"If it weren't for march 15 coming, Mercedes-Benz probably wouldn't have made this move." Mercedes-Benz owner Wang Xin speculated.
The "move" here refers to the recall plan filed by Beijing Benz with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on February 18.
According to the plan, from August 15, 2022, Mercedes-Benz recalled 10,104 EQC electric vehicles, for the same reason as the rights owners suffered, "coolant leakage caused by motor failure." ”
As the owner of the car who suffered the above failure, Wang Xin decided to park his EQC in the garage for a long time until he was recalled.
"There are still nearly half a year before the recall, during this time I do not want to be a Mercedes-Benz guinea pig, who is responsible for the accident?"
"Coolant leakage leads to motor failure" has become a nightmare for many car owners as early as half a year ago.
"Buy the EQC 3 days on the fault light, 3 moon motor fault light." Car owners who lamented that the Mercedes-Benz EQC had various problems in less than 10,000 kilometers abounded.
On the eve of the 3.15 Consumer Rights Protection Day every year, the owners of major car brands will always stage round after round of entanglement with car companies because of the problem of car failure.
Coincidentally, many car companies will announce a wave of recall plans or fault solutions on the eve of March 15.
Problems are every year, and new problems are new every year. This is especially prominent in Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Although the problem is obvious, they are "lucky" and have never been on the "3.15" party.
More than 40 customer service calls, always "the problem has been reported"
Wang Xin's Mercedes-Benz EQC has been parked in the garage for 3 months, not that he does not want to drive, but that he does not dare to drive.
A year ago, with a curious attitude about electric vehicles, Wang Xin purchased the EQC400 for commuting to and from work. In his impression, the car gave him a good driving experience at the beginning.
But the good times were short-lived, and in September 2021, on the morning of sending his children to school, his vehicle began to report a malfunction, reminding him to turn off the power supply for maintenance; Wang Xin had to temporarily stop the car, take a taxi to send the child to school, and then come back to deal with the problem of the car.
After the test of the 4S shop, the coolant leakage of the car burned out the drive motor, and it took 2 months to change the motor during the period. A week after the car was repaired, Wang Xin's EQC encountered a nest again, and the 4S shop told that there was a problem with the motor and needed to be repaired.
Afterwards, Wang Xin checked and learned that there were still riders who had repaired the motor 4 times because of similar problems, which was more unlucky than him.
The owners of the first batch of cars found that the mileage was greatly reduced after replacing the motor many times, even in normal temperature weather, the actual endurance was less than 60% of the official value; and after the owner replaced the motor, the vehicle would emit a strange sound when driving at low speed.
Wang Xin immediately proposed that the vehicle be extended and compensated, but the 4S shop always refused to allow it, and the attitude also changed from the initial smiley face "playing tai chi" to the decisive refusal in the later stage, on the grounds that it did not meet the standard. Call the Mercedes-Benz 400 complaint telephone, and the answer of the customer service will always be "the problem has been reported".
After more than 40 fruitless calls to the complaint, Wang Xin found that he was not the only one who suffered from the indifferent attitude of the manufacturer and the 4S store, and some car owners had not waited for the result for a year to protect their rights.
On February 18, 2022, things took a turn for the worse when Mercedes-Benz announced that it would recall 10,104 EQC electric vehicles from August 15, 2022.
But this did not improve Wang Xin's mood. He and many car owners were dissatisfied with the recall notice, believing that the manufacturer deliberately concealed the truth and secretly changed the concept of design defects to what the official said "manufacturing deviation". At the same time, Mercedes-Benz is strongly urged to immediately recall the vehicle, replace the motor, and do not delay the time.
Mercedes-Benz rights owner's statement on March 8 (partial)
"Isn't Mercedes-Benz afraid to do such a look on March 15 for the owner to see?" Wang Xin and many car owners were muttering in their hearts.
For the owners' questions, Mercedes-Benz responded: it will contact the owners as quickly as possible and properly respond to their concerns. As for why the recall time is set in August, Mercedes-Benz said that the current reserve cannot meet the immediate recall of the accessories used.
In the view of LI Mu, the owner of bmw X3, the owner of Mercedes-Benz has been very lucky. His BMW X3 burn oil problem lasted for more than half a year, and he has not gotten a word so far.
In mid-2021, when Li Mu did the second maintenance of his X3, which traveled no more than 20,000 kilometers, he found that it had burned oil, oil leakage, and engine power was not as good as before. After discussion with the riders, many owners whose engine is BMW B48TU are aware of this problem.
In the second half of 2021, Li Mu and many car owners complained to BMW, hoping to solve the problem, but the effect was few. On many complaint platforms, the BMW X3/5 Series has ranked in the top 10 of the list, and most of the complaints point to engine oil burning.
On March 8, 2022, more than 100 BMW owners issued a statement of rights protection, asking BMW to face up to the problem. As of press time, BMW has not responded.
Is the pre-3.15 recall a basic operation?
The centralized recall of automobiles a month before "3.15" is the "old operation" of many car companies.
Looking back at the recall history of BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the past three years, Phoenix WEEKLY Finance found that in the month before "3·15", the above two car companies had carried out vehicle recalls, and many of them relied on the results of long-term rights protection of car owners.
Since the second half of 2020, due to problems such as vehicle communication modules, motors, engines, etc., owners of many Models of Mercedes-Benz have carried out online and offline rights protection acts. Although 4S stores can provide software upgrades and repairs, most of the problems still cannot be solved. To this end, Mercedes-Benz conducted two recalls before March 15, 2021, with a total of more than 2.7 million vehicles.
