Regulate the market and make second-hand car transactions more assured

Original title: Regulate the market and make second-hand car transactions more assured

With the continuous expansion of the scale of automobile transactions in the mainland, the proportion of second-hand car transactions in automobile transactions is increasing. According to the statistics released by the China Automobile Dealers Association, in 2023, the cumulative transaction volume of used cars in mainland China will be 18.4133 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.88%, and the cumulative transaction amount will reach 1,179.532 billion yuan.

However, while the second-hand car market is booming, it has also exposed some problems, such as concealing the condition of the vehicle, exaggerating publicity, arbitrary quotations, and irregular transactions, which have disrupted the order of the second-hand car trading market and infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

It is difficult to ensure the quality of vehicles in second-hand car transactions

Not long ago, Mr. Song from Wuhu City, Anhui Province, left a message on the "People's Complaint" platform of People's Daily Online to reflect that in November 2023, he spent 43,000 yuan to buy a second-hand car, but after picking up the car, he found that it was an accident car, but the merchant concealed the condition of the vehicle.

"When I bought the car, the merchant told me that the car was the original paint, and there were only a few small bumps. But I later found out that the car had a major accident in 2020, and there were 20 repair and replacement items. "When I delivered the car, I also found that the car had many problems such as a dented hood panel, a deformed skeleton of the right front fender, and a cracked radiator frame. However, the merchant repeatedly emphasized that these are minor problems, which do not affect the use of the vehicle, and are unwilling to bear the cost of replacement and maintenance. ”

In the second-hand car transaction, many consumers have encountered similar situations. "According to the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, second-hand car dealers shall comprehensively verify and test important information such as the legality of the source of the car they sell, mileage, maintenance records, transaction records, and problems with the vehicle before selling, and inform consumers of the test results in writing or in other ways that can be confirmed." Lu Enxiang, a lawyer at Beijing Yuandong Law Firm, said, "If you deliberately conceal the facts and induce consumers to buy the car knowing that the car is an accident car, it may constitute fraud, and according to the relevant provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers have the right to demand a refund of one and three compensations." ”

In second-hand car transactions, adjusting the odometer is also one of the problems that consumers report more intensively. Mr. Li from Rizhao City, Shandong Province, ordered a second-hand car online, and confirmed with the merchant over the phone that "the actual table is more than 90,000 kilometers, with no accidents, no fires, and no blisters", and promised that it could be written into the contract. But when Mr. Li went to the site to go through the procedures, he found that the actual odometer showed that it was only more than 50,000 kilometers. "This is a 2010 car, it has been owned three times, and the mileage is just over 50,000 kilometers, is this possible?" Mr. Lee is skeptical.

It is understood that because the age and mileage of the car directly affect the price of second-hand cars, some businesses adjust the odometer in order to attract customers. "In the market, cars that have been used for less than five years and have a mileage of less than 50,000 kilometers are popular. For some cars that have been transferred many times and have a long age, some businesses will make up their minds on the odometer and greatly reduce the mileage to attract customers. An industry insider said.

In addition, due to the lack of professional identification ability of consumers, some soaking trucks and faulty cars may also be sold to them by car dealers as vehicles in good condition. "Some second-hand car merchants describe the obvious conditions such as the appearance and interior of the vehicle in great detail, but they do not explain much about the situation of important components such as the engine and gearbox of the vehicle, and the test reports provided are not necessarily reliable." Mr. Zhang from Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, said.

There are also consumers who report that some second-hand cars have problems such as poor air conditioning and refrigeration, abnormal noise in the car, but it is difficult to find for a while, and the problem is found after the vehicle is driven for a period of time, and it is often very difficult to negotiate with the car dealer at this time. "Originally, buying a second-hand car was because it had a high cost performance, but it would be very troublesome to buy an accident car, which is one of the reasons why many people feel that the second-hand car market is 'very deep'." Li Xia from Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, said.

