Faults in Chinese, French cars show urgent need for lemon laws

 

It’s an urgent safety issue when the wheel of an almost new car breaks off, as happened in Malaysia last month; fortunately, the wheel’s axle dislocated at low speed.

The Chinese car manufacturer subsequently recalled hundreds of the model, which indicates the possibility of a systematic lapse in quality control, if not a serial manufacturing defect.

It’s understood that the road transport department has since summoned the company to produce a technical report on what happened and why the Malaysian Vehicle Type Approval process failed to prevent vehicles of this kind of quality from being imported into Malaysia.

I think we should be more alert when we deal with car makers who are young to the industry and have only started to export in significant volumes in 2020 when China lifted its Covid-19 lockdown.

It’s too early for car buyers to know the ethics and corporate cultures of the new car companies, and this is frightening because there is no “lemon law” to protect Malaysian motorists from defective vehicles.

Legacy of established makes

We know about the legacy of car makers from their activities and motorsports participation since the Germans and French made their first cars over a century ago, and how they managed their losses with acceptance, victories with dignity, and motorsports tragedies with compassion.

It’s in this spirit that legacy car companies worldwide, including in Malaysia, are known to have refunded money to their unsatisfied customers who refuse even to accept a new, replacement car.

In Germany, if there’s an urgent safety issue, the manufacturer would not hesitate to provide a refund if requested – for example with an almost new car suffering intermittent engine failure while being driven and which can’t be fixed.

And under Europe’s lemon law for cars, the manufacturer would also not be allowed to recycle the car and put it back on the road without first establishing the intermittent fault and providing a comprehensive report to the relevant government ministry.

“In Germany’s autobahns, cars are driven hard and fast. Any brake failure or axle dislocation would be catastrophic,” said an automotive veteran.

Brake failure in almost-new car

Commenting on another recent incident where a driver complained of a brake failure in her almost new China car, the general manager of another legacy car company said that it was a public relations disaster.

“There are customers who are absolutely convinced that something’s wrong with the car. They don’t want to have anything to do with that car model any more, even if you give them a new one. It’s better to just have a settlement with the customer, return the money and take back the car.

“The other route of settlement is to threaten to sue unsatisfied vocal customers with high-priced lawyers specialising in defamation. This will be unproductive for all except the lawyers,” he added.

Cut-throat competition

What Malaysia should watch out for over the next two to three years is that the cut-throat price competition in the China car market might have affected component quality and build quality of some of their exported cars.

However, motorists who bought cars from a certain continental maker who has just set up shop in Malaysia, may also face problems as shown by a recent viral video of an owner who had suffered the loss of use of his car for more than a month because of lack of parts.

Buyers of this French brand should be prepared for a bit of hassle until the new national sales company takes over the stock from the previous franchise holder. The delay is said to be due to a disagreement over commercial issues and it’s sad that the protracted negotiation is affecting its customers.

It’s therefore more urgent than ever to enact a lemon law to protect Malaysian car buyers especially in the new era of smart cars and electric vehicles.

In the meantime, perhaps it’s better for car buyers who are interested in China-made cars and EVs to stick with those distributed by Malaysian car distributors renowned for excellent after sales service.

Unless you have cars to spare. - FMT

The writer can be contacted at yamin.vong@gmail.com

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.