The quality of the car has always been a very important issue for consumers, which is not only related to the wallet, but also often consumes the time and energy of the car owner. Therefore, now there is a more influential CCTV 315 party, and there is also a platform for feedback on car quality problems on the Internet, so that consumers who are ready to buy a car can carefully screen and avoid lightning.
Today, 51 Jun has also collected some issues involving big brands and even luxury brands that we are familiar with, hoping to attract the attention of consumers.
The throttle reappears in the rivers and lakes, and it is a Japanese car again?
Recently, a car owner in Xinxiang, Henan Province, posted on an automobile forum, saying that the Nissan X-Trail e-POWER, which he had just bought with a mileage of less than 3,000 kilometers, had an increase in engine oil, which surprised the old driver who has been holding a A license for 30 years and has a driving mileage of more than one million kilometers.
At first, when he saw that other car owners on the forum reported the problem of increased engine oil, he thought that the water army was spreading rumors to smear X-Trail e-POWER, but later two certified car owners encountered the same situation, which caused the car owner's vigilance. By observing the oil dipstick, it was confirmed that his car was also unfortunately hit, so he contacted the local 4S store while fixing the evidence.
After waiting for more than a month and driving another 1,000 kilometers, the after-sales manager finally informed the manufacturer that it had issued a special plan to deal with the problem of increased engine oil, and it could be dealt with at the store.
The owner personally recorded the entire processing steps, which is simply to upgrade the three engine programs first, and then change the oil and dipstick twice in a row after reporting to the manufacturer for approval. The technician in charge of maintenance said that the number of X-Trail e-POWER is small, and it is the first time they have encountered this kind of problem, so they can only gradually explore it under the guidance of the manufacturer.
After changing the engine oil twice in a row (the first time is to fully clean the engine, the second time is to change the engine oil), compared with the test drive of the 4S store that has been tens of thousands of kilometers in the hot car state, it is confirmed that the oil volume of the two cars is the same, so far the manufacturer's solution has been basically implemented.
According to the description of the owner, the whole process of the 4S shop is very cooperative, and there is no need to pay any fees, and the problem of increased engine oil is temporarily solved, but he believes that the manufacturer can come up with a solution in a relatively short period of time, indicating that the increase in X-Trail e-POWER engine oil is by no means an exception.
At the same time, the owner said that the engine often runs at high rpm after the upgrade program, resulting in a significantly louder noise after the engine intervenes. This may be due to the fact that the new program increases the engine by increasing the rpm and thus causes the gasoline to evaporate, but at the cost of affecting the vehicle's NVH, fuel consumption may also be higher than before.
The phrase "oil increase" is easily reminiscent of the two-field throttle incident. At the end of 2017, the CR-V equipped with a 1.5T engine concentrated on the abnormal increase in engine oil, resulting in a large number of car owners to 4S stores to defend their rights. Dongfeng Honda initially wanted to treat it cold, but it was not until the incident further fermented that it publicly acknowledged the problem, proposed a solution, and stopped selling the CR-V for a while.
According to Honda's investigation, the engine injects more fuel when it starts at a low temperature and cold, and if the engine heats up before it can heat up (it is common for short drives in winter), the gasoline that is not completely atomized attached to the cylinder wall will enter the crankcase and mix with the oil, causing the oil level to rise.
The subsequent solution is to recall the CR-V, Civic and other models equipped with 1.5T engines to upgrade the engine ECU, accelerate the rate of engine heating up after cold start, let gasoline volatilize and burn faster, and extend the engine warranty period of these models.
(Source: Pacific Automobile Network)
In 2020, some Toyota models will also have an increase in engine oil, mainly models equipped with A25B 2.5L engines - such as Toyota Asia Dragon Shuangqing, Camry Shuangqing, RAV4 Shuangqing, Lexus ES300h, etc.
Toyota also responded positively, giving a similar reason to Honda's, that is, a very small amount of incompletely burned gasoline was caused by the penetration of engine oil during low temperature starting. However, Toyota said that this phenomenon will not affect the quality of the engine oil and the performance of the engine, and is not a quality issue, so there are no further measures such as a recall.
Although the increase in X-Trail e-POWER engine oil is not an exception, after all, the sales of this car are not much, and the impact is limited at present. The increase in engine oil is a small probability event compared to burning engine oil, but why does it happen in Japanese cars by accident? It seems to prove once again that the myth of the quality of Japanese cars is not indestructible.
The key components are broken in less than 3 years, which is also called a luxury brand?
The second quality problem happened to 51 Jun. A friend bought a Land Rover Discovery at the end of 2021, and in February this year, there began to be occasional warnings of "low battery power", but the friend thought it was an electronic system bug and ignored it (because he didn't expect the original battery to break down after more than 2 years), and as a result, it couldn't catch fire at all one day in May and had no choice but to park on the side of the road.
Then the friend can only spend a lot of 100 yuan to find the nearest auto repair shop to take the car to start, and when the battery is tested, it is found that the life is only 16%, which is basically equivalent to scrapping.
Friends said that the intensity of use of this car is not high, the average annual mileage is only about 7,000 kilometers, in order to prolong the life of the battery, but also developed the habit of turning off the start-stop system as soon as you get on the car, I didn't expect that it will not work in 2 and a half years, and the quality of Land Rover is worthy of its reputation? In contrast, the original battery of the BMW 3 Series that my wife bought for 6 years can still be used normally and has never reported a failure.