The second-hand car market trading system needs to be improved

Two years ago, Mr. Ma from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, took out a loan to buy a second-hand car and paid the relevant fees at that time. After the loan was repaid, a handling fee of 500 yuan was paid, but the merchant has not issued a bank loan settlement certificate and a transfer power of attorney. "I contacted the merchant, and the other party asked me to pay a handling fee of 2,200 yuan, and did not explain what the fee was." Mr. Ma said.

In the second-hand car trade, Mr. Ma is not alone. In addition to the problems of the vehicle itself, a variety of handling fees, deposits, insurance costs, vehicle balance payments, etc., often become the focus of disputes between buyers and sellers.

"These problems reflect that the trading system of the mainland's second-hand car market is not perfect. On the one hand, information asymmetry, consumers are relatively weak in the face of second-hand car dealers, do not know much about the situation of vehicles, and do not know much about the buying and selling process. Zheng Xiaoying, deputy dean of the School of Business at Sun Yat-sen University, said, "On the other hand, the cost of consumer rights protection is high, while the cost of business violations is low, so some businesses dare to take risks." ”

The second-hand car trading network platform is welcomed by consumers because of its abundant car sources, convenience and speed, and no space distance restrictions, but problems also arise.

"I saw a second-hand car on the video platform, and I paid a deposit of 2,000 yuan to keep the car. But they actually sold more than one car. According to Mr. Zhang, a netizen of People's Daily Online's "People's Complaint", after he paid the deposit, the car dealer replied that the vehicle had been sold and promised to reissue the same vehicle within two days. After the commitment period expires, the merchant will not deliver the goods for a long time. Mr. Zhang wanted to return the deposit, but the merchant delayed many times for various reasons, and then he could not be contacted at all.

In this regard, Luo Lei, assistant to the president of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that when consumers buy second-hand cars, it is necessary to inspect the car on the spot. "Most of the cars sold online are reliable, but it cannot be ruled out that some car dealers deliberately conceal the condition of their vehicles, or sell fake car sources. Consumers must not just look at the video introduction or pictures on the Internet, and pay a deposit rashly, and must have the car inspected on the spot. Luo Lei said.

According to the second-hand car survey report released by consumer protection organizations in many places, the existence of "overlord clauses" in transaction contracts is also one of the more concentrated problems.

In used car trading contracts, "mileage is not responsible clauses" and "quality exemption clauses" are more common. The "Second-hand Car Sales Agreement" provided by some merchants stipulates: "On the date of signing, all legal risks related to the vehicle shall be borne by Party B (buyer)." "But the reality is that the vehicle has not yet been delivered, the vehicle is not in the hands of the consumer, and it would be unfair for the consumer to bear the risk at this time.

What's more, the merchant stipulates in the contract: "In all cases, the operator is exempted from responsibility for quality assurance, vehicle model, configuration authenticity, etc." Lu Enxiang believes that second-hand car dealers unilaterally exempt themselves from statutory responsibilities in matters such as mileage, vehicle condition, and after-sales service through standard clauses, which infringes on the rights of consumers and belongs to the "overlord clause".

In addition, if the important information of the contract is not clear, it is easy to cause disputes. For example, some contracts do not stipulate the corresponding configuration that affects price and performance, and some contracts do not clearly stipulate the circumstances of breach of contract, the assumption of liability for breach of contract, and the calculation method of liquidated damages, which are not conducive to protecting the rights and interests of consumers. Lu Enxiang said.

Industry insiders said that in order to avoid responsibility, some second-hand car dealers will trade and sign contracts as intermediaries. If the second-hand car is consigned by the customer, in this case, the car dealer is an intermediary and its legal liability is relatively limited. However, some vehicles are actually sold after being acquired by car dealers, and in order to avoid legal liability, they also sign contracts as intermediaries, which infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and requires consumers to carefully review the contract.

All parties work together to create a good market environment

With the change of people's consumption concept, second-hand cars have become the choice of many people to buy their first car because of their high cost performance. The used car trading market has a bright future. Allowing consumers to buy cars with confidence and allowing second-hand car dealers to operate sustainably requires the joint efforts of many parties to create a good market environment.

