Rational analysis: Why is the quality of imported cars not necessarily better than that of domestic cars?
As long as the budget is sufficient when buying a car, many consumers are willing to spend more money to choose imported models. In the eyes of Chinese people, imported cars have good quality, stable performance and enough face. Generally speaking, the same model is much more expensive than domestic cars because of import duties and freight. However, adhering to the trust in these international brands, many people are still willing to pay for these expensive imported cars.
At the World Intelligent Networked Automobile Conference held not long ago, Dong Yang, executive vice president of China Automobile Industry Association, reminded consumers that domestic cars are very good, and even the quality of joint venture cars is better than that of the original company unless absolutely necessary.
Once this passage was published by the media, it caused an uproar. Some netizens said that this sentence is really ambitious, but there is still a big gap between China's current car-making level and that of foreign countries. So is it worthwhile for friends to spend more money on imported cars?
When people are in their position, they must seek their own government. Admittedly, the executive vice president does have the idea of "holding" a wave of domestic cars in it, but the so-called "imported cars" imported from abroad do have some moisture when they are sold to consumers in China. It doesn't mean that imported cars must be better than domestic cars. Let's give you a wave of rational analysis:
Reason 1: The so-called imported cars are actually "specially supplied by China"
In the market of China, not all imported cars are in circulation in foreign markets. There are two kinds of rudder positions commonly used in the world: left rudder and right rudder. For example, China and the United States are both left rudder, while Britain and Japan are right rudder. Cars circulating in the British and Japanese markets will not be sold if they are directly shipped back to China, which is not in line with the situation in China. In addition, due to the late start of China's automobile industry, the automobile-related laws are not perfect. Some safety features that are mandatory in developed countries and regions in Europe, America and Japan, such as ESP and active safety, may become optional or directly reduced in China, while leather seats and panoramic window filling that consumers in China care about become standard. As exposed at the 3 15 party, the fruits produced in Guangdong became foreign fruits after entering the customs in Fujian. In the final analysis, the imported car is just a "China Special Vehicle" that goes through the customs and conforms to the purchase wishes of China consumers and is transported to China.
At the same time, due to the different mandatory legal requirements, media level and market atmosphere in different countries, many cars will pass the crash test and fuel consumption test in that country abroad. For example, BMW 3 Series introduced a specific improvement of "American BMW" according to American regulations and IHS, a professional collision assessment agency trusted by consumers, but the BMW imported to China did not make corresponding improvement.
For another example, the Audi A5 sold in the US market is a 2.0T high-power version with 252 horsepower, while the A5 that entered China started at 2.0T with 190 horsepower. And the United States provides a 6-speed manual version, which is not available in China. If you think this is an adaptive improvement to meet the needs of consumers in China, it is understandable. Then the following reduction may be meaningless.
The A5 sold in the United States comes standard with rear view image, Audi preventive overall safety system and Pre Sense urban driver assistance system (with active braking function). Audi A5 imported to China is not equipped with the latest safety technology of Audi mentioned above. Only equipped with a slightly shabby front and rear radar. Active braking is only optional. It can be said that although it is an imported car, the Audi A5 is not equipped with equipment that truly reflects Audi's latest technology. Chinese and American consumers are treated differently by Audi. Of course, Audi is not the only case. Such cases are not uncommon in imported luxury cars.
Reason 2: What you think of as "Made in Germany" may come from India.
In order to ensure their own development, many manufacturers will take into account the cost issues such as tariffs and freight, as well as labor costs, which account for the largest proportion of enterprise costs. In the era of globalization, manufacturers have been given more ways to save costs, and the most common way is to move factories to various regions around the world. Building factories in underdeveloped areas can not only save transportation costs, but also save a lot of labor costs and win a good reputation for supporting the economy. This is already the favorite method used by major enterprises.
For example, three German companies BBA and three Japanese companies Nitian and Nissan have set up factories in various regions of the world. Therefore, German cars imported into China are not necessarily made in Germany, and imported Japanese cars are definitely not made in Japan. For example, Mercedes-Benz models are mainly from the United States, and some are produced in Russia. The factories like Audi A4/A6 are mainly Indonesia and India. Most German cars imported from China are not from German factories, or even from Europe.
At the same time, in some countries and regions where the overall industrial level and personnel quality are much worse than those in China, the quality of automobile assembly, parts and materials is far less than that produced by China factory. Just imagine, can the manufacturing level of Indian factories compare with that of China? Even in the United States, due to the differences in corporate culture, the level of automobile production is not necessarily better than that in China, and BMW's factory in South Carolina was once ranked last. From the root, imported cars may not guarantee high quality. On the contrary, the production plants built in China often have high hardware and software standards, and the quality control is often in the top position in the world. Brilliance's own car is average, but BMW Brilliance ranks second among BMW factories in the world, second only to Munich factory and even higher than Leipzig factory in Germany. Looking around, such examples abound.
Reason 3: From the data point of view, the quality control of imported cars seems to be not very good.
According to the data of automobile luxury brand repair shops collected by various platforms, the in-factory maintenance rate of imported cars is not lower than that of joint venture brands, but the average maintenance cost is much higher than that of joint venture brands.
As can be seen from the table, BMW and Audi are slightly higher than the joint venture brand except that the failure rate of Mercedes-Benz imported cars is lower than that of the joint venture brand. Of course, the failure rate does not directly represent the quality of a car, but to a certain extent, it will spend time and money on repairing the car after buying it. The average cost of joint venture vehicles is about 1043 RMB, and the cost of imported vehicles is about 1605 RMB, which is 54% more expensive than joint venture vehicles.
The sales volume of the joint venture brand in China will be adjusted according to the situation in China market, such as the adjustment of the engine for oil products and the adjustment of the chassis for the interior environment. However, imported cars lack these processes. Moving the foreign automobile environment directly to China will definitely have a certain impact.
Talk about your point of view
It is true that foreign brands are still ahead of China in all aspects, but the imported cars entering the China market often lag behind the developed markets in Europe and America in terms of configuration, equipment and technology, and are truly "made in China". This is determined by China's market environment and laws and regulations, and cannot be changed in the short term. At the same time, it is an objective fact that these world-famous factories in China are all joint venture brands, and their manufacturing and quality control levels are in the leading position in the world.
From the data point of view, the quality control of domestic cars is not as great as we thought, and even some brands of domestic cars have better quality. When dealing with imported cars, it is not necessary to blindly assume that the moon abroad is more round. There is no need to sell yourself short when dealing with domestic models. Deputy Secretary-General Dong Yang's words may have some enlightenment for domestic platforms, but they also reflect some objective facts and the confidence of domestic automobile manufacturers in the quality of China.
For imported cars, we oppose the blind worship without analysis. Just like the news that Lexus made in China some time ago, the first reaction of many netizens turned out to be "Don't make it in China, the quality will shrink after making it in China". The correct way is to fight back with better quality control, better technology and facts.