[rambo1o1]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Source and full article: Indian Express

This is not the way to solve his problem. I mean how can one do such a thing to ones own car?? I wonder if he would get the car repaired after getting the worlds attention or its 420k usd down the drain!!

Seems to me that he was paid by the government to spoil a foreign company name, such things will get instant media coverage. If he doesn't care for money, could have parked the car with a full banner stating all the problems with the car like how a owner did to his skoda superb here in India.

In any case it's a PR nightmare for Maserati.

[Scorcher]

Deja vu!

Few years ago it was a Lamborghini Gallardo, now a Maserati Quattroporte has faced a similar ill-fate in China.

A customer who was "reportedly" dissatisfied with the service has hired men to destroy the car in public.

The Lamborghini fiasco was later proven to be a hoax by people who had business rivalry with the Lambo dealer, now to wait and see if there is more to the Maser story too.

Source

BEIJING: A wealthy Chinese Maserati owner hired four sledgehammer-wielding men to smash up his $420,000 supercar in protest at poor customer service, reports said on Wednesday.

The car owner, identified only by his surname Wang, had the group attack the Maserati Quattroporte at the opening of an auto show in the eastern city of Qingdao in Shandong province, the Qingdao Morning Post said.

Video images showed the men going about their task with gusto, leaving the vehicle with a shattered windscreen and mirrors, the grille broken and dents to the bodywork. It was draped in a banner accusing the Italian manufacturer of poor decision-making.

Wang bought the luxury car in 2011 for 2.6 million yuan, the report said — around 100 times the average income of Chinese urban residents last year.

However, problems first arose when he took it back to the dealer for an unspecified repair, with staff charging him for new spare parts despite using used ones, the paper quoted Wang as saying. It later failed to fix a problem with a door and scratched the vehicle, he added.

"I hope foreign luxury car producers acknowledge clearly that Chinese consumers are entitled to get the service that is commensurate with the brand," Wang said.

Maserati's China arm said the company and its dealer in Qingdao had responded to the customer's complaint and it regretted his decision.

"We deeply regret that the customer decided to terminate bilateral talks in such a sudden manner," it said in a statement read to AFP by an employee.

Qingdao's authorized Maserati dealer said on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo: "We deeply regret that before the two sides could reach a result via negotiation, the vehicle owner ... smashed the world famous car in public ... to cause a sensation."

During the dispute "thugs" had disrupted its daily operations and intimidated staff and visitors, it added.

Chinese internet users were divided over the incident, with some expressing scepticism about the car owner's motives.

"Is it to defend his rights or just for show? I think it is more of a show — why do you smash your supercar if you just want to seek justice for the change of a 2,400-yuan part?" said one posting.

China is the world's largest auto market after overtaking the US in 2009. It is also a key market for luxury brands, with the growing ranks of mega-rich splashing out on fancy cars to show off their wealth.

However, buyers enraged by bad service have carried out similar actions previously.

In 2011 a businessman also in Qingdao reportedly destroyed a three million yuan Lamborghini after failing to get problems with the engine and other car parts repaired properly.

[anjan_c2007]

A wealthy Chinese businessman got his $ 423,000 Maserati Quattroporte smashed by a hired crew, using sledgehammers near the Qingdao Auto Show venue, in full public view.

He was protesting the company's/ dealer's poor after sales service.

The company officials said they were trying to resolve the grievance through their normal channel.


More details on this link:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100743487

And the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaF19L9stpg

[TheInterceptor]

Some people are just devoid of any logic at all. I wonder if all his issues got sorted out by banging the hell out of the car.
It's painful to see such a beautiful car being sledge-hammered like that.

[mohandasnikhil]

This is just too painful to watch. Can understand the customer's frustration, but I still wouldn't be able to let any car of mine be treated that way; no matter how much it cost or how much money I had.

[S2!!!]

I remember there was a Gallardo owner who did the same. Hope he is not the same person who burnt his fingers the second time.

I wonder what point is he exactly trying to make here and to whom, as most of the public viewing this may never buy/ consider buying the car in the first place here, if that is what he is trying to convey.

The phrase "vulgar display of wealth" seems to be apt here wherein the rich owner is trying to make a point among the public that he doesn't give a crap for 'his' Maserati, can hire people to smash his car and that he can buy any other car because he wasn't given satisfactory service by the company/ dealer.

