Reducing the range of family vehicles

It was less than four months before the implementation of the “Regulations on the Responsibility of Repairing, Replacing, and Returning Household Automobile Products” in October. This provision, which is customarily referred to by the industry as the “car” Three Guarantees, was controversial before it was issued. At the time when people finally waited for the day when the “Three Guarantees” rule came into force, the new “Three Guarantees” supporting documents that the management departments had called for vehicle manufacturers to solicit opinions attracted more attention. According to sources, the document titled "The Three Parts of the Main Components of Three-Packs for Home Automotive Products and the Three Guarantees Certificate" will be officially approved in July.

What attracts people's attention is that this document, which clarifies the conditions for retiring and relocating cars for the family, has reduced the number of parts and components that can meet the conditions for retiring and relocating vehicles compared to the previous consultation draft. The scope of the car gives the manufacturer more freedom in determining the "three guarantees" scope.

In fact, even if the scope of retiring and relocating vehicles is not narrowed and the automobile quality problems are complicated, the legislation and implementation of the “Three Guarantees” of automobiles alone cannot solve the problem once and for all. The conscious and sincerity of the manufacturers themselves is also special. The essential.

Change 1: The 7 problems meet the conditions of returnable vehicles

After the implementation of the "Three Guarantees" of the vehicle, two repairs have been carried out in the "failure due to serious safety performance" of the vehicle, or the same main parts of the engine, transmission, steering system, brake system, suspension system, front/rear axle, and vehicle body. Due to the cumulative replacement of quality issues twice, the consumer has the right to request a return.

The supporting documents detailed the specific operation of the “Three Guarantees” of the vehicle. The core of the supporting documents is the specific and clear scope of “returns and exchanges”, that is, “belonging to the engine, transmission, steering system, braking system, suspension system, and front/rear. The main components of the rear axle and body “7 categories” were repaired and replaced more than twice, or “serious steering system failures, brake system failures, car body cracking or fuel leakage” and other serious and sudden serious quality problems. According to the previous exposure draft, it can be found that the type of components that are returned or changed due to “two maintenances and still not functioning properly” has decreased, and the electrical control system, lubrication system, refrigeration system, fuel supply system, etc. did not have this time. Included in the scope of return.

Change 2: manufacturers increase their “Three Guarantees” degree of freedom

In fact, for some car owners, the tangled issue is not the obvious quality problem of the car. However, the actual performance of the car it is buying does not match the manufacturer's published performance data, or even a wide gap. For example, the fuel consumption is significantly higher than the manufacturer's data, but the “check” does not have quality problems or the manufacturer does not recognize quality problems. In this case, the industry generally calls the car performance problematic.

However, the “Three Guarantees” of the car, including this specific supporting document, does not clearly specify the reliability of the performance, nor does it specify how to handle other quality problems that do not belong to Category 7. Instead, manufacturers are given more freedom in formulating the three-pack voucher for automobile production. That is, auto manufacturers explain themselves on the auto product manual which does not belong to the “three guarantees” scope.

Of course, manufacturers' freedom of the "Three Guarantees" range may be a "hot potato" for manufacturers. "If the scope of the 'Three Guarantees' that they set is not enough to help other households, does it mean that they don't have confidence in themselves, which in turn makes consumers lose confidence in themselves?" This is a question that manufacturers themselves need to consider and consider.

Difficulties: Whoever has the quality problem

There are 4S shop technicians who think that there are very few repairs for the seven types of problems. After all, as automotive products, these seven categories are the core of their quality. They are not so prone to problems and are not repaired. But electrical control systems, lubrication systems, cooling systems, fuel systems, etc., there may be a variety of common minor problems. Some small problems such as high fuel consumption of cars, repeated repairs are not surprising. This time, we did not include these parts and components in the system. After implementing the "three guarantees" for automobiles, the actual operation will greatly narrow the scope of consumer withdrawals and transfers.

The automotive products are different from home appliances and other products, and its tens of thousands of parts come from different supporting factories, and the conditions encountered during use are also very complicated. Auto market analyst Zhang Jingtian believes that only seven types of issues are included in the supporting documents that can be returned. Actually, there are specific operational considerations. In general, if there are quality problems in these seven categories, the responsibility is clear at a glance. What is really difficult to handle is the detection and determination of other more complex quality issues. “The quality issue is exactly where the people are, the consumers do not trust the manufacturers, they do not have the strength to detect themselves, and they want to find and use third-party inspections and assessments by authoritative experts. It is not easy and the cost is not low.” For example, the quality supervision department is difficult to conduct special inspections because of a single complaint. The Consumer Association also lacks detection capabilities. Consumers can only choose lawsuits.

The dealers hope that the manufacturers can clarify the responsibility for all kinds of problems when they draft the three packs of voucher so as to avoid "sandwich cookies".