In recent years, the mainland automobile market has continued to develop, and the volume of used car transactions has also risen rapidly, and last year, the mainland used car transactions exceeded 17 million units against the trend, an increase of 22.62% year-on-year. The huge market visible to the naked eye has attracted all kinds of capital to enter, especially in the first two years of the Internet +, "Internet + used car" has spawned a large number of used car e-commerce platforms.
However, the second-hand car e-commerce platform with the slogans of "making transactions more transparent" and "no middlemen to earn the difference", although it has brought a new trading model, has also spawned various chaos driven by the desire to expand and the impulse to make profits, making consumers feel both angry and helpless. Recently, the City Express has received a lot of related complaints, which makes people wonder when the second-hand car e-commerce platform can bid farewell to barbaric growth?
First, mandatory charges, prevarication and delay, transfer is a bit difficult
Mr. Cheng purchased a Fit through an Uxin used car mortgage in August 2019, and the staff verbally promised that they could transfer the vehicle to his name as long as they repaid the loan for one year, but when they asked for the transfer a year later, the other party said that they had to pay off the loan to transfer the property. On February 10 this year, Mr. Chen paid off the loan and contacted the customer service again, but the other party said that he had to pay a transfer fee of 500 yuan and a purchase price of 1,000 yuan before he could mail the release materials, "When he first bought the car, the staff of Uxin never said that there were two fees, and promised to transfer the house for free, without charging any fees." ”
Transcript of Mr. Cheng's conversation with the staff of the used car platform Mr. Chen's experience is the same. He bought a Honda Fengfan on a second-hand car mortgage in Uxin on October 23, 2019, paid off the loan in November 2021, and then contacted customer service to request that he go through the mortgage procedures and get back the "green book" (that is, the motor vehicle registration certificate), and the customer service staff also asked him to pay a 500 yuan agency fee to the agent designated by the platform. And after he paid the 500 yuan agency fee, more than 3 months have passed, and the release procedures have not been completed, "I went to inquire, the platform said that he sent the settlement certificate to the agent, but the agent said that he did not receive it, let me go to the platform, so I was kicked around, every time I looked for them, they said that they would be dealt with urgently, and every time it was gone." According to car owners, Uxin used cars generally require mortgage buyers to pay two fees before release: 500 yuan release/transfer agency fee, and 1,000 yuan retention purchase price. And these two expenses, the owners of the car basically do not know before buying a car. In particular, the "purchase price", many car owners have not heard of it, after inquiring to know: this is the practice of the financial leasing industry. They suspect that Uxin used cars have turned the owner's mortgage purchase into a financial leasing behavior. Mr. Hu, who bought a car on the Renren car platform, said that after the loan was paid off, he went to the vehicle management office to handle the release procedures, and was told that he needed the original business license of the mortgage company, and after contacting the customer service of the car, the customer service said that he had to find the agent provided by the platform to handle it, but the agent asked him to pay a 359 yuan agency fee. Some car owners reported that the car was sold to Renren Car, and the contract agreed to complete the transfer within 15 working days, but the car had not been transferred for 1 month, and the platform repeatedly delayed.
Mr. Guo was even more distressed. He bought a Dongfeng Fengxing Lingzhi through a second-hand car through Edamame in September 2019, and on February 8 this year, he settled the arrears in advance, asked the platform to assist in the transfer of the vehicle and refund the 3,000 yuan deposit, but the platform asked him to drive the car to the licensed city of Shijiazhuang. "I am now working in Xinjiang, driving to Shijiazhuang to go more than 6,000 kilometers, and the state has introduced a policy of vehicle transfer in different places, they refuse to cooperate, they just don't want to refund the money."
Second, unknowing mortgage payments, buying a car costs 10,000 or 20,000 more
Not only that, some consumers find that they have been inexplicably overcharged after buying a car with a mortgage, and the amount is not small. On May 6, 2019, Mr. Lu purchased a second-hand Ford Impreza through Uxin Used Car, with a car price of more than 130,000 yuan, a down payment of 39,500 yuan, and a loan of 92,050 yuan. Recently, he noticed that under the "loan information" column in the mobile app, in addition to the "personal car consumption loan" (loan principal of 92,050 yuan), there is also a "nother personal consumption loan" (loan principal: 20170 yuan), which is also a three-year mortgage, and the annual interest rate is the same as the car loan, which is 8%.
