Dealerships operated by major automobile makers have been illegally charging buyers a range of extra fees, Shanghai’s consumer rights protection watchdog revealed yesterday after an undercover investigation.
The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission randomly investigated 70 dealers, known in China as 4S outlets, run by 25 car companies, and found only 14.28 percent were transparent in their pricing.
Fifty-nine shops charged various fees on top of insurance and sales tax. These included management fees, comprehensive service fees, testing service fees, sundry fees, pre-delivery inspection (PDI) fees and filing fees.
A 4S outlet in Jing’an District charged 5,000 yuan ($806) in service fees on the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz GLE 320 4MATIC car, while a Nissan dealer charged the buyer of a 1.6XE CVT car an extra 4,500 yuan for PDI and delivery, according to the commission.
Charging a PDI fee has been banned because providing a pre-delivery inspection is a responsibility of carmakers and dealerships, and cannot be passed onto consumers. Investigators found that a Putuo dealer was charging 3,000 yuan in filing fees and 1,000 yuan in service fees for a BMW 316i car, while a dealer in Xuhui District charged 2,000 yuan in service fees for a Volkswagen car.
A representative at a KIA dealer in Xuhui District that charged 1,500 yuan in service fees and 1,000 yuan in management fees on a purchase, spoke at an open commission meeting yesterday.
He said the price of cars is lowered to attract buyers in the fiercely competitive market and extra fees are introduced later to compensate the dealership.
The commission found that some salespeople tell buyers that if they don’t pay for decorative extras and optional features they will not be entitled to advertised discount prices.
“Unreasonable and untransparent charging has become a common problem in the market, and dealers must clarify charges,” said Tao Ailian, secretary-general of the commission.
The commission received 675 complaints concerning automobile sales contract disputes between January and May, an increase of 39 percent over the same period last year.
