Nowadays, the car, as the "big thing" in our lives, has become an important role in daily life, whether it is daily commuting or outing, it will be extremely convenient to have a car. However, because the car is a highly integrated industrial product, no matter which part of the design is not in place, or the quality control is not strict, there will be problems. And with the annual 315 International Consumer Rights Day approaching, which cars have more quality problems in the past year? And what are the representative cases? Let's take a look ahead and avoid stepping on a minefield when buying a car.
Key takeaways:
1· The number of complaints about traditional cars still accounts for a large proportion, and the number of complaints about new energy models has surged year by year.
2· The engine and transmission system are still the focus of complaints, and the attention to the quality of the vehicle and machine is gradually increasing.
3· Problems such as car chips and personal privacy leakage may become new hot spots for consumer complaints.
●The number of complaints about new energy models has surged year by year
Although electric vehicles like Tesla are now frequently malfunctioning and have become the focus of social attention, from the perspective of the entire passenger car background, their market stock is still relatively small, the overall complaint volume is still not large, and traditional brands have led to a large number of problems because of the number of models and long development time. Judging from the data of Sohu Woodpecker's exposure circle, the number of complaints in the car category in 2021 is still large, accounting for 49.96% of the overall, followed by SUV models, accounting for 44.35% of the share, while MPV and pure electric vehicle models only account for about 5% of the overall share due to market stock and other reasons.
However, from the changes in the number of complaints in the past 5 years, it can be seen that with the boom of pure electric vehicles in the past two years, the number of complaints has also shown a sharp rise. In 2021, the number of domestic pure electric vehicle quality complaints was 5356, an increase of 3519 cases compared with 2020, a surge of nearly 3 times.
It can be said that the growth rate of pure electric vehicles in China is extremely fast, so the attention will naturally rise, so the problems in terms of quality will naturally be amplified by public opinion. At the same time, some new energy brands are not stable in handling and responding to quality problems, which has also led to more rights protection incidents that have attracted widespread social attention. For example, the Tesla owner rights protection incident at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show was due to the accident caused by the owner's determination that the vehicle's brake failure was not clearly responded to and resolved by the official, which in turn triggered consumer disputes and on-site rights protection.
●The engine and transmission system are still the focus of complaints
Usually when it comes to car quality, people will take the lead in thinking of core components such as engines and gearboxes, because once the above components have problems, it is likely to lead to the inability of the vehicle to run. Judging from the data of Sohu Woodpecker's exposure circle, the number of complaints around the engine and transmission in 2021 is still high, accounting for 22.54% and 16.50% of the overall quality complaints, respectively.
In 2021, FAW-Volkswagen has more complaints about the engine, in addition to the reasons for its large sales volume, the problem of concentrated outbreak of particle trap blockage is also an important reason. At present, the Sohu woodpecker exposure circle for FAW-Volkswagen particle trap blockage fault complaints as many as more than 200, there are consumer reactions "particle trap three days at both ends of the blockage, after blocking the fuel consumption per kilometer fast 20 oil", and the dealer to give the solution is almost the same, recommended that the owner "run more high speed".
However, the dealer's so-called "more running and running high-speed" solution requires the owner to maintain a high-speed cruise, when the vehicle speed exceeds 100 kilometers per hour and the exhaust temperature exceeds 700 ° C, in order to meet the combustion conditions. Therefore, car owners need to try to avoid long-term short-distance, long-term congestion conditions. However, in daily life, this operation is not realistic, after all, for most car owners, driving vehicles in urban areas or short distances at low speed is the norm, it is impossible to run long distances without moving, and this method will also add a lot of unnecessary costs and safety risks to the owners.
In addition to the problem of FAW-Volkswagen particle traps, the emulsification of engine oil in some models of FAW Toyota is also one of the problems with a large number of consumer complaints. The so-called oil emulsification is the emulsification phenomenon produced by mixing the oil with other liquids in the car. As for other liquids, it mainly comes from two aspects: first, in the low temperature environment, when the engine has not yet reached the normal working temperature, the cylinder cover cover is in a low temperature state, and the temperature difference can make the water condensation inside the cover, and at this time the oil will appear a certain degree of evaporation, the oil droplets can pass through the cylinder body along the ventilation cavity, the cylinder head into the valve chamber, the oil and water mixed, the oil emulsification phenomenon. This kind of phenomenon mostly occurs in hybrid models, because the engine can not enter the high load operation state for a long time, and the oil temperature cannot reach the normal working state, which will occur in winter.
Second, due to engine design defects, sealing system problems, coolant may also enter the oil circuit, this design defect will cause oil emulsification, serious wear of engine internal parts, reduce the life of parts, this situation should be repaired in time, manufacturers if this design defect also needs to be recalled in time to improve.
For the oil emulsification problem complained by some car owners, FAW Toyota believes that the engine is repeatedly used in a state that is not sufficiently warmed, and the water droplets that fail to evaporate in time will be mixed into the oil, and the vibration stirring will lead to the problem of oil emulsification, but with the increase of oil temperature, these water droplets will evaporate. Therefore, the problem of oil emulsification does not affect the operation of the engine. But this statement is difficult to convince consumers, after all, oil emulsification itself is an irreversible process, so after emulsification, in theory, the operation of the engine will definitely be affected.
Previously, in the throttle incident of Dongfeng Honda, the manufacturer first announced that several models involved would be extended, and finally recalled after the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine intervened in the investigation. The current practice of FAW Toyota is still secretive, and there is no detailed plan for how to solve the problem of oil emulsification. What makes domestic consumers more dissatisfied is that in 2020, Toyota recalled tens of thousands of coolant leaking models in the North American market, although this recall cannot be directly equated with the domestic oil emulsification problem, but in the face of consumers in the North American market, Toyota is much better in terms of attitude and reaction speed.
