At noon today (May 16), the Defective Product Management Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a recall notice for some Siwei (CR-V) vehicles of Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. on its official website. In this announcement, the General Administration revealed that Dongfeng Honda has decided to recall some 2018 Siwei (CR-V) vehicles with 1.5T engines produced from February 14, 2017 to February 27, 2018, with a total of 130,455 vehicles.
The main reason for the recall is due to the design of Dongfeng Honda, which causes the engine oil level to increase when the vehicle continues to drive for a short distance in a low temperature environment. When the oil level increases to a certain extent, the engine failure indicator light will light up. If the vehicle continues to operate in this state, it may cause engine damage and pose a safety hazard.
After the recall, the targeted solution strategy is to replace the air conditioner Control Unit and upgrade the FI-ECU software for vehicles within the scope of the recall free of charge. For models equipped with CVT gearboxes, replace the radiator sewer assembly and upgrade the TCU software at the same time to inhibit the increase of oil level and eliminate potential safety hazards. When the recall is implemented, the engine oil and oil filter will be replaced free of charge for vehicles within the scope of the recall, and the engine cleaner will be added.
At the same time, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also emphasized in the announcement that Dongfeng Honda "this recall activity is carried out under the condition that the State Administration for Market Regulation has initiated a defect investigation." The specific process is that for some time, the State Administration for Market Regulation Defective Product Management Center has received complaints from consumers about this problem. After receiving the complaint, the State Administration for Market Regulation immediately deployed the Defective Product Management Center to conduct a defect investigation and evaluation on the above-mentioned problem. Affected by the investigation, Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. decided to take recall measures to eliminate safety hazards.
This means that Dongfeng Honda’s recall of some 2018 Siwei (CR-V) vehicles equipped with 1.5T engines was not entirely voluntary, but was carried out under the supervision and requirements of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Cases of mandatory recalls at home and abroad are not uncommon. The latest one happened to German automaker Volkswagen. According to local media reports: In October 2015, the German Ministry of Transport (KBA) rejected Volkswagen’s proposal to require diesel car owners to come voluntarily to repair their vehicles and asked Volkswagen to force a recall of 2.40 million diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to interfere with emission tests. The Ministry of Transport will monitor the recall and pay close attention to its progress.
Similar to the German Ministry of Transport’s mandatory recall of auto companies, the responsible argument also appeared in the announcement issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine today. The State Administration for Market Regulation said in the announcement that it will continue to organize the defective product management center to focus on the measures taken in this recall. Supervision and evaluation, and requires Dongfeng Honda Motor Co., Ltd. to take a highly responsible attitude towards consumers, improve the recall completion rate, strengthen the monitoring of recalled vehicles, and effectively protect the rights and interests of consumers.
When the CR-V "throttle" broke out on a large scale in February and March this year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine interviewed Dongfeng Honda on March 1 and believed that the current recall measures proposed were not perfect, and manufacturers should further improve technical solutions, come up with practical and effective measures as soon as possible to eliminate defects. At the same time, it is recommended to take measures such as extending the quality assurance period to respond to consumer concerns.
Later, in order to avoid appearing at the CCTV 315 party due to the oil incident, Dongfeng Honda announced that it would suspend the sale of CR-V models with 1.5T engines. One interesting detail is that Dongfeng Honda’s new generation CR-V was listed in the TV advertisement before the official start of the 315 party. This detail was widely interpreted by the outside world as Dongfeng Honda’s public relations strategy of "spending money to ensure safety".
Although avoiding the front-to-front battlefield of the 315 party, CCTV’s "Weekly Quality Report" fully reported the matter in the program on April 15. At the same time, it was also revealed that some 4S stores of Dongfeng Honda did not strictly implement the manufacturer’s notice to suspend sales. In the program, a salesperson from Dongfeng Honda Beijing Four Seasons Hetong 4S store told CCTV reporters that as long as they sign a contract at the same time, "I know that Honda CRV is a prohibited model, but I fully trust Dongfeng Honda’s brand. If there is any problem, it has nothing to do with our store." Additional disclaimers can smoothly purchase CR-V 1.5T models, and "customers have signed a car purchase contract to buy cars."
Just three and a half hours after the announcement of the State Administration for Market Regulation Defective Product Management Center was announced, Dongfeng Honda released a "statement" on its official website and official WeChat. In the statement, Dongfeng Honda reversed its previous hard-line attitude of refusing to admit engine design problems and admitted for the first time that the 1.5T engine did have design defects, resulting in increased oil levels and possible damage to the engine, posing a safety hazard.
But in Dongfeng Honda’s statement, Interface Auto found two dubious provisions: First, when the recall is implemented, the owner must sign the "Dongfeng Honda Engine Extended Repair Service Certificate" (hereinafter referred to as the "Certificate") with the 4S store, but Dongfeng Honda did not publish the specific terms and content of the "Certificate" at the same time, forcing the owner to sign the "Certificate" to enjoy the recall service is rather "forced buying and selling".
Secondly, the fourth point of the "Statement" states that during the use of the car, if the damage caused by improper use or improper maintenance in other places does not belong to the scope of the warranty service. This clause means that all maintenance and repair of CR-V owners who have increased oil must be carried out at the authorized dealer of Dongfeng Honda during the subsequent use of the car. In other words, Dongfeng Honda has locked in the maintenance income of CR-V problem owners for at least the next five years through recall behavior, and the owner faces the risk of losing the warranty service if they maintain it outside the store.
At the same time, Dongfeng Honda mentioned in the "Dongfeng Honda Announces" Oil Level Elevation Solution "released on its official website on February 12 this year that the 10th generation Civic models also experienced the same oil increase problem as CR-V, and the recall is ready to be implemented in early March. However, as of press time, Dongfeng Honda has not announced the specific implementation time and steps of the 10th generation Civic recall today.
After the "throttle" time broke out, the sales of Dongfeng Honda CR-V inevitably suffered a huge decline. In March this year, the sales volume of a single month was only 916 units, a decrease of 93.6% compared with 2017, and rebounded slightly to 1,683 units in April. But this sales result is at a completely different level from the peak time. The fifth-generation CR-V was officially launched in July last year. Sales exceeded 15,000 units in August, 19,500 units in September, 20,200 units in October, 22,800 units in November, and 25,600 units reached an all-time high in December. In January this year, after the throttle incident broke out, it began to gradually fall back to 13,800 units, and in February, it fell to 5,900 units.
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