It is troublesome to repair cars, and it is difficult to sell cars.
Header image source | Visual China
"It's a pity", after learning the news that Borgward Automobile applied for bankruptcy liquidation, this was the first reaction of Liu Hua, the owner of Borgward.
On April 8, Beiqi Foton issued an announcement that due to the financial exhaustion of Beijing Borgward, it was indeed unable to pay off its debts due, and its assets were insufficient to pay off all its debts, Beijing Borgward held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on April 8, 2022, and resolved to apply for bankruptcy liquidation in accordance with the law. This means that this "legendary brand", which once claimed to be among the "BBBA" of the German family, is still heading for the end of the fall.
As early as before filing for bankruptcy, trapped by debt problems, Borgward not only stopped production, but its sales outlets nationwide also withdrew stores and stopped selling. A number of Borgward 4S stores in the Beijing area have long been empty, and some offline stores have become after-sales service centers for other brands.
Beijing Borgward 4S store has been empty Source: Future Auto Daily
In fact, from 2019 to 2021, with the help of capital, the automobile industry that has been soaring all the way has achieved the king, and some people have undergone a shuffle and lost. From the traditional car brands Zotye, Dongfeng Yulon and Brilliance Automobile, to the new car manufacturer Bo County, the future.
When car companies stand on the verge of bankruptcy, or have fallen, this also means that the official commitments of "lifetime warranty" and "free maintenance" are all gone, and the resulting impact will affect the entire second-hand car market in addition to the after-sales system.
For thousands of "innocent" car owners, they have since fallen into the dilemma of difficulty in repairing cars and selling cars.
The man who was cut leeks
Liu Hua still remembers the car selection process that lasted for more than 5 months in 2017. Almost every weekend, I and my family will appear in the 4S stores of various brands, "from Highlander to Jetta, in the middle of the Bandeng, Tiguan, CR-V I have all test-driven, too tangled." ”
After layers of screening by the whole family, the highlander and tiguan models finally entered the "final round". However, when he participated in the Guangzhou Auto Show in November, Liu Hua met the Borgward BX7, which he had always been interested in, and he could only "test drive in the cloud" because there was no local 4S store.
After some comparison, Borgward won with the price of the people, and Liu Hua picked up the car on the spot at a price of more than 200,000 yuan, "the process is very shabby, and there is no even a car lifting ceremony." ”
Liu Hua's Borgward BX7 Source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Nowadays, although due to high fuel consumption, frequent failures and low retention rates, Nazhijie is jokingly called a brand that second-hand car dealers will tremble when they see it. However, as early as 2013, because it was equipped with a central control large screen, automatic seat adjustment, 7 cameras for the whole car, reversing assistance and other functions, under the strong recommendation of his family, Li Zhe still purchased the Nazhijie Big 7.
He also remembers that at that time, Nazhijie's first local 4S store opened shortly after, attracting many consumers to test drive and place orders. "I went to the car show at the entrance of the shop with my father and placed an order, and the full price was 240,000 directly picked up the car."
To this day, the Nazhijie Big 7 is still parked downstairs in Li Zhe's house, "I am the person who said on the Internet that was cut leeks," Li Zhe said self-deprecatingly. Even if there is one more Smart in the home as a transportation, but because there is more snow in Xinjiang in winter, "the car does not have snow tires, or you have to leave an SUV to drive in winter." ”
Li Zhe said that he was not without the idea of selling cars, but in addition to the shortcomings of driving in the city with relatively high fuel consumption (13L per 100 kilometers), the vehicle did not have too much of a problem, so he finally decided to stay and change with another scooter.
In the past five years since the use of the car, Liu Hua found that his Borgward BX7 has no major problems except for the replacement of the rear wheel sensor and the installation of mass blocks in the engine. This also became the reason why he regretted the ending of Borgward, "the quality is good, the price is close to the people, but it is a pity to be defeated by the water army and lose so badly." ”
In the view of Wang Yu, another owner of Borgward who calls himself "leek head", the reason for Borgward's collapse is not because of the product itself, "the three major parts of the vehicle are still relatively solid, so (the reason for the closure) is the negative feedback of excessive publicity that year."
In 2017, he bought the BX7 four-wheel drive flagship version for 250,000 yuan, and now except for some small scratches, Wang Yu's car has not really been overhauled.
In order to repair the car, the owner of the car has a different way
Car companies have closed down, 4S stores have closed their doors and withdrawn stores, the impact is transmitted to users, the first is the problem of vehicle maintenance, but these owners do not seem to have the expected anxiety and worry.
In fact, as early as before the closure of the 4S store, a group of car owners represented by Li Zhe and Wang Yu had abandoned the after-sales service provided by the official.
More than two years after using the car, Li Zhe's Nazhijie Big 7 bumper was damaged in a reversing car, and after evaluation by the 4S shop, the maintenance cost was as high as 2,000 yuan. He then chose to repair it himself, "Taobao buy costs 300, you can directly install it yourself." Since then, Li Zhe has rarely gone to the official 4S store again.
The parts that need to be replaced daily can be met by local individual repair shops. For the special parts needed by the vehicle, Li Zhe said that the 4S store also needs to transfer goods from other regions, so individual repair shops can also solve the problem by placing orders to transfer goods. "So in essence, there is not much difference between where to repair and maintain, and even individual stores can be much cheaper than 4S stores."
Unlike Li Zhe, who has long left the 4S store, as a "worry-free faction", Liu Hua's vehicle maintenance and parts replacement have all relied on the official 4S store. So when he first heard the rumors of Borgward's store being withdrawn, he felt a little angry and worried because the authorities did not inform him.