●The attention to the quality of the vehicle and machine has gradually increased
Of course, although the engine and transmission system are still the focus of complaints, from the chart of the complaint platform statistics, the number of complaints in the dimension of "body accessories and electrical appliances" is higher than that of the engine and gearbox, and from the perspective of expansion, the rust of lights, engine systems and components is the three main complaint points. Especially with the continuous deepening of automobile intelligence, the complaints caused by the quality problems of the car machine are also increasing year by year.
In 2021, Geely Automobile received a large number of consumer complaints in the Sohu Woodpecker exposure circle due to the problem of car machine caton. The problem was first exposed on the 2019 model of The Star Yue, in the marketing publicity stage, Geely said that the Star Egoshi will be equipped with the latest GKUI19 car machine system at that time, and the CPU is Geely's self-developed E01 chip. However, from the owner's complaint, the version of the car machine used by Geely Xingyue is GKUI1.2.0, which is not the latest GKUI19 car machine system officially advertised, and the GKUI1.2.0 hardware is very old and backward, and the most important CPU chip is actually a product from ten years ago, so there will be caton and other phenomena. For the owners of the 2019 Xingyue model, Geely has never given a solution or compensation plan at the official level.
Of course, the car machine Caton is not above the Star Yue model, but almost covers all Geely models. In addition to Xingrui, including ICON, Binyue, Binrui, Haoyue, Boyue, Borui, and even Lynk & Co 01, 02, 03, 05, you can find a large number of complaints about the car machine Caton, black screen, we can not conclude that these models all involve chip virtual labels, but one thing can be confirmed is that a large number of Geely models equipped with old chips and systems can not be upgraded OTA in subsequent use, which will further aggravate the bad feeling of the use experience.
In addition to the problem of the car machine, the problem of body parts is also the focus of consumer complaints. Although in recent years, with the continuous improvement of domestic car manufacturing processes, such complaints are gradually declining, but there are still some car companies due to design or process problems, there are problems such as water leakage and rust of the body.
Chery Automobile has more complaints about "body leakage" and "rust" in the Sohu Woodpecker exposure circle, and has spread to many models including Tiggo 5x, Tiggo 7 and Arrizo 5 series, the most common of which is the trunk leak.
Generally speaking, most of the water leakage in the trunk is caused by the aging of the sealing tape, the lack of tight sealing, the blockage of the drainage hole in the trunk causes the water flow to be discharged in time, or the sunroof drainage path is caused by dirt or debris blockage. However, this situation is rare in the case of reasonable maintenance of normal cars, so there are not many models with similar complaints in a large number of concentrations, and the leakage of Chery's models is too serious, so many Chery owners began to question the defects in the drainage design and sealing process of the vehicle, hoping that the manufacturers would concentrate on solving it.
In addition, regarding the Tiggo 8 model before the 2020 model, there is also a problem that its headlight blind spot greatly affects driving safety, which is suspected to be a design defect. Regarding this situation, the manufacturer gave an improvement plan on October 29, 2021, but from the wording of the "Notice" document, the manufacturer did not admit that the old model had design defects, but said that it was "to meet the individual needs of market customers", and required consumers to pay 2800 yuan to improve the headlight lighting. This has once again caused dissatisfaction among car owners, who generally believe that design defects should not make owners pay, and hope that manufacturers can come up with a responsible attitude to solve the problem.
● Chips, privacy leakage and other issues may become a new hot spot for complaints
Nowadays, people's demand for cars has changed in essence, and cars have long developed from mechanical products in the 1960s to products with intelligent functions, and car companies have also seized this so-called user "pain" point, so as to vigorously develop "intelligence". However, due to the epidemic and other reasons, the word "lack of core" is often mentioned in the process of intelligence of many car companies in 2021, and when "lack of core" slowly becomes a new hot spot for car companies to reduce car purchase discounts and reduce configuration, it will naturally become a new hot spot for consumer complaints.
In addition to the phenomenon of Geely car machine caton mentioned above, in 2021, "Euler Automobile was exposed to suspected of defrauding consumers" also appeared on the hot search, mainly because euler good cat "car machine system chip is inconsistent with the propaganda. In fact, in other brands, the allocation reduction incident has also occurred, but it is the obligation to inform in advance, giving consumers the right to choose, and has not caused a storm, obviously transparency and openness is the key to solving the problem.
In addition, with the gradual popularization of autonomous driving technology, but when the ubiquitous radar, chips, and cameras in the car surround the driver, personal privacy issues will also become a hot spot for consumers. In 2021, overseas hackers released a scene taken by Tesla's built-in camera after activation, and the image can clearly see the interior of the vehicle and the driver. In addition, Musk also admitted for the first time on his personal social network that he would monitor the driver's driving behavior through the car camera. As soon as the matter came out, a discussion about the user's personal privacy appeared. In the future, this will also become a new hot spot for consumer rights protection.
● Say at the end
With the gradual maturity of China's automobile market, consumers pay more and more attention to the quality of products, and in order to reduce complaints and improve consumer user experience, on the one hand, car manufacturers need to strengthen the quality control management of production, manufacturing and other links, improve product quality; on the other hand, because in the whole life cycle of the car, it is difficult for products not to have problems, and car brands also need to correct their attitudes and solve the problems faced by consumers in the right way, not to be specious, not to respond positively and solve problems.
In addition, in today's entire automotive industry is in the transformation and change of the times, the application of many new technologies has also spawned a lot of new problems, such as the software and hardware problems of the car system, the "out of control" problem under the condition of auxiliary driving, etc., so manufacturers need to strengthen the management and training of dealers, enhance the reasonable response to new problems, do not blindly push the responsibility to consumers, otherwise it will eat the brand itself.