce the second car key promised by the seller.

In addition, other Audi A6L owners have complained about the abnormal sound of the center console, tire drum bags, cracks or deformations in the lampshade, and the failure of the audio-visual system.

It can be seen that the Audi A6L not only frequently fails in the core components of the car, but also has various small problems in the body accessories, and its quality is going downhill.

Overtaken by old rivals

In fact, because of product quality problems, Audi has carried out several recalls in 2021, and the A6L is the hardest hit area of the recall.

According to public information, on October 19, 2021, Audi officially announced the recall of most of the domestically produced A6L 2.0T vehicles produced from March 18, 2020 to August 11, 2021, with a total of 102425 units.

The reason for the recall is that due to the software cooperation problem of the engine and the transmission control unit, the vehicle may suddenly increase the speed by 3-5 km/h within 1-2 seconds during the driving process, which will increase the possibility of accidents and there are potential safety hazards.

Prior to this, Audi announced the recall of some domestic A6L 2.0T vehicles in February and April of the same year 118074 and some domestic A6L 40TFSI and A6L 45TFSI vehicles in total of 191981 vehicles, and the reasons for the recall were engine problems and heat shield manufacturing problems.

In 2021, the Audi A6L recalled more than 400,000 vehicles, and the number of this recall has far exceeded its annual sales. According to the data of the Association, from January to December 2021, the cumulative sales volume of audi A6L was 182032 units.

In fact, the decline in product reputation and quality has also made the sales of Audi's models gradually decline.

The data shows that from July 2021, sales of the Audi A6L began to decline. As of December 2021, sales of the Audi A6L have been declining for six consecutive months.

Entering January 2022, the sales volume of Audi A6L has not improved, and it still shows a continuous downward trend.

January sales data shows that the Audi A6L sold just over 13,000 units a month, down 34.5% year-on-year and 13% month-on-month. Its competitors, the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E Series, both sold more than 20,000 vehicles per month, achieving year-on-year growth.

In addition, sales of another audi's main sales model, the Q5L, also fell 2.8% year-on-year in January, and lagged behind rivals Mercedes-Benz GRC and BMW X3.

The two main sales models are lagging behind BMW and Mercedes-Benz, according to this trend, in the BBA competition, Audi is likely to be farther and farther away from BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Source: Leju Finance