There was a Skoda Superb owner in India who handled his vows with the company in a more dignified manner comparatively, by putting banners on the sides of his car parked on a busy street and distributing fliers to passers-by stating his grievances. Probably the Chinese dude could learn something from the Skoda owner. Atleast he could have sold his car in bits and pieces rather than vandalising it completely.

[Soumyajit9]

This looks like a strong case of estranged relations of the customer with the dealer (and not specifically the Maserati brand).
A bit of google-ing brought me to THIS PAGE, and I quote a very important observation from the video.

What's more, a close look at the Maserati video shows that the sledgehammer crew mainly damaged the glass and hood, which are both relatively easy to repair.

Even I had similar thought while watching the video. If you see the guy raining blows on the bonnet - he seems to be malnourished and the blows are not with power, but are rather just placing the sledgehammer on the bonnet.

A bit more google-ing brought me to THIS PAGE.
Check the video on this page. The Lamborghini seems to suffer massive structural damage too.

In both the cases, the Engine is untouched. So it is quite possible that the owner wants the dealer to payout for fixing the damages. I don't know what would be running on his mind, but surely, it seems like a way of teaching / taking revenge on the dealer.

[9thsphinx]

An easy way of venting out frustration against a dealer would be by burning down the car! But no one would do that. Any damage shown on this video is repairable! These Chinese blokes are not really dumb as one would think they are.

I would bet the photographers and more than half of the public standing and watching the drama are also paid off to do what they're doing.

[akj53]

The earliest example of such customer fury was organized in eighties by owner of Rover 2000 sold by then makers of Standard Herald. It was a white car and had multiple problems which the company or the dealer refused to address. He parked the car in front of Nirula at Connaught Place, New Delhi. He Placed two hand written boards behind wind shield and rear screen saying "Car For Sale" but warning the potential buyer of all the car's problems by listing every problem including zero support from the company and dealer.

The car received huge publicity major newspapers printed the car's photos also. The car remained on display for few days. I dont remember whether his problems were rectified by company or not but that was a dignified but effective method of protest which sadly is lacking now a days.

[Maky]

While it is sad to see this happen to such a nice car. I somehow don't feel much remorse.
The owner of this vehicle would have had a damn good reason for doing this to a car he paid so much money for, The issue(s) he had would have to have been of a serious nature.
This would definitely have sent the message across to Maserati over there. Also, There are better ways to handle this but the owner chose this route, Goes to show you his mentality as well : P. Maybe someone should do this with their Skodas over here : P

[dark.knight]

As people in India awaken to the new safety norms, demanding anti-lock brakes, airbags & what not, a man from South Korea reportedly had 2 harrowing incidents in his near brand-new Mercedes S63 AMG worth over 170,000$ or in Korean currency, 200 Million Won. Now the S-Class for decades has set the standard for safety, be it among the first cars with airbags, ABS, camera-controlled suspension, radar braking, active cruise control etc.

However, in this case the S63 suddenly stalled on a high-speed freeway with the man, his wife & son on-board. Reportedly he demanded from the dealer that the problem be taken care of & should never resurface, even if it means replacement of this model. The dealer did every scan possible and gave a clean bill of health but unfortunately it happened again leaving the family stranded on the road. The man upon going to the dealership to ask for a full refund was turned back saying the manager is out of station and they cannot decide anything for now. Furious he took out his golf club and smashed every sheet metal panel, every pane of glass & every light methodically, even putting 2-3 holes in every door, only stopping after the club was beyond use. The video can be seen below :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8MwpHQ_Gko

Though nothing has officially been said from both the key parties i.e the buyer and Mercedes-Benz, it has been agreed by multiple reports that the story above is true, and I too think that it would take more than just niggling issues for a man to rip apart the most expensive Mercedes like this, however a little patience could've gone a long way. Also this doesn't take away any safety credentials of Mercedes as a brand, but one thing is for sure.. electrical & electronics failure can never be predicted and if they do happen it'll make just about any simple, old fashioned mechanical car without electrical assists much safer to drive in. Sudden stalling in a free-way is a terrifying thing as one can for sure expect to be ploughed from the rear.

More info : http://www.autoevolution.com/news/me...deo-99873.html