The bad news is that the original battery is broken for more than 2 years, the good news is that the friend found that the warranty period of the original battery is 3 years (most brands are only 2 years), so they immediately contacted the 4S store, and the after-sales personnel said that after testing and proving that it is the quality of the original battery itself, you can claim for a brand new battery.
Because the vehicle itself was not modified without any modification, the after-sales service quickly confirmed that it was a battery problem and replaced the new battery free of charge. The whole process only took 4 days, and it also saved more than 1,000 costs, but when asked whether it was common for batteries to be scrapped in 2 years, the response of the 4S store was "rarely encountered".
Searching on social platforms afterwards, it turned out that many Land Rover owners also encountered a similar situation, that is, the battery was scrapped in about 2 years and needed to be claimed, indicating that this is by no means an exception. Batteries have become a fast consumable, and I have to suspect that there is a big problem with their durability.
Moreover, the new battery will not refresh the warranty period, and at this rate, it will cost an average of 1,500 yuan to replace it in two to three years, which is a relatively large expense after a long time. Although the battery is not the core component of the engine and gearbox, it is also related to whether the vehicle can start normally, and it can also be regarded as a key component.
As a car owner, the cost of frequent replacement is a problem, and more importantly, how to ensure the normal and even safe travel of the car owner with such a large uncertainty of key components? Will there be a day when you suddenly can't get a taxi and leave your passengers on the road? Land Rover is also an old luxury brand, and the key components are so bad that it is difficult for consumers to accept.
Mercedes-Benz suddenly shut down at high speed, and the original factory couldn't find out the reason for a long time?
Recently, a Mercedes-Benz EQE owner in Guangzhou complained on the media platform that the new car that was only 7 months old had major safety failures, and other car owners had the same experience, but even the manufacturer could not find out the "cause"!
At the end of November last year, the owner liked to mention a Mercedes-Benz EQE, and at first everything was normal, and the owner was very satisfied with the car. But in May of this year, this Mercedes-Benz EQE suddenly gave the owner a "big surprise".
The owner said that his car suddenly turned off the headlights on May 22 and May 28 when driving normally on the highway twice, the car machine and dashboard were black, and the power and steering wheel power were lost, but fortunately, these conditions lasted for 3-6 seconds and then returned to normal on their own, and the dashcam recorded the picture of the headlights suddenly going out.
As you can see from the dashcam screen, both failures occurred at night and there is no street light on the highway, after the headlights go out, the front instantly becomes dark, plus the speed of the car at that time is very fast, even if it is only a few seconds, it is very thrilling, plus the screen in the car is black at the same time, the owner is scared out of a cold sweat.
However, this car owner is really big-hearted, and when the first failure occurred, he thought it was an occasional electronic system bug and recovered quickly, so he didn't take it seriously. It wasn't until a few days later that the breakdown reappeared, and he saw other EQE owners reporting the same problem in the group of riders, which caught his attention.
According to the owner's introduction, he immediately drove the car to the 4S store and asked for a thorough inspection of the vehicle to find out the cause of the failure. However, the after-sales personnel of 4S still did not discharge the problem after checking it for 11 days, but said that they had contacted the original German factory and asked the owner to wait.
At the same time, the owner also called the official after-sales hotline of Mercedes-Benz, but the same answer was made more than 10 times: it has been recorded, and the owner will be contacted through the dealership. In fact, neither the original Mercedes-Benz factory nor the dealer has ever taken the initiative to contact the owner, and his cold attitude makes him very dissatisfied.
In desperation, the owner can only turn to the media. In addition, there was an almost identical case on the media platform: in Xiamen, a Mercedes-Benz EQE also turned off its headlights during normal driving, the car machine screen went black, and the power decreased, and the cause of the failure was not checked.
The media's intervention obviously put some pressure on Mercedes-Benz, and after a few days, the other party finally had a so-called answer: the 4S shop first expressed its suspicion that there was a problem with the headlight switch, and then admitted that the vehicle did have a quality problem, and the main engine reboot caused the screen to go black, and proposed to replace the headlight switch and the main engine.
However, the owner believes that this cannot explain why the vehicle loses power and steering wheel assistance, but the 4S shop is hindered by the media pressure to prevaricate the reason, and believes that the fault has met the conditions for the return and replacement of the car under the "Three Guarantees Law", and requires the 4S store to return the car.
The latest development of the incident is that the media has fed back the owner's latest demands to Mercedes-Benz, waiting for further responses. Perhaps only Mercedes-Benz knows the real cause of the failure now, if it is indeed a serious defect in the product itself, it should inform the user in time and implement measures such as recall, otherwise it will seriously threaten the life safety of consumers.
Nowadays, Japanese brands known for their durability and reliability have broken out quality problems one after another, and hundreds of thousands of luxury brands have not shown the quality that matches the price.
Avoiding quality problems may save a temporary cost, but the damage to brand reputation takes a long time to repair, quality first is in line with the long-term interests of the brand, and paying attention to consumer opinions can establish a virtuous circle between the brand and users, but it seems to be becoming more and more valuable in the current situation where interests come first.
What quality problems do you encounter in the process of using the car? You may wish to give feedback to 51 Jun in time, we are willing to become a force to help consumers solve difficulties.
Copyright Notice
Some of the pictures in this article come from the Internet
If copyright issues are involved, please contact this official account with the ownership certificate
If you need to reprint, please apply to the background of this official account and obtain authorization
Legal adviser
Beijing Weiheng (Fuzhou) Law Firm, Lai Chenglong, lawyer