Car industry observation: Highlander complaints soared, Wen Dali ushered in a new blockage?

Text\Jinling

Since Wen Dali succeeded Li Hui as the executive vice president of GAC Toyota in 2020, Wen Dali has been in charge of GAC Toyota for more than two years. From the perspective of sales performance, GAC Toyota's annual sales reached more than 765,000 units in 2020, an increase of 12% year-on-year, and GAC Toyota's annual sales in 2021 were more than 840,000 vehicles, an increase of 11% year-on-year. It can be said that in the two years that Wen Dali has managed GAC Toyota, GAC Toyota can be described as a step a year, and the overall development trend is very stable.

However, it should be noted that with the rise of GAC Toyota's sales, some hidden worries that cannot be ignored are emerging, and these problems are gradually leading to the decline of GAC Toyota's reputation and brand reputation. This includes the 2020 outbreak of Camry, the Willanda machine throttle, but also the C-HR reduction door that was buzzing some time ago, and the recent outbreak of highland engine noise gate.

Judging from the complaint ranking of "Car Quality Network" in April and the relevant feedback of the rider forum, at present, GAC Toyota Highlander is being complained by consumers due to high engine noise and frequent body resonance problems, and there is a continuous fermentation trend, if it cannot be properly solved, this problem may become another problem and test faced by Wen Dali after the throttle.

[01] Hanland is stable, then GAC Toyota is stable

As an important support for GAC Toyota's sales, Highlander not only plays an important role in the sales growth of GAC Toyota, but also is also the vanguard of GAC Toyota in the mid-to-high-end SUV market, which has symbolic significance.

But the problem is that at present, the problem of excessive engine noise of GAC Toyota Highlander is continuing to ferment, and some netizens complained that there are design defects in the rear of the car's engine, and it has been recalled in the North American market, and the owner is replaced by the same rear foot of the Sai Na car for free, and the problem is improved.

Consumers are questioning two main points, one is the suspected product problem, that is, the engine noise caused by the engine's rear foot is too large; the other is Toyota's "double standard" problem, which has been recalled in overseas markets and has done little in China, thus causing consumer dissatisfaction.

As the benchmark model of GAC Toyota, Highlander is facing such a situation, while affecting the reputation of GAC Toyota products, it may also affect its sales, and if the problem continues to ferment, the prospects of GAC Toyota will not be optimistic.

From the current sales structure of GAC Toyota, Highlander is the fourth sales volume of GAC Toyota after Camry, Leiling and Veranda, and considering the price of Highlander 258,800-34.88 million, its significance to GAC Toyota is more important.

To some extent, if The Highlander is stable, GAC Toyota is stable, and if the Highlander is weak, GAC Toyota is weak. The strength and weakness of GAC Toyota will directly reflect the management art and management ability of Wenda.

【02】Highlander is on the cusp of the storm, and Wen Dali ushers in a new test

Highlander is on the cusp of the storm, mainly affected by the current continuous fermentation of engine noise gates, and how to solve the owner's appeal will directly highlight GAC Toyota's attitude towards consumers and Wenda's attitude towards clients.

Previously, when talking about why GAC Toyota can achieve growth in 2020, Wen Dali also publicly stated that in addition to commodity power, GAC Toyota's brand power improvement can not be ignored, it said, "One is product power, our B platform and C platform have basically introduced the TNGA platform, so the commodity force has been greatly strengthened and increased compared with the past." Second, in the past few years, we have been building a system, from the entire supply chain, the entire value chain, including customer service as the center, we have carried out a high degree of reform of the whole system, and the brand power has also been greatly improved. ”

Nowadays, it seems that under the main grasp of Wen Dali, GAC Toyota's sales have indeed increased significantly, especially under the dual pressure of the epidemic and the competition of automobile market stocks, GAC Toyota has performed really well in the past two years.

However, the sudden outbreak of Highlander engine noise gate makes the brand image of "customer service-centered" carefully built by Wen Dali face greater challenges, for GAC Toyota, hundreds of cases of owner complaints seem "insignificant", but for each complaining owner, engine noise, body resonance and other issues have become their troubles. Especially to open up the distance to observe, if a company can not even solve the problems that its own consumers care about, let alone talk about brand image and brand power.

What is more worrying is that as the automobile market enters the stock competition and the impact of the epidemic, the competitive environment facing GAC Toyota has become more complicated, although the current sales are good, but if it only cares about temporary achievements and fails to respond to consumer concerns in time, it may fall into the trap of "arrogant soldiers must lose".

Write at the end:

He who seeks the elders of the wood will strengthen its roots, and he who desires to flow far will dredge his springs. Focusing on GAC Toyota for more than two years, Wen Dali's achievements are obvious to all, but in the face of recent frequent product problems, Wen Dali has also ushered in new blockages and new tests, and whether it can start well and end well will once again test its management level and art.

(This article is originally produced by the editorial department of [Auto Industry] New Media, the author of this article is Jinling, and the reprint should indicate the source)