How to ensure the quality of used cars? "In fact, in recent years, the second-hand car market has been regulated a lot, on the one hand, due to the increased awareness of consumer rights protection, and on the other hand, the rise of third-party testing institutions, so that second-hand car testing is becoming more and more standardized." Luo Lei said that at present, some third-party platforms can provide second-hand vehicle history reports through data docking with insurance companies, including information such as insurance conditions, loss amounts, maintenance parts, etc., so that consumers can see at a glance.

However, at present, there are some maintenance records, and insurance companies do not have all of them. "After some vehicles are involved in traffic accidents, they do not pay compensation to the insurance company or do not repair them in a standardized 4S shop, and the accident information cannot be reflected. Not to mention consumers, even operators are nowhere to be found. Luo Lei said.

Therefore, professional testing and evaluation is very important. In fact, it is common for used car dealers to hire a professional appraiser to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the condition of the vehicle before buying it for sale. However, sometimes, due to the inconsistent evaluation standards, the level of appraisers is uneven, resulting in great differences in evaluation results.

"Used cars are non-standardized products, and the situation of different used cars is very different." An industry insider said that some senior appraisers will pay special attention to some key components based on experience inspection, while some appraisers only evaluate according to technical requirements, and it is easy to ignore the components that need to be inspected, resulting in invisible problems that are difficult to find.

In 2014, the China Automobile Dealers Association issued the "Technical Specifications for the Appraisal and Evaluation of Used Cars" to provide technical standards for the evaluation of used cars, but because the standard is only a reference and not mandatory, and many quality problems of used cars cannot be quantified, it is difficult to completely solve the evaluation and appraisal problems. In this regard, Zheng Xiaoying suggested that the relevant departments should formulate a set of more scientific, perfect and authoritative evaluation standards, and at the same time, raise the entry threshold for second-hand car appraisers, increase the training of appraisers, and improve their professionalism.

Increasing the transparency of the market and improving the ability of consumers to discriminate can effectively reduce the dispute rate. "The establishment of a regulated second-hand car market, second-hand car dealers and consumers are both beneficiaries." Zheng Xiaoying said, "It is recommended that the relevant departments can establish a complete set of second-hand car data information registration and query system, such as using blockchain technology to record and verify vehicle history to ensure the reliability and transparency of vehicle condition information." ”

In response to contract disputes, consumer protection organizations in many places remind consumers to be cautious in signing car purchase contracts, be sure to verify the consistency and authenticity of vehicle information, clarify the charging items and amounts in the contract, and carefully check the terms involving configuration, deposit, quality assurance, liability for breach of contract, after-sales service, etc. At the same time, pay attention to whether the documents accompanying the vehicle are complete, and verify whether the statutory certification documents are delivered completely, such as "Motor Vehicle Registration Certificate", "Motor Vehicle Driving License", valid motor vehicle safety and technical inspection mark, vehicle insurance policy, tax payment certificate, etc.

"Consumers should also pay attention to shopping around, and avoid blindly consuming for cheapness. It is also necessary to pay attention to the collection and preservation of relevant evidence, and once it is found that the rights and interests have been damaged, it should give feedback to the platform in a timely manner, and if necessary, make complaints in accordance with the law, and actively protect its own legitimate rights and interests. Liu Yi, a reader from Xiamen City, Fujian Province, suggested.

Some readers suggested that as the main body of second-hand car business, businesses should abide by the law, operate in good faith, and resolutely put an end to consumer fraud. Establish a credit system for second-hand car dealers, expose the violations of laws and regulations of bad car dealers and record them in the credit file, and force second-hand car dealers to improve their awareness of integrity and service level.

Precautions for buying a used car:

Adhere to the "shop around"

Read the vehicle inspection report carefully

On-site vehicle inspection

Prudently sign a car purchase contract

Check whether the documents on the bus are complete

(Reporter Zhao Bing)