Kumho and Hankook Tire concealed defects double trap safety door

Kumho and Hankook Tire Double "Security Door"

According to Jiangsu Economic News, May 22, 2009, AQSIQ has exposed Kumho Tire and Hankook Tire as the two companies suffered a large number of consumer complaints due to bulging and side cracks. For a time, Kumho and Hankook, two tire companies, were caught in a "security door." Although the latter two companies repeatedly stressed in their official statements that their products are in line with relevant national standards, Kumho Tires also blamed the improper use of tires by bulging and side cracking of tires. But in fact, around the quality issues of Kumho and Hankook Tire, consumers have been complaining about it in recent years. Hankook Tire is also the result of a major traffic accident in which 11 people were killed, 44 were injured and the vehicle was severely damaged due to defects in the quality of new tires. .

Li Cunping, who is involved in Kumho and Hankook's complaints over Jinan, Shandong Province, is fortunate. After experiencing unremitting complaint efforts, Hankook Tire, who won the bulge with Mondeo, finally received a free replacement from manufacturer Changan Ford Mazda.

Li Cunping told reporters that in March 2008, after only two months of buying a car, it was found that the purchase of Mondeo won a tyre bulging phenomenon. After replacing the tires by themselves, another Hankook Tire appeared in October that year. For this reason, Li Cunping began a three-month complaint.

An insider from Chang'an Ford Mazda confirmed to reporters that the company’s Mondeo’s victory was due to a large number of complaints about the Hankook Tire Pack. "Mondeo used the wrong tires to win, and it should not use Hankook tires," she said.

Similar to what happened to Li Cunping, in the major auto forums, there were complaints from Mondeo's winning owners about Hankook tyre bulging.

This also made Mondeo's reputation as a relatively competitive player greatly affected.

The tympanic phenomenon of Kumho Tire had a greater impact than the Hankook Tire that had led to an extraordinarily serious traffic accident. After the Spring Festival in 2008, the tire bulging incident occurred in the Kelcheon sedan. When the Excelle owners reflected problems with the use of tires, the manufacturer explained that "the tires problem has nothing to do with us," and the result given by Kumho Tire manufacturers is "this is mainly caused by improper use of the car owner." Some netizens said that because the tire walls of Kumho Tires are relatively thin, driving into the potholes at a slightly faster speed will cause the yarn inside the tires to be knocked off to produce a bulge.

After the Kumho tire bulging incident in 2008 was exposed, there were statistics from Zhejiang media. Due to doubts on the quality of tires, complaints from owners within a half year reached 100, involving Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Sichuan and other 18 provinces, cities and regions.

These suspicions have been officially confirmed. On May 5th, 2009, in the official website of the AQSIQ, it was reported that of the 495 complaints against tires, the more serious problems were the bulging and side cracks of Kumho Tires and the bulging problem of Hankook Tire.

Although Hankook Tire stated in its official statement that its tires conform to relevant national standards, there is information that Hankook Tire had caused a serious traffic accident due to manufacturing defects. In April 2007, a Yutong bus using Hankook Tire burst in the right front tire in Shangqiu City, Henan Province, causing the direction to go out of control and colliding with the right side guardrail, resulting in a tumbling jump and falling into the road side ditch, causing a vehicle damage. People died, causing 11 dead, 44 injured and serious traffic accidents. After being certified by three national authorities, the tyres involved were not used improperly, but were problems with manufacturing quality.

Suspected of concealing quality defects In fact, the quality problems of Kumho Tire are not only in China. On September 2, 2007, Kumho Tire U.S. announced that it has recalled 78,000 E-class VentureHT and VentureAT light truck tires sold in the U.S. and Canadian markets. Because the sidewalls of these tires may contain bubbles, causing the tires to vibrate, causing the internal pressure of the tires to drop, and may even cause accidents, Kumho decided to recall them.

Although the AQSIQ stated that in the complaints against tires, Kumho Tire and Hankook Tire had serious problems with bulging and side cracking. However, in recent years, consumer complaints about automobile tires have intensified, and the range of tire brands involved has gradually expanded.

There were media complaints concerning tyres in 2007. In the 8 days, there were 14 complaints concerning tyres and up to 7 brands. Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear, Hankook, Kumho, Jiatong and other brands all There are involved, most of which are joint venture brands.

According to the data from the traffic control department, 46% of traffic accidents in China occurred on highways, and 70% of traffic accidents were caused by tire bursts. Between 2006 and 2008, there were 960,000 traffic accidents in the country, and the number of casualties exceeded 1 million.