After the "lifetime warranty", traditional car companies have once again caught the attention of car owners with their "fixed price".

Organizing recent marketing information in the automotive market, domestic brands such as Geely and Chery have once again lowered the prices of entry-level cars, shouting slogans such as "Emperor Hao's fixed price of 48900 yuan"; Joint venture brands such as Nissan, Cadillac, Toyota, and Volkswagen have also caught up with the trend of "fixed prices", binding popular models in an attempt to change the situation of "one store, one person, one price" and keep up with the fast pace of new forces.

According to a survey conducted by "car fans" on the current situation of implementing "fixed price", car owners generally welcome a clear and transparent purchasing process, but the prerequisite is whether the OEM can effectively control the price and stabilize the dealer channel.

Considering the locking effect brought by the previous increase in "lifetime warranty", the industry's attention to the popularization of "fixed price" is not only a possibility of boosting sales, but also a reflection on dealer reform.

The most crucial issue among them is whether dealers can reverse the decline. Traditional car companies have learned from their mistakes and are now aligning with new forces. In addition to product strength, channel restructuring is also important. For a 400000 repair shop, it is undoubtedly another significant impact

01. "Lifetime warranty"+"fixed price", can traditional car companies and 4S reverse their decline?

The "lifetime warranty" right originates from the "three electric" system of new energy vehicles, which has been used as a backup for early car owners from Tesla to BYD. After this concept became popular, Chery expanded its "lifetime warranty" to all models including gasoline cars in 2023, and further covered the official used car system in 2024.

From the effect perspective, Chery's sales increased by 54% in 2023, with a total annual sales of 1.8982 million vehicles. In 2024, it set a new historical high with a sharp increase in annual sales to 2.6039 million vehicles.

According to feedback from frontline sales personnel, the "lifetime warranty" rights have a significant impact on car owners' decisions, especially for Chery's Jetour brand. At the beginning of the launch of the popular model "Traveler", a metal nameplate engraved with the "lifetime warranty" was embedded in the D-pillar, further expanding its influence.

According to the current information, in addition to Chery, car companies such as Lynk&Co, Red Flag, SAIC Volkswagen, and GAC Toyota also provide "lifetime warranty" for the powertrain of their fuel powered models. The following is a summary of the content of AC Motors: It is not difficult to find that an important item in the warranty terms of each car company is that car owners need to strictly follow the vehicle manual and regularly maintain at 4S stores. Against the backdrop of repeated pressure on new car sales profits, some car companies have even shortened their recommendations for vehicle maintenance mileage to 5000 kilometers, without any modification to their goal of making money through after-sales service.

It is worth noting that dealers have not fully satisfied the benefits brought by the "lifetime warranty" clause. A typical case is that some 4S stores adopt a "two pronged approach", where parts that should have been replaced according to the contract are repaired or downgraded to aftermarket parts at the owner's expense, while the original parts obtained from the car manufacturer are sold separately. Such incidents are not uncommon on the "Black Cat Complaints" platform. In the recent incident of a technician at a Nissan 4S store in Xinyang exposing a black screen, the yin-yang methods used in warranty performance were also mentioned.

It can be said that the strictness of dealer supervision by car companies has determined the effectiveness of the "lifetime warranty" policy in recent years. Similarly, the recent implementation of the "fixed price" policy for traditional brands is closely related to regulatory efforts.

Taking Dongfeng Nissan as an example, AC Motors learned from frontline sales that compared to the promotional efforts before the New Year, the current prices of "fixed price" models are slightly inflated, mainly due to the reduction of upgraded models. A fixed price is obviously not the same as the lowest price, so for knowledgeable car owners, they should not hesitate to negotiate.

The salesperson stated that the "fixed price" model is not friendly to stores with low popularity. Losing the original pricing space before the product strength is repaired will only lead to greater losses in new car sales and even affect the development of after-sales business.

However, a salesperson from a certain Cadillac 4S store revealed to AC Motors that after the launch of the fixed price model for their popular car model "CT5", there have been significantly more customers coming to the store to see the car. Due to the lack of strong customer lock up clauses such as "lifetime warranty" among car companies, the group plans to integrate several influential 4S stores under its umbrella to provide "lifetime warranty" for power systems.

Unlike previous packages such as "extended warranty" and "lifetime maintenance", the planned "lifetime warranty" will be given to car owners in the form of additional benefits. Car owners only need to strictly follow the user manual to the store for maintenance, and the store maintenance price will also be controlled within 120% of the surrounding social repair shop price. The "fixed price" is an opportunity window for store business adjustment.

Based on the above, as far as the current situation is concerned, car companies and 4S stores are still in a relatively loose cooperation state, and investors' concerns about the effectiveness of the "fixed price" execution are largely a clich é d channel supervision.

Before the dynamic cost issues such as "inventory pressure" are resolved, whether it is "lifetime warranty" or "fixed price", there will always be stores under survival pressure that will deviate from the execution direction.

02. The after-sales lock up battle is intensifying, and the repair shop's business may be restructured

Despite facing numerous difficulties, the determination of traditional car companies to reform is particularly firm. From Porsche cutting dealerships a year ago to Mercedes Benz's recent layoffs in response to new car manufacturing, sales channel restructuring is an expected action.

In terms of strategy, traditional car companies, especially joint venture car companies, are the first to solve the problem of redundant products and channels. In the previous rumors of the merger of Toyota and Toyota, the focus was on the merger of twin car models such as Corolla and Levin. Correspondingly, in the current market environment, there is a serious redundancy in existing 4S stores.

An insider from a certain car company revealed that the promotion of the "fixed price" model can be seen as a signal, that is, using the sales profit reserved by the car company as the red line to judge whether the 4S store can continue to operate. Stores with poor financial conditions or weak business potential will have their authorization revoked. This is in line with the transformation goal of "lightweighting" of various car companies, facing market changes with a more flexible attitude from products to channels.