The car logo is the embodiment of the brand's meaning, but where the excellent car company, its car logo is always rich in deep meaning. For example, Audi, four circles are buckled together, representing "the world's beautiful interlocking". But Ms. Tian, who recently lived in Xianning, did not feel the "beauty" behind Audi at all.
Ms. Tian told us that on November 20, 2020, she purchased an Audi Q3 (2021 model) in Hubei Zhongji Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd., but the new car has been in use for less than a year and has already had several sunroof leaks.
Ms. Tian has repeatedly fed the problem back to the dealer, and the dealer has also repaired Ms. Tian's vehicle several times, but the problem of the sunroof leakage has not been completely solved. During the period, the dealer signed a relevant treatment agreement with Ms. Tian, which stipulates that "if the problem of sunroof leakage after 5 repairs is not solved, the dealer will provide Ms. Tian with vehicle return and replacement service free of charge".
However, due to the fact that there were still no actual results after several repairs, and in the process, Ms. Tian believed that the dealer's attitude was perfunctory and did not take it seriously, so in order to avoid increasing the unnecessary cost of subsequent use and maintenance, Ms. Tian hoped that the dealer could directly replace the new car for it, but the dealer did not agree. In desperation, Ms. Tian fed back her experience to the relevant regulatory authorities and channels, but there has been no substantial progress.
We don't know what kind of encounter Ms. Tian will have in the future, but it is certain that Ms. Tian is already disappointed in the "beauty" behind Audi.
In addition to Ms. Tian, Ms. Liu, who lived in Leshan in the previous two years, also had a similar experience. Ms. Liu bought an imported Audi Q7 in 2018, but she also encountered a sunroof leak in less than a year. After failing to coordinate with the dealer, Ms. Liu had to ask for multi-channel intervention, and the problem was properly resolved after going through twists and turns. At that time, the incident was fermented at the level of public opinion because of media reports, which triggered many netizens to collectively complain about Audi and its dealers.
There are many related cases, including Ms. Luo in Hangzhou in 2021, Mr. Li in Xi'an in 2021, Ms. Wu in Nanjing in 2019, and so on:
The problem of sunroof leakage is not unique to Audi, but similar encounters are staged in the hands of different dealers, and we have to doubt the meaning of this "beautiful world is interlocking", is Audi just talking?
The other side of the brand
In fact, on the issue of Audi sunroof leakage, old drivers should be more familiar, after all, A6 and A4 sunroof leakage is already a common phenomenon. Although this can also be forcibly interpreted as "some product batches are not quality controlled", for Audi, this undoubtedly puts a negative label on the brand. But Audi may have seen no strange, because the controversy has not appeared in its own body, just in the past few years, the successive "asphalt door", "leukemia door", "spontaneous combustion door", "emission door", "map door", "advertising door", etc., have allowed the outside world to see the "mistakes" made by Audi several times. The labels of "reliable", "rigorous" and "understanding Chinese consumers" have been more and more diluted by Audi in recent years, which has more or less become one of the straws that overwhelms Audi's premium ability and sales.
For example, in 2021, the average transaction price of Audi's models is only 325,000 yuan, which is not only lower than Mercedes-Benz and BMW, but also lags behind second-tier luxury brands such as Lexus and Lincoln. Even if you stand with Volvo, it is only 600 yuan higher. On the other side, Audi's growth rate of 5.5% for the whole year of 2021 is directly lost to the entire market (4.9%), and it is still inferior to Lincoln, Volvo, BMW and Mercedes-Benz horizontally (although Mercedes-Benz is more or less the same disease). As for sales, Audi's perennial "price for market" strategy will fail again in 2021. According to the data of the Association, Audi's cumulative sales of 701289 new cars in China in 2021 fell by 3.6% year-on-year; Mercedes-Benz and BMW on the other side opened up with Audi with 758863 and 846237 respectively. This result not only makes Audi rank at the bottom of the "BBA" sales competition for three consecutive years, but also makes Audi the only brand in the "BBA" in 2021 that has a year-on-year decline in sales.
What happened to Audi?
Looking back at history, before 2019, Audi has been the sales champion of the domestic luxury car market, thanks to the first-mover advantage and the blessing of the aura of "official car". However, from 2019 onwards, the comprehensive sniping of various factors has finally made Audi win the luxury car sales title in the Chinese market for 30 consecutive years. Regarding the loss of premium ability and sales, Zhihu has also asked similar questions, and one of the highest praise answers is "brand and product are not OK". Standing at today's time node, this answer is to the point.
When it comes to the brand characteristics of Audi, many people are bound to think of "official cars". Indeed, Audi was best known for this label in its early days. As the first player in the BBA to enter the Chinese market, Audi established the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture in the early 1990s, which is much earlier than BMW and Mercedes-Benz. And because it was introduced as a leader car at the beginning (Audi 100 model), Audi's first-mover advantage is very obvious, and the high-end image of the brand has also begun to be established, and the first domestic Audi A6 in Changchun in 1997 is the representative of domestic administrative cars for a long time.
