Hankook Tire complains of constant quality defects causing traffic accidents

After the AQSIQ revealed that Hankook Tire suffered a large number of complaints from consumers due to bulging and side cracks, Hankook Tire repeatedly emphasized in its official statement that its products meet relevant national standards. However, in fact, due to the quality problems of Hankook Tire, consumer complaints have continued in recent years. In addition, due to defects in the quality of new tires, over 11 people were killed, 44 were injured, and vehicles were severely damaged.

Involving Hankook Tire complaints

Li Cunping of Jinan, Shandong Province is fortunate. After experiencing unremitting complaints, Han Di Tien, who had won a bulge with Meng Diou, finally obtained a free replacement from the manufacturer Changan Ford Mazda.

Li Cunping said in an interview that in March 2008, after only two months of buying a car, it was found that the purchase of Mondeo had a tire bulging phenomenon. After replacing the tires by themselves, another Hankook Tire appeared in October that year. For this reason, Li Cunping began a three-month complaint.

“At that time, I was looking for a replacement for the Ford brand dealer of the company. They asked me to go to Hankook to do the appraisal, but I did not think it would be objective to appraise Hankook’s tires for Hankook. Changan Ford Mazda negotiated, "Li Cun-ping said.

Under the insistence of Li Cunping, Changan Ford Mazda Motor Co., Ltd. has finally replaced Hankook Tire for its drum kit for free in March this year.

Chang'an Ford Mazda company insiders have confirmed that the company's production of Mondeo wins because Hankook tire drum package has been a lot of complaints. "Mondeo used the wrong tires to win, and it should not use Hankook tires," she said.

Similar to what happened to Li Cunping, in the major auto forums, there were complaints from Mondeo's winning owners about Hankook tyre bulging. Some consumers said that due to Hankook Tire's quality problems, it was easy to cause bulging during the driving process, which made Mondeo the winner and became the most concentrated new model in the mid-to-high-end car market due to tire issues.

In November 2008, Hankook Tire, a Beijing owner complaining of the use of Mondeo to achieve victory, was driving within 500 kilometers in the urban area, and the right front tire had serious scratches. In addition, after Mondeo's winning owner tried to replace a bulge of Hankook Tire with Goodyear Tire, the other three Hankook Tires appeared to have bulging, and Goodyear Tire had no problem.

Due to the large number of complaints from consumers, Mondeo's reputation for winning a game with a strong competitive advantage has been greatly affected. According to statistics, Mondeo's current monthly sales are only around 4,000 units, which is a relatively low level in the mid-to-high-end car segment market.

Has caused a major traffic accident

On May 5, 2009, in the official website of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, there was a report entitled "AQSIQ received a complaint that car complaints increased by 36.8% year-on-year and group complaints increased year by year". The report quoted the Chinese Consumer Association The statistics said that in 2008, automobile complaints accounted for 63% of the total complaints, of which 90% belong to the automotive quality complaints, and said that among the 495 complaints against tires, the more serious is the problem of Hankook's bulging.

Although Hankook Tire stated in its official statement that its tires conform to relevant national standards, there is information that Hankook Tire had caused a serious traffic accident due to manufacturing defects.

According to official statistics from the Yucheng County Courthouse Network in Henan, in April 2007, a Yutong bus using Hankook Tire burst into a front right tire in Shangqiu City, Henan Province, causing the direction to get out of control and colliding with the right guardrail, resulting in a tumbling jump. Falling into the ditch on the road side caused vehicle crashes, resulting in 11 people dead, 44 injured and serious traffic accidents.

In the absence of speeding, Hankook Tire, which caused an accident in an accidental vehicle, is a new tire that has only been used for more than two months. At that time, Hankook Tire also argued that the cause of the accident was the improper use of the tires. The tires involved did not have “quality problems” and they refused to accept liability for compensation on the grounds that they were involved.

However, the local traffic police department has commissioned the Judicial Identification Center of the Institute of Judicial Expertise, the National Rubber Tire Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, and the Shenyang Jiashi Judicial Examination Institute to carry out the appraisal. The three authoritative organizations have concluded that the tire involved was not improperly used. It is a manufacturing quality problem.

On March 6, 2008, the Jucheng County Court ruled that the tires produced by the defendant Hantai Tire Co., Ltd. used in the vehicles involved in the vehicle had manufacturing defects, that is, product quality problems, and were the only ones that caused the accident. As a direct cause, Hankook Tire Corporation was sentenced to bear the corresponding legal responsibility.

Suspected of concealing quality defects

Although the AQSIQ stated that Hankook Tire's bulging and side cracking problems were serious in the complaints against the tires. However, in recent years, consumer complaints about automobile tires have intensified, and the range of tire brands involved has gradually expanded.

There were media complaints concerning tyres in 2007, and there were 14 complaints of tires received within 8 days. Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear, Hankook, and Jiatong all involved brands, most of which were joint ventures. Brand.

In July 2007, a Crownstone sedans that assembles Bridgestone in Sichuan Province traveled for more than 1,000 kilometers and found a crack of about 2 cm in length on the side of the left rear tire. After the car dealer sent the tire to Bridgestone's manufacturer for approval, the conclusion was "The foreign body has caused the tire to puncture and it is not a tire quality problem."

According to the data from the traffic control department, 46% of traffic accidents in China occurred on highways, and 70% of traffic accidents were caused by tire bursts. Between 2006 and 2008, there were 960,000 traffic accidents in the country, and the number of casualties exceeded 1 million.