Pangda clients stage protest

Over 300 protesters from more than 10 provinces across China rallied at the gate of the nation's quality watchdog Wednesday, pleading with the government agency to verify that there is a quality issue in vehicles sold by China's largest auto dealer Pang­da Automobile Trade Co.

"We won't leave until the government agency takes our request," Fan Zhongdian, a representative of 88 people from Henan Province who allegedly bought defective trucks from Pangda, told the Global Times Wednesday in front of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ).

The protesters, many of whom are in the business of transporting coal, accused Shanghai-listed Pangda, as well as its partners and truck producers including China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Corp (Sinotruck), of using misleading sales information to sell faulty products between 2007 and 2012.

In a statement seen by the Global Times Wednesday, three truck owners from Puyang, Henan Province - namely Xu Yanbo, Ren Yingying and Hu Honggang - said that they paid a total of 450,000 yuan ($72,416) in down payments on three trucks, made by CIMC-SHAC (Xi'an) Special Vehicles Co, on March 11, 2012 at a Pang­da dealership in Tong­chuan, Shaanxi Province.

Within 20 days from purchase, their trucks experienced problems such as transmission oil leakage and broken shafts, and they later found out that Pangda had sold them vehicles assembled from substandard parts, the statement said.

Because the trucks broke down frequently, Xu, Ren and Hu say they had to default on their loans, and their trucks were repossessed by a local court in Hebei Province, where Pangda is based, for auction.

Fan said that 62 of the truck owners he represents had defaulted on their loans, but they had been misled by salespeople to believe that they had bought the trucks outright. Most of the buyers are from rural areas, and have limited literacy.

Fan said that the 88 truck owners had spent a total of 20 million yuan on repairs, and are now deep in debt.

"Pangda is only a distributor," and the quality issues should be addressed by the manufacturers, Li Yan, Pangda's board secretary, told the Global Times Wednesday.

She said that the glitches could also have been caused by inappropriate use of the trucks.

Pangda and Sinotruck were called for a meeting with the GAQSIQ Wednesday, and Li said, "We are waiting for the GAQSIQ to give the public an authoritative answer."

Inquiries to the GAQSIQ and Sinotruck went unanswered by press time. Pangda's shares closed down 1.35 percent at 5.12 yuan Wednesday.

The quality watchdog's testimony verifying that there is a quality problem would help consumers to defend their rights in court, Beijing-based lawyer Zhang Yuanzhong told the Global Times Wednesday.

"Distributors and producers are both responsible for quality issues in the products they distribute or sell, according to China's laws," Zhang said.