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According to the sales data of GAC Group in May, the sales volume of GAC Fiat Chrysler Automobile Co., Ltd. in May was 4049 vehicles, down 61% year-on-year, falling for 17 consecutive months; the cumulative sales volume of new vehicles in the first five months was 30672 vehicles, down 48% compared with 58907 vehicles in the same period last year, almost halving. In fact, it is not only GAC Fick that the sales volume of joint venture brands has plummeted. As China's automobile sales continue to decline into the era of stock competition, some backward brands will inevitably be eliminated. Netizens said that the days when joint venture brands lay down to make money are over.

Aware of the seriousness of the problem, with Zheng Jie's departure, GAC Fick began internal reform. On April 29 this year, Fiat Chrysler Automobile Company (FCA) officially announced that Zheng Jie, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Fick Group China and President of GAC Fiat Chrysler Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., resigned. At this point, Zheng Jie has been with Fiat Chrysler Group for 10 years, and she is also the first Chinese executive to join the top management of a world-class automobile group.

On the second day after Zheng Jie left office, Fick Group and GAC Group jointly announced that the operation mechanism of GAC Fick Company and GAC Fick Sales Company would be adjusted. The main contents of the adjustment included organization and personnel. GAC Fick and GAC Fick Sales Company operate in an "integrated" manner, with each shareholder appointing an executive to serve as president and executive vice president of the "integrated joint venture company" respectively; at the same time, the functional departments of the two companies are integrated.

The biggest significance of this adjustment lies in realizing the integration of production and marketing and establishing a more efficient team to cope with the changes in the Chinese market environment and respond quickly to the needs of customers.

GAC Fick is only a microcosm of the decline of joint venture brands in the Chinese market. In 2016 and 2017, GAC Fick once set the speed of GAC Fick with high growth rate. According to the data, in 2016, GAC Fick set a sales volume of 180,000 units; in 2017, the sales volume of GAC Fick reached 222,000 units, with a year-on-year growth of 57%; in addition, official statistics show that the accumulated users of Jeep brand in China exceeded one million last year.

However, after entering 2018, China's auto market suddenly turned around and GAC Fick began to slow down sharply. In 2018, the sales volume of GAC Fick was only 125,000 vehicles, down 39% year-on-year. The decline widened further in 2019, with a cumulative decline of 48% in the first five months.

In the impression of the majority of users, Jeep is a feeling brand, but the quality reputation is not good. In the opinion of many insiders, insufficient product strength, repeated complaints, frequent quality problems, etc. are the main reasons for the continuous decline in sales volume of GAC Fick.

This problem erupted in 2018. CCTV directly named Jeep models frequently burned oil repeatedly by users complaints, the problem has not been solved. Under the pressure of public opinion, GAC Fick issued an announcement recalling 143,900 defective models, including the free light of 2.4L engine and the south guide car. The number of recalls even exceeded the total sales volume of GAC Fick in 2018.

Complaints about quality problems, poor user reputation and continuous decline in sales volume have led to dealers suffering. In May this year, a dealer in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, who is about to withdraw from the network, revealed to the media that Jeep brand has some models of 2.4L engine with large area burning oil, causing customers to protect their rights in a large area, blocking doors, and even causing the store to be unable to operate normally, and the problem manufacturers have not effectively solved.

The problem car is slow to sell, the manufacturer sells the task heavily, causes the dealer to bear the huge pressure. The above-mentioned dealer responsible person said, 17 years, 18 years each month under the manufacturer's sales tasks are very heavy, inventory coefficient reached more than 3 months, resulting in a large backlog.

Due to long-term dissatisfaction with GAC Fick's business strategy, in August last year, dealer representatives also set up a rights protection working group to gather GAC Fick headquarters to safeguard rights, requiring manufacturers to respect dealers 'interests and compensate for losses, etc. There are also some dealers who lose confidence in the brand side and finally choose to return to the gateway store.

Headquartered in Changsha, GAC Fick has two complete vehicle factories, Changsha Factory and Guangzhou Factory, as well as an engine factory. The overall design capacity of the whole vehicle reaches 328,000 units and the engine capacity reaches 488,000 units. However, the annual sales volume dropped to only more than 100,000 units, and more than half of GAC Fick's production capacity was idle.

There is news that Jeep brand in the Chinese market because of feelings and rise, but because of quality problems were crushed, reliability and public praise double trough. Frequent problems, crushing not only the brand, the majority of dealers and the confidence of many owners, but also destroyed.

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