Peanut Good Car is on the Hurun Global Unicorn List, and the problem of user brand trust needs to be solved urgently

"3999 down payment to drive the car home", often see advertisements such as peanut good car on platforms such as Douyin, can this model really bring convenience and affordability to consumers?

Some consumers said that when they bought a car with a peanut car loan, they were told by the sales that they would have a down payment, 0 purchase tax, 0 service fees, and a year of insurance, but after a few months, the consumer not only could not lift the car, but was also forced to return the order, and encountered the dilemma that the deposit could not be refunded.

Not only that, many owners of Peanut Good Cars said that Peanut Good Cars seem to have a low down payment, but in fact, they have high interest rates, and deliberately conceal the fact of renting and purchasing. There is actually another mystery behind the so-called "cheap gimmick".

It is reported that Peanut Haoche belongs to Jiezhong Puhui International Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., which was established in 2015 and is a new automotive retail platform with a "financial leasing" model. According to the official website of Peanut Haoche, there are more than 800 offline directly-operated stores, covering more than 600 cities across the country. With the rapid expansion of the company, many problems have also been exposed.

1. It is difficult to pick up the car, and it is also difficult to get a refund

Mr. Yang saw a low down payment advertisement for Peanut Good Car on Douyin, and added the sales WeChat of Jinzhong's "Peanut Good Car" store, and then ordered a 2023 Harvard H6 Guochao Edition 1.5T Automatic Champion Edition car. Mr. Yang said that he paid a down payment of 3,900 yuan, and the sales promised that "the car will be picked up in about ten days", but he waited and waited and did not mention the car.

A month later, Mr. Yang, who had not mentioned the car, wanted to return the car due to a change of work location and asked the store for a refund, but encountered delays. In the end, the store refunded Mr. Yang's order privately in August 2023 on the grounds that Mr. Yang could not pick up the car on time, and deducted 3,000 yuan. "I bought a car here, it's really hard to say, I couldn't lift the car at first, and then I couldn't get it back. Mr. Yang believes that from ordering the car to picking up the car, the car dealer has been playing tricks, and the store has repeatedly delayed the delivery time, and the final deduction of expenses is unreasonable, and the store should bear this part of the loss.

At present, Mr. Yang's Peanut Good Car APP order has been refunded, and the relevant sales staff of Peanut Good Car have blocked Mr. Yang's WeChat, and the deducted down payment of 3,000 yuan will not be refunded.

Mr. Yang is not alone, many consumers said on the black cat complaint that they also encountered the dilemma that the car was not mentioned, and the money could not be refunded.

Another Mr. Zhang contacted the sales of Peanut Haoche through the Kuaishou platform in March 2024, and then paid a deposit of 3,000 yuan, which promised that the loan would not be refunded. However, Mr. Zhang said that at present, if the loan is not approved, he cannot pick up the car, and the Peanut Good Car will not refund the deposit.

The staff of "Peanut Good Car" said that customers need to pay a deposit of 3,000 yuan to buy a car in "Peanut Good Car" before the headquarters can go through the process.

If a consumer like the above is unable to apply for a loan or fails to deliver the car on time due to other circumstances, should Peanut Good Car refund the deposit to the consumer?

Han Dong, a middle-class law firm in Beijing, believes that consumers establish a sales contract relationship with Peanut Good Car, and purchase the car by paying a deposit and advance payment, and the staff of Peanut Good Car collects the corresponding payment and promises to deliver the vehicle to him. Han Dong said that the vehicle cannot be delivered at present, and the purpose of the contract cannot be realized. If it is caused by the breach of contract by Peanut Good Car, the consumer has the right to claim that Peanut Good Car refund all the money paid.

ON THIS ISSUE, WEMONEY RESEARCH OFFICE SENT A COMMUNICATION OUTLINE TO PEANUT HAOCHE, BUT HAS NOT RECEIVED A REPLY AS OF PRESS TIME.

