Customer complaints grow year-on-year

Top three reasons are poor aftersales service, breaches of contracts and faulty products

Complaints about cars and their components in 2017 soared more than a third year-on-year, according to statistics from the China Consumers Association, despite the growth rate of car sales in the world's largest market slowing down.

In a report released last week on its website, the association said it received 20,474 complaints last year, up 34.3 percent from 2016, with only 68 percent of cases settled so far.

A breakdown shows that more than 65 percent of the complaints last year were about passenger cars, followed by car components at nearly 26 percent.

The top three reasons that prompted customers to complain were poor aftersales service, breaches of contracts and faulty products. Combined, they accounted for 70 percent of all complaints.

Changan Ford received the most complaints among carmakers with 850 last year, followed by FAW-Volkswagen with 806 complaints and SAIC Volkswagen with 712.

But the association added that the number of complaints have a lot to do with the size of their sales volume. The problems, especially those associated with faulty products, are forcing carmakers to appease their customers with measures such as recalls.

Last year, more than 20 million defective cars were recalled in China, a record high since the country introduced legislation on car recalls in 2004, according to the country's top quality watchdog.

Recalls surged 77 percent year-on-year, with defective seatbelts, air bags and powertrains the major culprits, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Statistics show that 5.59 million faulty cars were recalled in 2015 and 11.34 million in 2016.

At an earlier news conference, Yan Fengmin, an official at the watchdog, said customers' rising awareness of protecting their rights facilitated the authorities' work in investigations that prompted recalls.

Based on leads from different sources, the general administration conducted 43 car-related investigations in 2017, forcing carmakers to recall 13.58 million cars, 68 percent of the total recalled in the year.

Statistics from the general administration show that carmakers issued 37 recalls, involving 3 million cars, in the first three months of this year.

Some analysts suggested that the large number of recalls at the start of the year was probably the result of carmakers avoiding the spotlight of the Consumers Rights Day Gala hosted by China Central Television on March 15.

The show uncovers faulty products or companies' misdeeds to protect and promote consumers' rights.

Yet Volkswagen ended up in the opening episode of the annual TV program, whose Touareg SUVs were reported to have defective air intake systems.

Soon after the program, the German carmaker, which had filed a plan to recall 33,142 such SUVs, released its apology, saying it takes the issue seriously and has promised to solve the problem as fast as possible.

An industry insider who requested to remain anonymous said those brands that did not feature in the gala can heave a sigh of relief for now, but it does not mean they have escaped exposure.

Japanese carmaker Honda has been embroiled in a war with customers after its popular CR-Vs were found to have faulty engines with lubricant problems late last year.

After a tug of war with customers and being inundated with complaints, the carmaker came up with a recall plan earlier this year. But it did not obtain the necessary approval from the quality watchdog, which said the technical solutions proposed are not satisfactory. Honda halted sales of the model in early March.

The quality watchdog said it will supervise the carmaker's follow-up solutions and ensure it fulfills its responsibilities.

At an earlier news conference, the watchdog said more efforts would be made this year to improve the recall system and tighten supervision on recalls of faulty products.