Mr. Lu said that he did not know what kind of money it was, and the telephone consultation platform said that the money was stated in the contract, "saying that it included service fees and license fees." He looked at the electronic contract and saw that there was indeed this amount on it, but he did not write which ones were included in the pen, only a total amount. Mr. Lu felt that he had been deceived, "When I bought the car, no one told me that I had this fee, and the electronic contract was sent to me after buying the car, and I did not look closely." He calculated that if you add this loan of more than 20,000 yuan and the interest generated for three years, the total cost of buying this used car is about to catch up with the purchase of a new driver's car. ”
Third, conceal the car condition, adjust the meter, and even the car source information is fake
Making transactions more transparent is an advantage that many used car platforms have been promoting. But is it really transparent?
The owner of the car, Mr. Zhao, said that on March 29, 2021, he purchased a Tiguan L at Renren for an amount of 195,000 yuan. Later, he learned through relevant channels that this car actually belongs to the accident car, the vehicle A-pillar and longitudinal beam have been repaired, insurance records, accident photos, maintenance records are available, and provided to the Renren car platform. But Renren's customer service and store manager refused to admit that it was an accident car. "Renren Car said, whether it is an accident car or not, it is up to the people in their stores to decide, who set the rules?" Mr. Zhao said.
A Sagittarius owner suffered the same thing. In January this year, he gave one of his Sagittarius to the Renren car platform for sale, and the platform staff contacted him to say that he could make a replacement, which could reduce the service fee. After negotiations, he replaced a used POLO that was on sale on the platform. However, after getting the car, the actual condition of the second-hand POLO did not match the platform description, not only the windshield had cracks, the fuel tank cover could not be locked, and the salesman did not take the initiative to inform. When he asked the platform to deal with it, the other party shirked it in various ways. In November last year, the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court announced a typical case in which Wang purchased a second-hand car for 300,000 yuan on a second-hand car platform. However, shortly after the purchase of the car, Wang learned that the car had had a serious accident and sued the court. The court found that the car did have many major accidents before Wang's purchase, and one of the accidents injured the main structure of the vehicle. At the same time, it was also found that the second-hand car network sales platform has hundreds of vehicle condition tests that have not really been implemented, and some vehicles are only sold after being viewed by experienced auto repair masters, and there is no strict testing procedure. The court held that the platform promised that the vehicle sold without rigorous testing was a concealment of the true situation of the vehicle, constituting fraud against consumers, and ordered the second-hand car platform to compensate Wang for three times the purchase price. In addition to concealing the condition of the car, "adjusting the meter" (that is, lowering the number displayed by the odometer) is also a "hard wound" in the second-hand car industry for many years, and some second-hand car e-commerce platforms have also used this routine.
In March 2015, Mr. Li bought a Sagitar at Renren, when the platform informed the vehicle that the mileage was 78,000 kilometers. Recently, Mr. Li planned to sell this car through the Renren car platform again, but unexpectedly, the appraiser of Renren Car inspected the vehicle and told him that the mileage of the car was 220,000 kilometers, and the mileage in 2014 was nearly 130,000 kilometers. In addition to the odometer fraud, some of the vehicle source information on some platforms may also be fake. A car owner reported that after the staff of Renren Car obtained its information online, he took the initiative to contact him, saying that he could go to the door for free car inspection. Because the price given by the car inspector after the car inspection was far lower than its psychological price, he refused to sell the car through Renren Car. Unexpectedly, the platform still released the transfer information of the car, and arbitrarily priced 130,000 yuan, "I think they violated my personal privacy and asked them to immediately withdraw the car source information." ”
Fourth, industry insiders suggest: polish your eyes and refuse routines
In this survey, there are many problems feedback from car owners, many car owners are very angry about the practice of some platforms, and now, the biggest problem they face is the difficulty of rights protection, "the contract is provided by them, the headquarters is also in the field, complaints do not know which government department to find."
Industry insiders believe that with the full implementation of the mainland's cancellation of the second-hand car relocation restriction and the second-hand car "inter-provincial communication" policy, the second-hand car industry will continue to maintain rapid development in the future, in the face of more and more second-hand car e-commerce platforms, how should consumers avoid the pit? Jiang Xingyong, general manager and senior appraiser of Hangzhou Mika, suggested that consumers should pay attention to the following three points: First, second-hand cars are a "non-standard" product, each car is different, it is recommended that consumers try to find a physical store to buy a car, in case there is something, it is relatively easy to protect rights, "find an online platform, you don't even know where the company is, and it is more difficult to protect rights." ”
Secondly, some platforms claim that "3-day free trial" and "7-day no reason to return the car" actually contains a lot of preconditions, not completely "no reason". Before trying, be sure to ask the requirements carefully so as not to cause disputes. Third, the mortgage service of some platforms is actually financial leasing, and consumers think that they are mortgages to buy cars, but in fact, they sign a financial lease contract, which will incur a lot of costs. Therefore, before buying a car, it is best to carefully read the format contract provided by the car dealer to ensure that you will not incur liquidated damages due to the breach of contract, or cannot get back the security deposit.