One of the biggest
stories to spread over across Internet like wildfire
during the last few days has been a Chinese Lamborghini
owner who, after finding himself dissatisfied with the
carmaker's service levels, publically smashed up his
Gallardo. To emphasise his unhappiness with what he
perceived as a lack of responsibility from Lamborghini
the owner from the city of Qingdao chose World
Consumer Rights day for his headline grabbing stunt.
The unnamed owner
announced that he would smash the 5.2-litre V10-engined
Gallardo in front of Qingdao's "International Building"
on the afternoon of March 15 attracting widespread media
attention as well as that of a large crowd of curious
onlookers, such an event not being a daily occurrence in
China. According to Chinese media reports the owner was
aiming to emphasise what he perceives as different
levels of aftersales standards in China when compared to
Europe and North America.
Chinese media reports
say that the owner contacted the Lamborghini dealer in
Qingdao,
a major city in eastern
Shandong province,
on November 29 after his car failed to start just a
month after he bought it. It was then trailered to the
dealer's maintenance facility for diagnostic analysis
and when the car was eventually returned apparently the
engine problem still remained while tit had also picked
up bumper and chassis damage.
With the dealer
denying responsibility and no member of staff admitting
to causing the damage the owner contacted Lamborghini's
China headquarters and its Asia-Pacific regional office
as well as Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann and the
Italian sports car maker's parent company, VW. However
the problems remained unresolved.
The owner then
concluded that there was simply no path left open to him
to enforce his consumer rights and that the best way to
draw attention to his plight would be to destroy the
sports car. He also believes that while many western
prestige brand name companies are eager to cash in on
the growing affluence of Chinese consumers they aren't
prepared to back that up with mandatory aftersales
support to the same levels associated with Europe and
North America. The owner hired a team to carry out the
demolition job on the Gallardo, which costs upwards of
US$500,000 in Japan, the crew kitted out in blue
overalls, latex gloves and hard hats while wielding
sledgehammers.