However, the "official car" is also a double-edged sword, and the stable and mature image makes Audi's products appear more "moderate", which is not only difficult to attract young consumers, but also rejects many female users. At the same time, bmw with a more sporty sense and Mercedes-Benz with a more luxurious atmosphere, consumers voted with their feet.
Although Audi has also been trying to integrate more youthful elements in recent years, the MQB platform shared with Volkswagen Golf and TT makes it difficult for Audi's design to change substantially, and the basic disk is also too large, so it is not easy for Audi to form a new brand identity. Under the dilemma, when Audi suddenly lost its original stable source of customers after the bus reform in 2014, the hidden dividend slowly came to an end, which indirectly contributed to the future pattern from "ABB" to "BBA". Of course, there are also the credit of Mercedes-Benz and BMW introduced in the early years by imports, while the price has been at a high level for a long time, and in the minds of consumers, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are inherently taller than Audi.
Under the dilemma of the situation, Audi can only "exchange price for market" in order to survive, and use greater terminal discounts to stimulate sales, even the main models such as A4L, A6L, and Q5L have not been spared. The effect of the price war on boosting sales is obvious, but at the same time it also hurts the brand's premium ability, especially under the blessing of the wave of "lack of core" in 2021, Audi's premium ability and sales failure have been magnified.
In terms of products, Audi has not shown any advantages over the years. After 2017, both Mercedes-Benz and BMW have begun to continue to exert their strength, and the younger and more thorough Mercedes-Benz models, the GLC that need to be purchased at a higher price, the new generation of BMW 5 Series Li, the new X3 and the domestic X2 that benchmark A6 have become the magic weapon for the acceleration of the performance of the Mercedes-Benz and BMW markets. As for Audi, the new generation of A6 and Q5L is good but the hard injury is too obvious: the A6 product is not as powerful as the Class Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and the Q5L is widely criticized for changing the four-wheel drive to the timely four-wheel drive. Therefore, after the new generation of A6 was listed, it still lost the sales crown, and even if the sales rebounded now, it was only supported by a large number of preferential policies.
In the hottest new energy track in recent years, Audi does not have a very good card. Even if the decision to "no longer launch fuel vehicles after 2026" has been made to express determination, but e-tron, Q2L e-tron, Q4 e-tron and Q5 e-tron and other products have not set off too much splash, whenever you mention Audi electric vehicles, you can always receive the evaluation of "short endurance, expensive price, oil to electricity, power difference". Such "advantages" are also directly fed back to sales: taking Q2L e-tron as an example, the original "two monthly sales" results are still industry stories. Even after various upgrades, the 2022 model has a pure electric mileage of only 325km, which is fatal enough. So don't say that it competes with the benchmark Tesla, even compared with the new force "Wei Xiaoli", Audi is also stretched.
In addition to external troubles, there are also internal worries
As we mentioned earlier, Audi established a joint venture company in China earlier than Mercedes-Benz and BMW, but "getting up early" may not necessarily "fly higher", and for a long time, the huge gap in the stock ratio distribution made Audi quite dissatisfied, so Audi has always wanted to "start all over again". As early as 2014, Audi had relevant practical actions, but because the outbreak of the "Dieselgate" incident was finally over. Until 2016, the emergence of saic oil Audi projects allowed Audi to see the possibility of making dreams come true. After experiencing twists and turns, SAIC Audi finally landed in 2020.
But there are losses and gains, the emergence of SAIC Audi is very likely to exacerbate the brand internal friction, after all, FAW Audi has long been A4L, A6L, Q5L and other fist products in the pocket, SAIC Audi can play some niche products, in order to take sales can only find another way, A7L the reason why canceled the original sneak design + hatchback tailgate highlights, turned into a sedan is also this reason, but the market will not give you the opportunity to defend, the transformed A7L does attract business people over 30 years old, But the problem is that it also dissuades young users, and coupled with the same positioning as A6L, consumers naturally know how to choose. This is also an important reason why the A7L was full of publicity, but in fact, it only achieved sales of 316 vehicles in the first month after the market, and the sales of imported A7s next door reached at least 380 vehicles. SAIC Audi really has a long way to go to achieve the goal of 40,000 vehicles per year for the A7L.
Jianghu Car Review:
Rationally and objectively speaking, at present, Audi's appeal in the domestic automobile market is still not low, and the huge number of users accumulated over many years of hard work will be difficult to be dissolved for a while and a half. But as we said above, the difficulties faced by Audi are also unprecedented, when consumers' liking for the brand is decreasing year by year, and more and more consumers begin to turn to mercedes-Benz, BMW and even Lexus, Lincoln embrace, Audi is the time to seriously think about where to go. At a time when it is under the enemy, Audi may need more than one or two better products, but also top-down change and innovation. Otherwise, when the dividend of the times really fades, the Almost "naked swimming" Audi will really fall behind. As for whether you want to get by and live or develop in the longer term, it is up to Audi itself. Finally, to borrow a famous line from "The Age of Awakening" for Audi: Drop your illusions and get ready for battle.