2. Low down payment, high interest

"Low down payment, 0 purchase tax, 0 service fee, free one-year insurance. Mr. Yang said that such advertisements attracted him to buy a car. He believes that "the car bought in the Peanut Good Car installment for 4 years will cost more than 150,000 yuan, and the guide price of the car is only more than 100,000 yuan, and even 80,000 yuan is available on the market." Although the down payment is low, the wool is out of the sheep, and the interest is too high. ”

As a consumer, the WEMONEY research room consulted and purchased a car at the Peanut Good Car Taobao flagship store, and calculated an account according to the car purchase plan provided by the sales staff, if you buy the FAW-Volkswagen Jetta VS5 2023 model from the Peanut Good Car 280TSI (manufacturer's guide price of 97,900 yuan), down payment of 8,999 yuan, discount of 6,000 yuan, down payment of only 2,999 yuan, divided into 48 installments, repayment of 2,749 yuan per period, the actual purchase price of the car is 135,000 yuan, which is 370.52 million yuan more expensive than the purchase of 4S stores without terminal discounts. Based on the loan principal of 97,900 yuan, the actual annualized interest rate is 15.49%, but the sales indicate that the monthly interest rate is 3%, and the converted adult interest rate is only 3.6%.

The sales said that because of the low down payment, the loan principal of the next payment will be higher than the guide price of the car, which includes the down payment, insurance premium, purchase tax and other expenses. In other words, the eye-catching advertisements such as low down payment, 0 purchase tax, 0 service fee, and one-year insurance promotion of Peanut Good Car are actually counted in the loan amount, and additional interest needs to be paid.

An industry insider said that the bank car loan interest of traditional 4S stores is generally about 5%, while the car loan interest of financial leasing business is generally more than 1 point, or even as high as 2 points. A low down payment often means that the monthly payment and final payment will be high in the later period.

Not only that, consumers said that when buying a car, the sales misled consumers into thinking that they were buying a car, but in fact they were "renting instead of purchasing". When consumers plan to pay the final payment in a lump sum after repaying the monthly payment for one year, they find that the first year is a car rental, and the monthly payment after that is the purchase price.

In terms of black cat complaints, there are 2,748 complaints about peanut good cars, focusing on problems such as not being able to pick up the car, not giving refunds, and using the rental and purchasing model to routinely take out consumer loans.

Although Peanut Good Car has lowered the threshold for consumers to buy cars, the current concentrated complaints from consumers also show that its business development is not standardized, and even infringes on the rights and interests of consumers.

3. Listed on the Hurun Global Unicorn List

Tianyancha shows that Peanut Haoche is a new automotive retail platform established in June 2015, and the operating entity is Jiezhong Puhui International Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiezhong Puhui"). Among them, HUASHENGHAOCHE HK LIMITED indirectly holds 75% of the shares of Jiezhong Pratt & Whitney through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tianjin Peanut Haoche Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Meitong International (Hong Kong) Information Consulting Services Co., Ltd. holds 25% of the shares. Ma Xiaojun is the founder and CEO of Peanut Good Car.

In recent years, the development momentum of Peanut Good Car is flourishing, and continue to cultivate in the field of new energy vehicles, there are currently 3 new energy vehicle companies and Peanut Good Car have reached strategic cooperation, Xiaopeng Motors, Nezha Automobile, and Leapmotor. Peanut Haoche currently has 800 stores, and offline channel resources have attracted new energy vehicle companies to cooperate.

Peanut Good Car focuses on the three, fourth and fifth line sinking market, and "rent-to-buy" as a new way to buy a car, mainly to solve the problem of difficulty in buying a car for the credit novice group who has insufficient funds and wants to buy a car. That is to say, based on the customer's willingness to buy the car and the choice of the designated model, Peanut Good Car purchases the vehicle from the seller on behalf of the customer, and then leases it to the customer, and the customer completes the purchase of the car and obtains the ownership of the vehicle after paying the down payment rent, monthly rent and final payment during the lease period.

However, this model has also caused controversy, which is also due to the lack of consumer awareness of it and the long-term immaturity of the market.

Recently, Peanut Good Car was listed on Hurun's "2024 Global Unicorn" list, and in January 2024, it announced the completion of a financing of 650 million yuan led by local state-owned assets. As early as October 24, 2018, Peanut Haoche announced the completion of the B round of financing of 210 million US dollars, this round of financing was led by Kaixin Capital, followed by Goldman Sachs, and the old shareholders JD Digital Technology and Fengrui Capital continued to support this round.

Rent-to-buy is a good business. As an emerging automobile retail platform, Peanut Good Car is growing rapidly, and how to solve the brand trust problem faced in the current business development also needs to be solved one by one. (Wenxin/Text)