AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/12 Report--

Dealers have been raising prices for a long time, and suddenly manufacturers have announced a price hike, and now consumers need to spend more than the original price to buy a Lexus. Prospective owners who signed a car purchase contract to pay a deposit or waited for months to pick up the car were told by the 4S store that they would have to pay more than 10,000 yuan in back fees because the official new Lexus model had raised the guide price, which caused dissatisfaction among prospective owners. "regardless of the price increase, the authorities still raise the price, so do you want to challenge the bottom line of Chinese consumers?" Comments on the official Lexus blog were full of curses.

A few days ago, Lexus officially announced the news of the price increase, and the leading car series raised the guidance price by up to 15000 yuan. Among them, the official starting price of the Lexus ES has risen from 279000 yuan to 290000 yuan, while the ES 300h and UX cars have both increased by 15000 yuan.

After price adjustment, the guidance price of ES series has been adjusted from 27.90-468000 yuan to 29.00-483000 yuan, the guidance price of NX series has changed to 30.40-542000 yuan, the guidance price of UX series has increased to 28.30-386000 yuan, and the guidance price of LS series has increased to 81.10-1.172 million yuan.

The main reason for the price adjustment is to upgrade multimedia systems and security systems. Depending on the configuration of the model, upgrade the intelligent safety system LSS+, add the intelligent radar with auxiliary braking function ICS, or upgrade the multimedia system (equipped with G-BOOK service and Baidu CarLife).

Take the minimum configuration of the Lexus ES as an example, the car is equipped with a 2.0L naturally aspirated engine and CVT gearbox, with an original guidance price of 279000 yuan, but many dealers increase the retail price by 20,000 to 30,000 yuan on the grounds of adding project functions, that is, dealers increase the price in a disguised form, and now the manufacturer increases the price by 11000 yuan after the annual change, which means that the final starting retail price will reach 31-320000 yuan, with a landing price or more than 350000 yuan.

A netizen who claimed to have booked the car in June and expected to pick up the car by the end of October said that he had signed a contract with the 4S store, but was unable to provide models that did not increase the price after inquiry and refused to make up for the price difference.

Another netizen said on the forum: I put up with the whole price, I put up with it; I put up with the price increase of 20,000; I put up with waiting for the bus for 3-5 months; the price of the whole department has been raised and I am ready to refund the deposit. It also said it had no feelings for the brand since then.

Another car blogger ordered the ES model, which was told to make up the price difference by 15000 yuan. "I've been waiting for three months, but I'm going to pick up the car in November, and the price will go up, and the landing will be almost 500000," he said.

From our point of view, it is a common sales behavior for car companies to increase and downgrade their vehicles in order to cater to consumers, and Lexus's direct official rise may be a major feature of the brand. In addition, the normal price adjustment belongs to the decision of the car company, and there is nothing wrong with it, but is it against the spirit of the contract or against the rights and interests of consumers when consumers have signed a car purchase contract and paid a deposit and suddenly announced a price increase and asked to make up for the price difference in the process of waiting for the car?

A letter of apology about the change in delivery time and price was circulated on the Internet, in which the manufacturer apologized for the increase in the price of product upgrades and promised to provide services of equivalent value. The implication is that consumers only need to make up the price difference.

The apology letter was not found on the official channel, but we found comments on the official "LEXUS Lexus China" Weibo full of curses.

Some media asked the lawyer for advice that if the two sides had already signed a car purchase contract when the deposit was paid, then the price had been determined, the unilateral price increase by the enterprise was a breach of contract, and consumers could refuse to pick up the car and ask for double return of the deposit.

In August, Lexus halted sales growth, with sales of 16921 vehicles in August, compared with 17675 in the same period last year, down 4.3 per cent from a year earlier. However, Lexus still had the highest cumulative annual growth, with cumulative sales of 126854 vehicles from January to August, up 24.9 per cent from a year earlier.

Under the condition of good sales, Lexus suddenly announced a price increase that caused dissatisfaction among consumers, which undoubtedly hurt some fans who loved Lexus.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat