BMW recalled 10 times in one year in China

In the past two years, BMW's inconspicuous, but controversial, scene of many engine screw breaks in China. Until April of this year, BMW recognized the defects of the fixing bolts of the casing of some engine valves of the vehicle's variable valve timing mechanism. During the operation of the engine, the fixing bolts may be loosened or even broken, and a total of 232,000 vehicles were recalled.

However, BMW's recall announcement did not completely calm down. Since most BMWs have already passed the warranty period due to the accident, most of the owners have to repair at their own expense and spend between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan. After the announcement of the recall, BMW did not issue a targeted refund policy and corresponding extended warranty measures, which caused many owners to dissatisfaction.

On the other hand, BMW's sales volume in China has been rapidly advancing in recent years. The recalls due to product quality problems have increased substantially at the same time, which has exacerbated concerns about the quality control of BMW vehicles. When consulting the website of the AQSIQ, it was discovered that between February 2013 and today BMW's imports of cars and homemade cars in China have been recalled a total of 10 times, and a total of about 500,000 vehicles have been recalled, which exceeds the sum of BMW's sales in China in 2013.

"This again shows that high-speed expansion is difficult to balance quality issues," said a senior analyst in the automotive industry.

Just like Ling Yun in the case of the Ford Maverick and Wan Chunlei in the case of the Volkswagen Engine Burning Oil, Zhejiang Zhuanglu Road (a pseudonym) became the earliest public defender in the BMW engine screw breakage incident.

Zhang Lu purchased an imported BMW 535i sedan in December 2010, with a naked price of RMB 668,000. On the evening of November 8, 2013, when Zhang Lu was driving at a speed of 60 km/h in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, a fault code suddenly appeared on the display of the vehicle, indicating that “complete transmission power could not be obtained” and the instantaneous speed dropped to 20 kilometers. /hour or so. After a few seconds, the vehicle shuts down and the gearbox automatically returns to the P position (parking gear) and can no longer be activated.

In the repair shop, the repairman opened the lid of Zhang Lu’s BMW sedan and found a broken white screw stuck between the timing chain and the gear. The broken screw is the fixing screw of the camshaft and the raw material is aluminum. 4S shop repair method is to replace the new steel screw, add a jacket.

It is worth mentioning that in the course of the claim, Zhang Lu was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement by the BMW 4S Store, requesting that it not transmit the accident information to the outside world. After several complaints and negotiations, Zhang Lu and the BMW 4S shop in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, signed a “processing agreement”. One of the clauses required that “Party (the vehicle owner) promised at any time not to regard the contents of this agreement and any related to this agreement. Information is communicated to third parties, including but not limited to any social groups, news media, online channels, companies, companies, natural persons, etc.

However, this confidentiality agreement has caused Zhang to question. "At the outset, I just wanted to find out if the engine bolt breakage was an example. I never expected the owner to contact me almost every day and ask me what to do." Zhang Lu said that after talking with hundreds of car owners, he found that Almost all vehicles with broken screws have BMW's VANOSN 55 engine installed. The involved models include the BMW 3 Series, 5 Series, X3, X5, and X6. The production time of the involved models covers 2009 to 2013.

"That is to say, the same problem, there have been so many cases of broken screws, BMW has not been resolved in 4 years." Zhang Lu said.

According to the recall announcement issued by BMW Motors, its imported BMW cars that had been recalled due to the loosening of the engine screws and the risk of rupture included some of the 1 Series, 3 Series, 5 Series, and 6 Series produced from June 10, 2009 to July 30, 2012. Department, 7 Series, X1, X3, X5, X6, and Z4 cars are almost all models.

Another problem exposed in this case is differentiating. Verification of nearly 100 cases found that for different owners, 4S shop in the actual maintenance process will be "different treatment": For owners who master a lot of information in advance, 4S shop after the negotiations are mostly free maintenance; for owners who do not have information, then Charge maintenance. Several recordings showed that after BMW issued a recall statement in March this year, 4S stores in Zhejiang and other places still required the same faulty users to pay for repairs, ranging from 5,000 yuan to 17,000 yuan.

In fact, in the competition in the luxury car market in China, although Audi maintains a single dominance, BMW has a strong tendency to come from behind. In 2013, the Chinese market contributed 391,700 vehicles to the BMW Group, accounting for 19.9% ​​of the BMW Group's global sales, surpassing the United States as the number one market for the BMW Group. China's business revenue is still the highest revenue of BMW Group, and the proportion continues to increase. Last year, revenue increased by 6.2% year-on-year to 15.348 billion euros, accounting for more than 20% of its total global operating revenue, reaching 20.2% year-on-year. Increased by 1.4 percentage points.

However, the quality problems of BMW cars under high-speed expansion have also continued to occur. In the past 14 months, BMW has implemented 10 recalls in China. The total number of recalled vehicles is about 500,000. Among them, several recalls involve engine defects; BMW Tiexi The factory expansion project was once returned to the material due to the failure of the environmental assessment.

“These all reflect the problems that a company will encounter when it expands at high speed. Newly built (expanded) factories and accelerated product development will inevitably lead to quality loopholes,” said a senior analyst in the automotive industry.