AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/03 Report--

On March 3, the evaluation results of Dongfeng Honda's medium-sized car INSPIRE in China Insurance Research C-IASI were officially announced. Due to the unsatisfactory structural safety, the A-pillar was bent at a large angle. The news spread quickly on the Internet and caused hot discussion. Many netizens reported that their comments on Dongfeng Honda's official blog were "blocked" by the authorities.

The PICC Research C-IASI is famous for its stringent crash test standards, and many models with joint venture special supply vehicles and excellent market reputation are "exposed" under the PICC Research C-IASI, and are bumped into the fact that the structural safety is not qualified and the Chinese and foreign standards are different. What makes Chinese consumers even more angry is the differential treatment. What they buy is a "reduced car", a model with low design standards, while the foreign-made version is fully up to standard.

Dongfeng Honda INSPIRE and Guangzhou Automobile Honda Accord are of the same origin, and the former is also used to being called Accord King by consumers. Why is the A-pillar of INSPIRE bent?

According to the results released by C-IASI, the lowest version of Dongfeng Honda INSPIRE tested only achieved an average score in terms of occupant safety index (M), which is only one step away from the poor rating (P). The main reason is the serious collapse in the bias collision, which erodes the living space of the cockpit, resulting in the bending of the A-column, and there is no side head airbag, which leads to the impact on the head of the people in the car.

Compared with the Accord, the structural damage of the INSPIRE is more serious, and the "loss" of the A-pillar means that the driver will be hit by a bias collision, resulting in further damage. From the point of view of the degree of bending, INSPIRE is slightly better than domestic Passat. Therefore, the results of INSPIRE frontal 25% offset collision and side collision are both general (M).

From the overall ranking, Dongfeng Honda INSPIRE is lower than Volkswagen Maiteng, and Guangzhou Automobile Honda Ling School, Beijing Hyundai Festa at the same level, slightly better than Civic.

Another product of the joint venture Honda "overturned", many netizens questioned Dongfeng Honda and left a message on the official blog, but it was deleted and blocked by the official blog.

A netizen reflected to us that he commented on the official blog of Dongfeng Honda, "the death of Accord?" After that, the comments were deleted and blocked by the official blog immediately.

Another netizen commented that "A-pillar is as strong as Passat" was also blocked by Dongfeng Honda.

When I took a look at the official blog of Dongfeng Honda, I found that I didn't see too many comments. apart from the top Weibo, one situation was that there were no comments at all, and the other was that there were only a few comments, let alone any questioning or teasing comments about PICC's research results.

In addition, Weibo also reminded Dongfeng Honda to block more than 10 users within 30 days, reminding netizens to comment cautiously. Therefore, if car owners and netizens mention relevant topics on the official blog, they may also be blocked by Dongfeng Honda.

It is worth noting that the "Dongfeng Honda" Weibo account, a certified account of Dongfeng Honda Motor Co., Ltd., just completed the audit on January 2, 2020.

(Dongfeng Honda INSPIRE 25% offset collision)

Following the breakage of Civic B-column, INSPIRE appears A-column bending at a large angle, and there are obvious differences in structural safety, which involves design standards, material strength, cost considerations and other issues. After verification, it will shake a considerable number of consumers' impression of Dongfeng Honda brand.

Since Dongfeng Honda's three vehicle plants are all located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Dongfeng Honda is currently in a state of almost total suspension of production. On the other hand, the collision tests of many of its products by China Insurance Research Institute showed that the safety was not ideal, which dealt a further blow to Dongfeng Honda.

Dongfeng Honda sold 789000 vehicles in 2019 and got off to a good start in 2020. Dongfeng Honda sold 73597 vehicles in January, up 21.3 percent from a year earlier.

No matter whether the collision results of China Insurance Research Institute will eventually affect Dongfeng Honda's future sales, but the brand's reputation on the Internet, public opinion environment, and so on, will have a turning point, which will continue to be disadvantageous to the brand.

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