On March 5, 2021, BMW also officially announced a recall through the State Administration of Market Regulation, which said that due to production process errors, some models (including X5) will have a longer braking distance than normal when the vehicle needs emergency braking, and the abS function of the vehicle will fail, increasing the risk of accidents in the vehicle and there are safety hazards.
In fact, such problems have appeared as early as 2020.
In early 2020, when an X5 owner passed the last red light on the way home, the brake failure caused the vehicle to brake out of the lane, almost colliding with the oncoming vehicle, and its final turn crashed into the short pile diagonally opposite.
Afterwards, the 4S shop denied that the braking system was faulty, saying that it was a vehicle software problem and that it could be upgraded remotely.
However, on the major complaint platforms, a number of iX3, X5, X7 and other car owners reported that there was a problem with the brakes of the vehicle, ABS failed, and even some owners could not stop the car when letting pedestrians/stops, almost causing a car accident.
On the eve of March 15, 2021, the solution given by BMW is that BMW China will replace the brake boost hydraulic unit for the vehicles within the scope of the recall free of charge, and the unsold vehicles will be sold after the defects have been eliminated.
Throughout the past 10 years of the "3·15" party, the focus of its exposure of the automobile industry has gradually shifted from after-sales service to product defects. Among them, in 2018, 2020 and 2021, vehicle engine/transmission problems were exploded, and enterprises involved Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan Ford, Infiniti and so on.
From the clues of product defects reported by consumers, the problems of engines and three-electric systems involved in brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW are becoming more and more prominent.
The Notice of the State Administration for Market Regulation on the Recall of Automobiles and Consumer Goods nationwide in 2021 issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation pointed out that in 2021, among the clues of defects in automotive products received by the State Administration for Market Regulation, the engine assembly accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 32.3%. Among them, new energy vehicles reflect that power batteries, motors, and electronic control system problems account for 52.5% of the defect clues of new energy vehicles.
Compared with 2020, the number of clues in automotive products has increased by more than 5,000, while the proportion of engine assembly and three-electric problems has increased by at least 4 percentage points.
In 2021, many owners of other brands have repeatedly carried out similar problems to protect their rights. For example, the FAW-Volkswagen particle trap blockage that is high on the complaint platform, and the battery rights protection of the spontaneous combustion explosion of WM electric vehicles.
The end of the game is litigation?
How many "3·15" will the behavior of brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW continue?
In response to the behavior of car companies and consumers before 3.15, Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, believes that car companies should treat consumers who normally protect their rights every day as 3.15, and distract their attention on weekdays. ”
In terms of complaint channels, from October 1, 2021, the "Specifications for reporting and handling defect leads in automotive products" was officially implemented. According to the specific rules of the Code, the defect clue report provided by consumers will serve as an important source of information for the State Administration for Market Regulation to comprehensively determine whether a product is defective.
In this context, consumers and the relevant departments of the State Administration for Market Regulation can form a more direct information transmission, which greatly improves the authenticity, accuracy and processing efficiency of defective information feedback.
On the issue of new energy vehicle products, on January 1, 2022, the official implementation of the new version of the "Household Automobile Product Repair replacement return liability regulations" shows that the power battery and driving drive motor of new energy vehicles are included in the scope of core components.
Among them, during the validity period of the three guarantees, the engine, transmission, power battery, and driving drive motor have been replaced twice due to their quality problems, and they still cannot be used normally, and the seller should replace or return it.
This means that the above-mentioned Mercedes-Benz EQC owners who have replaced the motor more than twice can reasonably require the car company to return and replace the vehicle in accordance with the provisions of the New Regulations.
However, although laws and regulations are constantly improving, some car companies still do not change their attitudes.
In this regard, a lawyer said: "For car companies, they are most afraid of product quality disputes in the court. Because the court's judgment documents will be published online, the judgment will clearly describe the causes of product failure. ”
He believes that if all kinds of complaints do not work, consumers can collectively take the route of civil litigation to protect their rights. "This method is more effective, most car companies will choose out-of-court settlement, and then ask consumers to withdraw the lawsuit; but the lawsuit takes a long time."
According to the public information of the China Judgment Document Network, the owner of a BMW car once sued BMW in court due to the quality of the vehicle product, and the first and second instance trials lasted for 2 years, and the final judgment result was to sentence BMW Brilliance to compensate the owner for the loss of the car.
In January 2018, the BMW 3 Series, which owner Liu Shanshan was 1 year old, spontaneously combusted during parking. In May 2018, after a fruitless negotiation, Liu Shanshan sued BMW Brilliance and the vehicle sales company to the court, demanding compensation for the car. One year later, the first instance held that the main cause of the spontaneous combustion incident was the defect of the product itself, and ordered BMW to compensate the amount of loss after one year of damage to the vehicle.
However, BMW was dissatisfied with the outcome of the trial and appealed, and a year later, the court upheld the original judgment, indicating that the judgment was final. The lawsuit was fought for two full years.
With the approaching of the "3.15" consumer rights protection day, various automobile rights protection groups have begun to be active, hoping that their own problems can be solved before 3.15.
At 3:00 a.m., some of the model rights defense groups still had no sleep, "If the manufacturer does not solve the problem by March 15, then it will start a protracted war again." ”
In the silent group chat, a BMW owner who has been defending his rights for half a year suddenly expressed such an emotion.
(Wang Xin and Li Mu are pseudonyms)
The author | Gong Chenqian
Editor| Zhang Yixiao
The copyright and other intellectual property rights of this work belong to [Phoenix WEEKLY Finance], Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. enjoys the right to disseminate the information network of this article, and any third party shall not reprint it without authorization.