(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Lou Bing) In October last year, the listing of the domestic Xena pushed GAC Toyota to the focus of public opinion, in addition to the practicality of the home MPV of the GL8, the average price increase of more than 60,000 yuan in the market made GAC Toyota's "car increase" well known.
However, with the gradual decline in the popularity of Xena in the market and the attitude of GAC Toyota, at present, some netizens have revealed that Xena no longer needs high mark-up car purchase costs as it did at the beginning of the listing, but has become a "decoration fee" ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 yuan.
At the same time, bidding farewell to the "mark-up storm", Xena has finally ushered in the mass delivery of the first batch of models, compared with the sales value of hundreds of vehicles in previous months, after the release of production capacity in January, Xena sold 5399 units and 4120 units for two consecutive months, which is better than the decline of the MPV car market since 2022, and XENA's bucking the trend on the market side or the best news for GAC Toyota.
But the good times are not long, just out of the shadow of the "price increase storm", and gaga motor Toyota has not yet had time to celebrate. In recent days, due to the information on the suspected false publicity of the two models of Xena and Highlander exposed on the Internet, it has once again fallen into a new round of public opinion storm.
The domestic new generation of Xena and the new Highlander, which were born on the "K" platform under the TNGA architecture, both have a full-frame structure in front and rear subframes, and their chassis structures are almost the same. However, according to a disassembly video exposed on the Internet, the current domestic Syna and fourth-generation Highlander models on sale use a suspension combination in the form of "front McPherson + rear four connecting rod independent suspension", rather than the "front McPherson + rear double wishbone (type) independent suspension" structure marked on the configuration table on the official website of GAC Toyota. As of press time, GAC Toyota officials did not respond to the news.
From a technical point of view, the traditional definition of multi-link independent suspension and double wishbone independent suspension can be considered derived from the McPherson independent suspension.
Compared with the most simple Structure McPherson-style independent suspension, the double wishbone suspension on the basis of a single swing arm, more than the swing arm structure, the lateral force of the double wishbone is absorbed by the upper and lower two wishbones together, so the lateral stability is superior compared to the lateral rigidity, the roll is smaller when turning, and because the shock absorber can be more detached from the support function and only complete the slow vibration effect, the vehicle can also better reduce the center of gravity and improve the vibration damping ability in a specific direction according to the adjustment parameters.
The multi-link suspension is divided into three-link, four-link, five-link and other structures, of which the three-link is mostly the deformation of McPherson's lower wishbone. The four-link structure is similar to the disassembly of the upper and lower wishbones of the double wishbone structure to form a four-link form. From the perspective of performance parameters, the four-link form pays more attention to the flexibility of the design and is more inclined to stable and comfortable control adjustment.
In the car design process, the double wishbone suspension is slightly inferior to the four-link or five-link suspension in terms of comfort or due to the adjustment difference, but because of its more stable connection structure and handling performance, it is mostly used in high-end cars and ultra-luxury sports cars that pursue sporty performance, which also creates the phenomenon that the double wishbone suspension is more expensive than the multi-link suspension.
From the perspective of the use environment, it is not wrong for GAC Toyota to use a more comfortable four-link suspension on the Xena, an MPV product that is more inclined to home positioning. But at the marketing level, GAC Toyota has played word games with consumers. In the configuration table exposed on the eve of last year's listing, GAC Toyota clearly marked its vehicle suspension as "front McPherson + rear multi-link independent suspension", but after the listing, GAC Toyota quietly changed the parameter to "front McPherson + double wishbone independent suspension" on its official website.
In this regard, netizens joked: "GAC Toyota has redefined the dual wishbone independent suspension. ”
Some engineers pointed out that "the rear suspension with multiple linkages is a relatively common solution, but its super-stability is not as good as that of double wishbones." From the perspective of parts and components, the supply resources for the domestic selection of double wishbones are relatively small, and the cost is relatively higher. ”
According to the latest sales data released by GAC Toyota, GAC Toyota sold a total of 53,094 vehicles in February, an increase of 4.3% year-on-year. Among them, Xena sold 4120 vehicles, which is far from its goal of surpassing GL8. Highlander sold 7,115 units, up 12.7% year-on-year.
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