"FAW Audi's 7 million units is the first and only 7 million units in the luxury car market, and on the new starting point, we always adhere to the user-centered, comprehensive innovation-driven as the main line, through the product innovation, experience innovation, marketing innovation trinity of business philosophy, to meet the future more users of luxury travel scenarios."
On July 17 last year, the 25th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Auto Show was officially opened, and Zhang Qiang, then deputy general manager of the Audi sales division of FAW-Volkswagen, was very beautiful at the booth. From the data point of view, the FAW Audi brand seems to have reached a new milestone again, but the separation between reality and ideals behind it may be clear to Zhang Qiang in his heart than anyone.
Looking at luxury car sales in 2021, Zhang Qiang and the FAW Audi he led have nothing to be proud of. According to official data, the total terminal sales of the FAW Audi brand in 2021 will be 700088 units, down 3.6% year-on-year. Although there is a "shortage of chips" as a fig leaf, it is still difficult to hide the fact that the Audi brand has been at the bottom of the "BBA" for many years. The reason is that this pot is all let the "chip" back is probably a bit far-fetched.
Is the siege of customers a user-centric embodiment?
Nowadays, with the continuous maturity of the consumer environment, people pay more attention to the overall shopping experience in addition to the value of the product itself when buying any item. Buying a car, even more so. Not only to buy higher quality models, but also to buy services that ordinary brands do not have. However, this netizen from Hubei not only did not buy an Audi car, but also spent money to be beaten.
In August last year, a short video suspected of a group beating went viral, and according to the video content, a group of staff wearing Audi 4S store overalls surrounded a man holding a rights protection sign, followed by a fierce physical confrontation. As soon as the video was exposed, it caused netizens to quickly forward and discuss, to which the store immediately responded: the clerk went to persuade the rack.
After the incident was fermented, the truth surfaced. After media reports, the incident occurred in Wuhan Hengxin Aolong 4S store, the reason for the dispute was due to a dispute between the car buyer and the 4S store in terms of vehicle-related payments, and as a result, they were surrounded by the sales staff of hengxin Aolong Audi 4S store when defending their rights.
According to the customer himself, he bought an Audi A6L sedan at the Wuhan Hengxin Aolong 4S store on July 27 and paid a deposit of 10,000 yuan. On August 15, the store informed the store that the vehicle had arrived at the store, that it could come to the store to pay, and that the next day the car could be picked up. On August 17, after the customer inspected the car and paid for the car, the sales staff told the vehicle that the price was temporarily increased, and the car could not be picked up on time. It wasn't until August 26 that the sales staff called to inform customers that they needed a 25,000-dollar markup to pick up the car. In a fit of anger, the customer chose to take a friend to the 4S store to ask for an explanation, which led to the scene of being beaten in the video.
After the incident, in the face of media interviews, the relevant person in charge of the public relations department of FAW Audi said: "In this incident, it is obvious that the Audi 4S store is handled improperly, and the manufacturer will definitely punish the store accordingly." In fact, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred in this Audi 4S store. As early as 2018, Hengxin Aolong Audi 4S store was exposed to physical conflicts with customers.
Coincidentally, the time of the beating of the customer happened to be very close to the time of Zhang Qiang's speech. I would like to ask Mr. Zhang Qiang, as an authorized dealer of FAW Audi manufacturers, is what Hengxin Aolong Audi 4S store does is what you call "adhere to customer-centricity"?
Quality failure, worthy of the trust of 7 million users?
"Audi dealers' life is not good, it seems that sales are OK is actually supported by car prices, the same level of models if Audi is not cheaper than Mercedes-Benz, BMW 3-50,000, customers turn their heads and leave, even the opportunity to retain."
This passage comes from a former Audi brand 4S store sales that I know well, the reason why it is "pre-sales", it is precisely because the Audi brand terminal is not sluggish, so he chose to leave Audi last year to go to a new car-making force with strong development momentum.
Faw Audi, which once had unlimited scenery in China, why is it now more and more difficult to sell? I think the declining brand power is part of the reason, but the main reason is the decline in faw Audi quality. Take the Audi A6L, the sales pillar of FAW Audi, as an example, Mr. Shi from Zhejiang is the best case. Mr. Shi's Audi A6L is the latest C8 model, purchased around July 2019, in Mr. Shi's words, it is because of the trust in the Audi brand that he dared to start at the beginning of the replacement product.
But Mr. Shi did not expect that the new car was just fine at the beginning, and the problem came out when it was used for about 6,000 kilometers, the most obvious of which was that the gearbox had a strange sound when it rose from 4 gears to 5 gears. It was slight at first, but then it became more and more stuttered and more and more obvious. Subsequently, Mr. Shi went to the Audi 4S store where he bought the car with questions. After some testing, the store told Mr. Shi that the reason was that the gearbox was faulty and the gearbox assembly needed to be replaced. This made Mr. Shi feel very depressed, his car was not out of the run-in period, and now he actually had to "unload eight pieces" to change the gearbox, and finally had to accept it helplessly.
In fact, the transmission problem in the FAW Audi brand models is a common category of failure, open the third-party website car quality network search will find that including Audi A3, Audi Q5L, Audi Q2L, Audi Q3, Audi A4L and other main sales models, almost all have cases of transmission failure. And what makes people more thrilling is the following A6L owner.
This is a complaint in February, according to the user's description, his 2021 A6L had the first time in the driving on July 28, 2020, the vehicle was successfully ignited and drove to the 4S shop for inspection and upgrade, at this time the vehicle was only 4046 kilometers. After less than a month, the problem appeared again, and the helpless car owner could only upgrade again. Until December 4, 2020, the same problem recurred, but it was played again that afternoon. On the afternoon of January 11 this year, the A6L was driving on the highway when the steering system failed, almost resulting in the destruction of the car, the current owner refused to repair and asked to return.
There are actually many such cases, and it does not make much sense to repeat them one by one. In the face of dealership big cheating and frequent failures of new products, whether the "chip shortage" can become the only reason for FAW Audi to be thrown farther and farther away by Mercedes-Benz BMW, I think the leadership of FAW Audi knows better.
Conclusion: For FAW Audi standing on a high platform of 7 million vehicles, it is worth congratulating. This is indeed a new milestone of "accumulating silicon steps to a thousand miles". However, zhang Qiang's "product innovation, experience innovation" author did not see in the current FAW Audi, on the contrary, the dealership big fraud, product quality failure, brand value is getting lower and lower, these have appeared in the public eye again and again. As a former Audi fan, the author still wants to remind Zhang Qiang and FAW Audi: "If you can't recognize the current situation, there is really not much time left for you." ”