Recently, 268V, a third-party professional testing agency for second-hand cars, announced that from June 2021 to March 2022, 268V has detected 3352 major accident cars, 37 fire-burning cars, and 2023 water soaking cars, helping consumers avoid economic losses of about 1.6 billion yuan
In recent years, the mainland used car market has developed rapidly. According to data from the China Automobile Dealers Association, the trading volume of used cars on the mainland reached 17.5851 million units in 2021, an increase of 22.62% year-on-year. For a long time, the second-hand car market "too deep water" and "opaque" and other issues, is the key factor hindering consumers from choosing to buy second-hand cars, how to avoid buying major accident cars, water soaking cars is the core issue of consumer concern. In this context, third-party used car testing agencies such as 268V have emerged in the used car market.
What exactly is used car testing? How can consumers better protect their rights and interests? This reporter interviewed Han Tao, the person in charge of 268V.
1. When did 268V start testing used cars? How has the used car testing market developed in the past two years?
Han Tao: 268V has been engaged in used car testing since 2004, and has been 19 years this year, during which more than 3 million used cars have been tested. Previously, we mainly served the transaction scenario of used car B2B, so that car dealers can buy cars across regions with confidence, and from June 2021, we launched a 268V "car purchase worry-free inspection" for consumers.
In recent years, the second-hand car market has developed rapidly, consumers' acceptance of second-hand cars has been continuously improved, and second-hand car testing has also developed rapidly. A test report issued by a third-party agency can undoubtedly make consumers more assured of buying a car, and consumers can even decide whether to buy a car according to the car condition report, which greatly reduces the threshold for second-hand car purchase decision-making, and also helps the development of second-hand car e-commerce and off-site car purchase.
2. How is used car inspection carried out?
Han Tao: Used car testing is like doing a "physical examination" for second-hand cars, the testing process involves inspectors, testing equipment, and Internet-based testing institutions like 268V will also have data centers to audit test data. For example, consumers can go to the 268V detection point, the inspector will be through the paint film meter, intelligent detector and lift and other professional equipment for the vehicle "physical examination", the detection data and results will also be transmitted to the enterprise data center, combined with big data for intelligent identification and audit, and finally generate a second-hand car "physical examination report". We will also interpret this "physical examination result" so that consumers can also see and understand it.
3. What are the items of used car testing?
Han Tao: Second-hand car "physical examination" also has different "packages", such as 268V "car purchase worry-free inspection" products now have "accident investigation and detection of 127 items", "luxury car accident test 127 items", "depth test 361 items", "whole car fine test 477 items" and other services to choose from, different services will issue the corresponding vehicle "physical examination report". The purpose of second-hand car testing is to truthfully reflect the situation of vehicle testing items, so that the car condition is transparently presented to consumers, the most important of which is to eliminate major accident cars, fire cars, and water soaking cars. Of course, if you choose a more refined and comprehensive inspection, the vehicle condition reflects more comprehensively.
4. Is there a difference between a major accident car and an accident car that we generally say?
Han Tao: This involves the definition of the condition of the vehicle in the used car test report. We generally speak of "accidents" in large and small, everyone's understanding may be different, and the impact of accidents on the condition of the car is also diverse. However, in the professional second-hand car test report, we need to use a clearly defined noun, and the "major accident car" identified in the 268V test report has the corresponding judgment standard in the report, so it cannot be said that the cars that have had accidents are "major accident cars".
5. Is there a unified standard for used car testing in the industry?
Han Tao: At present, the used car testing industry has the technical specifications for vehicle identification and evaluation issued by the state and industry associations for guidance. However, it should be said that due to the complexity of used car testing, the standards formulated by various testing agencies so far are not exactly the same.
Taking 268V as an example, as the first batch of authorized institutions for the second-hand car testing "line" certification of the China Automobile Dealers Association, the latest testing standards are formulated with reference to the "Technical Specifications for Passenger Car Identification and Evaluation" issued by the Association on September 13, 2021. For example, the water soaking car, the 268V standard believes that "the vehicle that enters the cabin by soaking in the conductive liquid such as water" is a water soaking car, but some institutions think that the water flooding the seat bottom plate or the center console of the vehicle is the water soaking car.
6. Will the third-party used car inspection agency detect errors? How to protect the rights and interests of consumers?
Han Tao: As mentioned earlier, used cars "one car, one condition", detection is very complex, at present all testing institutions are difficult to do 0 mistakes, 268V's current detection error rate is about 1.5 in 10,000, we are also constantly strengthening the training of inspectors, promoting detection technology innovation, access to more vehicle data and other means to minimize the detection errors caused by human factors. At the same time, in order to protect the rights and interests of consumers, 268V "car purchase worry-free inspection" provides consumers with 90 days of repurchase protection, that is, through the purchase of car worry-free inspection certification of the vehicle, after the detection guarantee is activated, within 90 days from the date of completion of the transfer, if the consumer finds that the detected vehicle is a major accident, fire, water soaking vehicle, and the test report is not accurately reflected, 268V will be responsible for the difference in the vehicle or the purchase according to the transaction price.
7. How to choose a third-party used car testing agency?
Han Tao: In addition to seeing whether the institution has some authoritative certification, consumers are best to understand the misinspection and compensation standards of the testing agency, which is also the wrong inspection of major accidents, fires, and soaking water trucks, and the compensation standards of different institutions are not the same, and the institutions with higher compensation standards are generally more responsible for the testing.
8. Will the third-party test report be falsified? How do consumers identify?
Han Tao: We did notice before that some criminals claimed to be able to falsify the report, so 268V has cooperated with the China Quality Inspection Association to display anti-counterfeiting verification codes and information in the report. Consumers can verify the authenticity of the test report through two-dimensional code scanning, network online query, telephone query and other channels.
Correspondent Xu Lei Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Mao Chuan