Three bags of cars still remain fuzzy "zone"

Car Three Guarantees" finally arrived!

On January 15, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine formally promulgated the Provisions on the Responsibility of Repairing, Replacing, and Returning Household Automobile Products (hereinafter referred to as the “Car Three Guarantees”), which will officially begin on October 1st. From the first edition of the "Car Three Guarantees" draft issued in 2004 to this official promulgation, the nine-year expectation has finally come to an end. In the nine years, the relevant draft of the "Car Three Guarantees" has been solicited for four times. Behind the slow promotion is actually the result of the game of interests of all parties.

The industry generally believes that despite delays, the current “three guarantees” policy is still timely, which is conducive to protecting consumer rights and promoting the long-term development of China’s automobile industry. However, the industry also believes that there are still some areas where the definition of "car three bags" is ambiguous and needs further refinement. If these problems are not resolved, the implementation effect of "car three bags" may be greatly reduced.

The “Three Guarantees” came to light. It is understood that the “Car Three Guarantees” policy is mainly aimed at passenger vehicles purchased and used for the purpose of living and consumption. Units purchase automotive products for use in automobile operations and production and business activities and are not included. The scope of "car three bags". This "Car Three Guarantees" rule for the first time has subdivided the rights and responsibilities of the three parties of production, sales and maintenance, reflecting the actual needs of laws and regulations.

According to the regulations, "Car Three Guarantees" clearly stipulates the "warranty period" and "three guarantees validity period" of home car products. "Product quality problems in the "warranty period" can be repaired free of charge; and in the "three guarantees period", if you meet the required return conditions, replacement conditions, consumers can rely on "three guarantees" certificate, car invoices, etc. for return or Replacement procedures. “Car Three Guarantees” stipulates that the “warranty period” is not less than 3 years or the mileage is 60,000 kilometers, while the “three guarantees validity period” is not less than 2 years or the mileage is 50,000 kilometers.

In addition, the regulation also stipulates the exchange of replacement of major parts and lossy parts due to the time limit of repairs, and the situation of return due to the replacement failure.

It is understood that in order to support the smooth implementation of the "car three packs" policy, the AQSIQ has initiated the development of the national standards for the "Three Cargo Components Category and Three Guarantees Certificate for Household Car Products" before the "Car Three Guarantees" was promulgated. At the end of December 2012, the National Standardization Management Committee, which is responsible for drafting the standard, also released the “Three Scopes of Main Parts of Three-Packs for Household Automotive Products and the Three Guarantees Certificate (Consultation Draft)” to further refine the relevant scope of “Car Three Guarantees”. , Including the scope of major parts types and the range of parts that are subject to wear and tear, improving the policy's enforceability.

According to sources close to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, in fact, the "Car Three Guarantees" policy was reviewed and approved by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine at the end of June 2012, and was not formally promulgated until January 15, 2013. During this period, in addition to reporting to the relevant state agencies for record review, it is more important that the relevant departments refine the laws and regulations. "Not long afterwards, the AQSIQ will also issue more detailed rules and regulations, including the period of conflict between the 'refurbishment period' and the 'three guarantees' period that the outside world feels abrupt in the new regulations. Both will be detailed in the future. Give clear in the middle." The source told reporters.

It is understood that the legislative work of the "Car Three Guarantees" is handled by the Department of Regulations and Regulations of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. According to the director of the department, Li Minggang, the reason why automotive products are included in the "Three Guarantees" special legislation is to take into account the complex technology of automotive products, information asymmetry between consumers and producers and operators, consumers are more dispersed, consumers are In the process of dealing with quality problems, it is easy to be at a disadvantage and weak. “The most important role of this “car three packs” policy is to supervise the production companies and distributors to increase their awareness of responsibility,” said Li Minggang.

In fact, the nine-year game has been discussed for nine years as the "three guarantees" policy that consumers are looking forward to. Behind the slow progress is the result of the game of interests of all parties.

As early as December 2004, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine had drafted the “Responsibility Regulations for the Repair, Replacement, and Return of Household Automobile Products (Draft)” and solicited opinions from the public. However, this policy has not been introduced until September 2011. The AQSIQ has again issued the “Responsibility Regulations for the Repair, Replacement, and Return of Household Automobile Products (Consultation Draft)” and held a hearing to hear consumers. Opinions and suggestions from various parties, manufacturers, industry associations, vendors, etc. Immediately afterwards, in January 2012, the AQSIQ issued the revised draft of the second draft again. Subsequently, at the end of December 2012, in order to comply with the implementation of the "Car Three Guarantees" policy, the National Standardization Administration issued the "Three-Packs of Main Parts Category and Three Guarantees Certificate for Household Automobile Products (Consultation Draft)". It can be said that in the past two years, the actions of the relevant departments have frequently been accompanied by solicitation of opinion drafts. This finally ushered in the degeneration of the “car three packs” policy.

Jia Xinguang, a well-known analyst in the automotive industry, believes that in the past, the “car three packs” policy has not been introduced, and it is related to the tilting attitude of the relevant departments to the policies of relevant car companies.