Liu Hua still remembers that when the vehicle had an accident in the field, triggered the SOS function that came with it, according to the guidance he contacted the nearest 4S store, but the other party told him that the store no longer provided any after-sales service, "They let me find a place to repair the tire at will, and afterwards I confirmed the news of Borgward's suspension of production on the social platform." ”
At first, Liu Hua was very worried about his subsequent use of the car. "What should I do if the core parts need to be replaced?" Although most of the accessories can be replaced by parts of volkswagen models, what if not? ”
After that, the answer of a friend who was engaged in maintenance work alleviated Liu Hua's anxiety, "He told me that as long as it is not serious physical damage, any problem can be repaired, the auto repair industry is completely market-oriented, there is no need to worry about whether it is an official 4S store." ”
Auto repair shop Borgward exclusive after-sales staff publicity campaign Source: Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In the experience of these car owners, repairs need to be taken differently, but far from being to the point where there is no way out.
Taking the Beijing area as an example, many chain automobile cities and individual maintenance shops have said that most of the parts and components of the currently discontinued models have homogeneous substitutes, but according to the different parts, they need to wait for a week to a month or two of transfer time.
Even after filing for bankruptcy, there are still Borgward after-sales maintenance stores in business. At an auto repair shop in beijing's southeastern 5th Ring Road Motor City, the brand logo of Borgward Motors still hangs impressively on the wall.
The store staff said that although the entire store is responsible for the maintenance of various brand models, it also sets up special personnel to provide basic maintenance and repair work for Borgward vehicles, and even holds preferential activities for exclusive Borgward owners from time to time.
Repairing cars is troublesome, and selling cars is even more difficult
The butterfly effect brought about by the suspension of production and bankruptcy liquidation of car companies will not only affect car owners, but also eventually affect the entire second-hand car market.
In the second-hand car market, because they can't afford to buy and sell at a loss, some car dealers will never stop production models. And those car dealers with a certain scale, mainly BBA, Liangtian and other hot models, do not completely refuse to stop the production of models, but also mainly buy and sell between retail investors.
For car dealers who handle discontinued models in large quantities, retail investors can only be counted as a dime, and docking with local dealers and manufacturers to obtain profits from resale of other peer vehicles is the key.
Guangdong used car dealer Zhang Yuan belongs to the second type. "There are no cars that can't be sold, only prices that can't be sold" is the criterion he firmly believes in doing in the used car business, for two reasons: the price is attractive and each has its own needs.
Dealing with discontinued models, Zhang Yuan is familiar with it, "We must collect the car at a low price, and the owner loves to sell it or not." In his view, handling cheap domestic cars, as long as the owner can't hold on to the final relaxation, what awaits him is a good profit.
Zhang Yuan revealed that he has received Zotye T500, Yongyuan flying saucer and other models, and the average profit is about 7,000-10,000 yuan. And BBA, Two Fields and other models, "although easy to sell, repair costs terrible", while such models are more transparent in terms of car prices, profits are too thin, and the backlog will break through the cost price for a long time.
Used Car Dealership Source: Future Auto Daily
Another second-hand car dealer Wu Zhongheng said that usually a car's transit cycle is 4-6 months, Borgward, Nazhijie these brands are not affected by the suspension of production, but because the bargaining power is not high and better to sell, "according to the price of the car, a little plus 1000-2000 yuan will be hung out to sell, a little more may become difficult to deal with." ”
Although the profit is not high, this year, Wu Zhongheng has sold 4 Borgward cars. He revealed that when he received the car, the owner of the car was slightly more expensive, and the car dealer would refuse, "even if the owner of the car who is determined to sell the car is unwilling at the time, he will eventually find us." Peers are charged at low prices, and car owners have no other choice. ”
But even so, Wu Zhongheng still can't completely avoid the emergence of loss-making transactions, "This kind of car is an unpopular model, and most customers want to pick up a bargain." After all, like Zhang Yuan, there are very few car dealers who can collect cars for less than ten thousand yuan. In the large-scale second-hand car market, it is the majority who do less profit and more loss trading like Wu Zhongheng.
Trying to collect discontinued brand models at a low price has become an open secret in the second-hand market. In such an environment, car owners can only compromise with the car dealer and make a choice among the few car dealers who are still willing to collect the car.
Tang Yi, the owner of Nazhijie, was "fortunate" to be able to hand over the tedious process of handling the vehicle to others. Tang Yi said that in 2018, when he changed cars to buy Lexus, 4S store sales took the initiative to help themselves find a way to deal with the Nazhijie U6, "Finally the sales were busy for more than a month to find a car dealer who was willing to collect the car, and it was hard enough for me to make this order." ”
After many hesitations, hearing the offer that the second-hand car dealer can now give, Li Zhe and Wang Yu completely gave up the idea of selling the car. "I regret not selling it earlier, and the car of more than 200,000 is pressed to less than 50,000, which I can't accept." Li Zhe said.
"Leek head" Wang Yu seems to have known the ending, whether the vehicle is preserved is no longer a problem, "wait for the annual inspection to modify the ECU and exhaust system, brush 300 horses, 400 Nm." ”
(At the request of the interviewees, Liu Hua, Li Zhe, Wang Yu, Tang Yi, Wu Zhongheng, and Zhang Yuan are pseudonyms.) ）
The author | Cui Qiuyang
Edit the | Wang Yan