China’s quality watchdog found cars made by Renault to have severe safety problems. China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) banned the Laguna Ph2, Scenic/Long Scenic, Megane Ph2 and Megane Ph2 Coupe-Cabriolet, Xinhua reports.
In March last year, Renault was warned by the AQSIQ for not reporting problems concerning its Megane models to the Chinese government when it recalled the model in Europe for transmission issues. China had instituted a much milder form of recall reporting than the draconian (and later relaxed) reporting regime instituted by the NHTSA.
According to Gasgoo, Renault said the vehicles were damaged in transit and that there are no issues connected to manufacturing.
“We’re sending a team of experts to look into it and to make sure we establish the proper processes,” Renault spokeswoman Gita Roux said. “Our concern is to ensure that we comply fully with requirements of the Chinese authorities.”
“There is no time like the present for consumers and policy makers to preemptively block these un-safe, spawn-of-cheating cars,” said Kerri Toloczko, senior analyst for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) and appointee to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “Based on history and crash testing, driving these cars is roughly equivalent to adding wheels to a dishwasher and expecting it to survive a collision.” Wait, he said that about Chinese cars.
We all know that Renault cars are POS. But I doubt they are worse than the Chinese cars. This probably is payback for Chinese cars not passing a single crash test in Europe :-) Or Renault just bribed the wrong people.
Or the Chinese demand “soft” lead paint on the car for better pedestrian protection?
Venezuela outlawed Coke Zero for “health” reasons. Not that cola ever was intended to be healthy, but it sure beats the Cola native to Chavez’ country.
since the Communist countries now lead the way in “consumer protection”, and we clearly are becoming one of them, our government soon will protect us from all the Asian car manufacturer and only allow us to drive American brands (produced in Mexico, of course)
China has a quality watchdog? That’s so funny!
This from the land of: toys with lead paint, the baby formula with melamine, drywall with sulfur …
Let me guess which direction of goods-travel he’s watching: the higher-bribes direction!
What? Renault? The only brand where all cars get a 5 star rating in the Euro NCAP crash tests?
This is so ironic on so many different levels.
kaleun:
Don’t worry, our Cola tax is coming soon. Really.
I was thinking the same thing, Mirko.
See, the moral of the story is you just have to remember who to bribe, when.
Something Americans will soon have to start learning because we now have Chicago “politics” (gangsterism) running the whole damn country.
Spawn of cheating cars?? I love Chinglish.
Pista: Fooled you. He’s American (allegedly). Follow the link under his name.
Venezuela outlawed Coke Zero for “health” reasons. Not that cola ever was intended to be healthy, but it sure beats the Cola native to Chavez’ country.
Being that brand?… as far as I know we have down here: Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and Big Cola… in the black colas market. ALL of them are made by private enterprises.
Regarding the Coca Cola Zero… I received countless emails with the “harm” some ingredients cause to people and “how” the local Cola differed from the 1st world version. I honestly think that was and is BS. Anyway, I usually avoid products that contain aspartame, so I don’t give a crap if its sold or not.
About the Renault and the chinese… I smell BS.
Weird. I thought I had clicked on my TTAC bookmark, but I seem to have fell into a freerepublic.com thread instead.
The phrase ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ has reached its career peak and should retire.
Hilarious – China is a country where miners die by the tens of thousands.
Perfect, now we should lobby someone to ban Renaults from Europe too.
One one hand, if French cars do nothing else well, they are safe, so the claim is somewhat dubious, especially in the light of China’s auto safety track record. On the other, I wouldn’t put it past any multinational to ship garbage to developing markets.
Of course, these safety concerns regarding Renault have nothing to do with the recent honorary citizenship for the Dalai Lama…. (c.f. http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/World/Story/A1Story20090604-146220.html)
China will also heep you out if u have an elevated body temperature.
As someone who’s spent a ton of time in China, the level of irony in this report pegs the meter.
Clearly the Chinese government was looking for some kind of cover in order to retaliate against Renault, or France or whoever.
Someone who is cynical would think this is a smoke screen to keep out unwanted imports and protect domestic Chinese production.
+1 Mirko, menno and OldandSlow
Crazy. As an owner of a French (or Romanian *cough,cough*)-designed, Brazilian-built Renault, I say crazy. Will not be changing it any time soon for any Chery, SAIC, FAW or whatever else the undoubtedly civic-minded, politically responsible safety authorities recommed. Isuspect the Eurocrash program is slightly more reputable…
The Empire Strikes Back
http://www.thetones360.com/browse/john-williams/star+wars+theme+tune/rt261006/
kaleun :
We all know that Renault cars are POS.
Please leave me out of your comments. The use of the word “all” is inappropriate.
@folkdancer
“kaleun :
We all know that Renault cars are POS.
Please leave me out of your comments. The use of the word “all” is inappropriate.”
Hear, hear folkdancer! Couldn’t agree w/ you more. All the Renault cars mentioned as banned by the China gov are, in my book, great (well, maybe not great, but surely competitive, very competitive in their respective markets), efficient, tossable, desirable cars. Not to mention safe.
I really have to laugh at this article where China is stopping the sale of Renault imports because of safety problems. This from a country (China) that dumps lead tainted products onto the rest of the world consumers, uses child labor as a means for bigger profits and outlaws any type of Unions in a communist country.
herb nails it.
Irony Defined…
however as good as Renault cars are, the lack something vital. Not to mention that they are expressly designed to pass the 5 star ranking. out in the real world starts don’t mean much, but truth be told they are a million times safer than the contraptions they call Brilliance and Cherry cars. and the ones the chinese are banning have probably been damaged while on the way in the ship, like a crane fell on them or something and completely flattened them, but some sales agent thinks they are still road worthy….