According to Jia Xinguang, when the first version of the "Car Three Guarantees" draft was introduced in 2004, he participated in the revision discussions as an expert representative. “At that time, the biggest concern of the policy department was that it wouldn’t be tolerated by auto makers, and the main thing was that they wouldn’t be able to afford Chinese-owned brands. In fact, many of the self-owned brand companies were resisted when the policy was just formulated.” Jia Xinguang said.

“However, in the past five years, the quality of China’s independent brands has risen rapidly. During this period, many independent brands, including BYD, BAIC, and Brilliance, announced that they were engaged in 'Three Guarantees'. For example, Beijing Automotive in 2012 In June, it announced its own 'Three Guarantees' policy, and defined 20 serious safety performance faults and 40 engine and transmission main component failure forms, making Beiqi's own standards for retiring and relocating vehicles relatively clear and clear. In 2011, BYD also announced that it will upgrade the entire vehicle warranty period to 2 years or 60,000 kilometers for a total of 4 years or 100,000 kilometers. This warranty period is even higher than the national standard implemented this time," Jia Xinguang said. “The changes in this area have mainly changed the awareness of independent brands. With the improvement of the quality of independent brands, independent brands have confidence in the quality of their own products. Under this circumstance, the “car three packs” policy was introduced. Resistance is greatly reduced."

However, we also noticed that the newly introduced “Car Three Guarantees” policy will not be officially implemented until October of this year, and the new regulations apparently left the company with a buffer period of nearly 10 months. “The buffer period for this 10-month period is for all auto companies, but it is for self-owned brands. Although in recent years, the independent brands have significantly improved their technology and quality, the gap is still very obvious compared to foreign brands. In addition, for those small and medium-sized enterprises that lack the core technology and system manufacturing capabilities, they may be devastated in the future because of the "car three-bag policy." Recently, JDPower's China Managing Director Mei Songlin was interviewed by the reporter. Said.

According to sources close to the AQSIQ, the reporter disclosed to reporters that in the future "Car Three Guarantees" implementation details will be given to flat cars (mainly micro facets) on the basis of a buffer period of nearly 10 months. Another one-year increase in the buffer period is mainly due to the fact that micro-levels may cause more quality problems and allow more room for improvement.

Cautious optimism Although the introduction of the “car three packs” is somewhat slow, the new policy still allows consumers to see the hope of safeguarding their own rights and interests. However, many people in the industry also stated that there are still some definitions that are vague and need to be further detailed in the issues related to the third-party appraisal of auto quality issues and the operational operability of the “car three packs” provision in the “Car Three Guarantees”. Clear place. If these problems are not solved, I am afraid that in the future it will affect the smooth implementation of the “car three bags”.

According to the regulations, in the event of a dispute in the course of solving the problem in accordance with the “Automobile Three Guarantees” policy, consumers may request mediation resolutions from third-party consumer rights protection organizations and other third-party social intermediary agencies according to law, and may also arbitrate inspections and products according to product quality. Qualification of the relevant provisions of the implementation. In response, Jia Ning, director of the Office of Complaints and Reporting of China's Consumer Protection Foundation's Anti-counterfeiting Work Committee, questioned how to define the authority of third-party social intermediaries and related product quality accreditation bodies. These are not described in the new regulations. I am afraid that The future implementation of the new regulations will cause controversy.

“The various parts and components of automobiles have their own accreditation bodies, and now the third-party accreditation bodies in the market are more or less involved in the economic interests of manufacturers. Therefore, how to establish a group of authoritative and independent third-party accreditation bodies? It is also a new rule to be solved." Jia Ning said that before, the China Consumer Protection Foundation had contacted a case. A car owner had been involved in a lawsuit with the manufacturer for eight years because of the problem of steering gear. Both the first trial and the second trial were successful. However, the last manufacturer refused to implement the relevant judgment on the grounds that the authentication mechanism commissioned by the consumer was not authoritative. He insisted that he should find the identification agency to re-qualify him.

To this end, Jia Ning suggested that it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of inspection agencies, strengthen the marketization of inspection agencies, and establish a corresponding objective and impartial third-party organization is the top priority for the smooth implementation of “Car Three Guarantees”. After all, if it is to verify the quality of automobiles Mistakes in the problem not only affect the implementation of the "car three bags" policy, but also hurt car manufacturers or consumers.

In addition, the “three-bag” regulation in the “Car Three Guarantees” regulation has imposed too little penalties on offenders and is currently widely questioned by the industry.

The "Car Three Guarantees" policy shows that there are three main ways to punish violators: one is to warn and fine; the other is to order corrections and make public announcements to the public; the third is to record violations into quality credit files. However, the maximum amount of relevant fines stipulated in the "Car Three Guarantees" policy is 30,000 yuan. Compared with the fine of 100 million yuan in the recall laws of the automobile industry, the industry generally believes that "car three packs" is still not strong enough in terms of punitive measures.

In response to the above series of queries, Jia Xinguang believes that today's "car three packs" policy can come out, both the efforts of relevant departments, but also the changes of the times, "although not perfect, but after all, there is progress, if executed well for consumers Protection of rights and interests and the development of China's auto industry will all be a great boost."