China Consumers Association recently notices that some consumers have failed to register their new car due to the vehicle identification had already been used to register other unknown vehicles by some fraudsters.
It’s known by NBD-AUTO that, besides fraudsters, some car dealers also forge Certificate of Inspection for money. A source familiar with the matters revealed that some dealers would pledge the genuine Certificates of Inspection to get loans, and sometimes even forged fake ones so as to get loans from a second institute. When things go bad, the dealers were unable to pay off loans and get the genuine certificates back, they would delivery new car to the consumers with forged certificates and that’s why some consumers failed to register their cars.
Industry insider believed that this whole fraud thing actually reveals auto dealers’ difficult situation.
Against a backdrop of relatively depressing auto market recently, auto dealers are facing multiple challenges including increasingly expanding costs and declining profitability, and fewer and fewer of them could actually make a profit through exclusive lawful operation. According to a survey conducted by China Automobile Dealers Association, there were only 21.8% profitable dealers in 2015, and the rest of them were either barely break-even or even at a loss.
Under this circumstance, some struggling small dealers have to close down while others may head into an illegal road, such as forging certificates.
Zhu Kongyuan, General Secretary of China Auto Dealers Chamber of Commerce, believed the unhealthy relationships between car dealers and manufacturers are getting better with the launching of several relevant regulations regarding anti-monopoly and sales management in auto industry.
On the other hand, auto dealers should also improve their management, professional skills and the quality of aftersales services, thus to exploit new profit points.
Only when the auto dealers could actually survive the relatively depressing auto market in China, could these unlawful behaviors, such as forging certificates, be actually stopped.
