Chapter 197: Put a hat on you, and you will immediately fall into the whirlpool

Author: Rabbit who loves drinking black tea

Chapter 197: Put a hat on you, and you will immediately fall into the whirlpool

On October 8, 2002, Spring City Toyota's first model VIOS was officially launched.

Six models including DLX, GL-i, GLX-i and GLX-S were launched in advance, equipped with 1.3-liter and 1.5-liter inline four-cylinder naturally aspirated engines code-named 8A-FE and 5A-FE, matching the engine

There are 5-speed manual transmission and 4-speed automatic transmission, priced at 115,000 yuan to 195,000 yuan.

If this price is placed in future generations, it will naturally not be competitive at all.

But in 2002, although it was a bit more expensive, it was still considered normal.

If there are no surprises, the Vios, positioned as a high-end economical car, will develop very smoothly in the next few years and win the recognition of many consumers.

But now that Zhang Fugui is planning to use Spring City Toyota as a test target for Autohome, the situation is hard to say.

These days, all media are basically government-run, and there is no self-media.

Therefore, Spring City Toyota invited relevant personnel from various newspapers, magazines and major portal websites to go public.

Autohome, a new website that was just launched on October 1st, was naturally not included in the invitation.

Objectively speaking, it's not that Spring City Toyota looks down on Autohome. It's just that you established it too late, and their invitation letters were sent out long ago.

However, Zhang Fugui was happy not to invite them.

In this way, when Autohome reports bad news about Vios, everyone may just think that Autohome is a black brand because it was not invited.

The real purpose behind it was covered up.

"Ayang, Spring City Toyota's first model has been launched, have you noticed?"

Zhang Fugui knew that Cao Yang attached great importance to Autohome and dealing with Spring City Toyota, so he wanted to listen to Cao Yang's opinion before formally implementing the plan.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to have dinner with his elder sister today, he took the initiative to bring up this topic.

Anyway, his sister is the legal person and de facto single shareholder of Autohome, so there is nothing to hide from her.

On the contrary, this matter is not easy to discuss in the company.

"Vios' advertisements can now be seen on various portal websites. They invited Lao Mouzi and Pu Shu to shoot advertisements for them, which is a big deal."

In Cao Yang's view, the Vios of this era naturally has no sense of beauty.

But for consumers in 2002, most of the entire market consisted of old models from international giants, and the appearance of the Vios was still good.

"Yes, the more they pay attention to it, the better the effect will be when we deal with them."

"I am going to take advantage of its high selling price and say Toyota is not sincere."

Zhang Fugui tentatively proposed his own plan, but Cao Yang immediately rejected the proposal.

"The minimum configuration is RMB 115,000. Compared with Geely and Chery, this price is naturally uncompetitive."

"But the price of the Jaguar and Passat, which are one level higher than it, is more than twice as much. With this comparison, consumers don't think they are expensive."

"It would be better to change the angle, raise the level of the matter a little higher, and directly let Toyota fall into the vortex."

When it comes to hacking a car, Cao Yang can think of too many ideas.

After all, there are countless classic cases for future generations to refer to.

He also knows very well where to point his fingers at others.

"Send Toyota into a whirlpool?"

Zhang Fugui looked at Cao Yang expectantly.

If it can really do this, then Autohome will become famous in one battle.

"Toyota has many successful models around the world, and their sales are very good whether in Japan or the United States."

"But whether in Japan or the United States, there is no model like the Vios."

"Although their new models are global models, they are currently being promoted and are expected to be mass-produced soon."

"But the Vios is a car specially supplied to China. No one can question this fact."

"We can firmly grasp this point and say that Toyota discriminates against Chinese consumers and is unwilling to import its most advanced models."

"On the contrary, they are discriminating and creating special cars for China to make shady money."

When Cao Yang said this, Zhang Fugui couldn't help but take a breath of air.

Special car for China?

I had never thought of this statement before.

But as soon as you hear it, you can immediately understand what it means.

Many black people's plans immediately came to his mind.

The materials used in the special cars are very poor, and the material grade is not as good as other models.

The configuration of a special car is not as good as that of global cars. Reducing the configuration in China will increase the price.

He could even sort out the prices of Toyota's main models in Japan and the United States, and then list them together with the Vios.

This sets off the high price of Vios, which is definitely more damaging than simply complaining about other people's prices.

As for the differences in taxes and fees involved, it can be completely optional and not mentioned.

Anyway, most consumers don't pay that much attention. They only care about whether the absolute price is higher than others.

The more Zhang Fugui thought about it, the more excited he became.

The first battle of Autohome is sure to win.

"After the label of China's special car is given to Toyota, it is estimated that not only the Vios will be affected, but all models that Toyota will introduce to China in the future will be affected to a certain extent."

"Ayang, if we do this, we will probably have a fight with Toyota in the future."

Zhang Fugui was excited, but also a little worried.

After all, Toyota is a giant. Does it really want to make the relationship so tense?

What's more, the Vios is produced by a joint venture, and there is a huge mountain behind it.

"We just told some truths. Is it wrong to tell the truth?"

"You just need to remember that our articles don't tell lies. If what we say is true, they can't do anything even if they have opinions."

Cao Yang is a guilty person, how can he be afraid of Toyota's retaliation?

Even if Spring City Automobile Group is behind it, he is not worried.

Articles that tell the truth are the hardest to attack.

Even the more aggressive the other party is, the easier it is for public opinion to backlash.

…

"Laid-off and Re-employment of Toyota Vios"

"Specially supplied cars to China, is this the sincerity of Toyota?"

"Worse materials and configurations, higher price, Vios has a bad start!"

…

In the past few days, Autohome has published some related reports about the Vios.

At the beginning, because Autohome's traffic was far less than that of portals such as Sohu, its influence was not very great.

However, as many "enthusiastic netizens" forwarded these articles to various forums, these topics immediately became popular.

"Old models are remanufactured, and old models in foreign countries are even removed from the shelves. They are transferred to new platforms and transformed into new models to achieve 'laid-off and re-employment'."

"I have gained more knowledge. It turns out that being laid off and re-employed has such a meaning."

"Specially supplied cars from China? Costs have been saved in many places. Not only has the quality not been improved, but the platform is old and safety standards are low. A series of problems. It's really disgusting."

"The Vios's sports performance and poor handling performance have been evaluated!"

"The Vios is indeed not a global model of Toyota Motor. The car manufacturing standards only meet the needs of the Chinese market. Therefore, the standards are low, the workmanship and materials are poor, and the safety performance is not as high as the global car requirements."

"Without all the advanced technologies of global cars, the Vios is seriously overpriced and not 'conscientious' enough."

Various comments from netizens immediately made "China's special car" a hot word.

The topic quickly moved from Autohome to the entire Internet.

Whether it is Sohu Auto Channel or various forums, there are some related discussions.

This caused consumers who had already paid deposits to immediately go to Spring City Toyota's 4S store to request a refund.

At this time, there was finally some movement from Spring City Toyota.

"Minister, we have found out that this article about 'China's Specially Offered Cars' was first published on a website called 'Auto Home'."

"I took a look at the recent articles on this website, and there was not only this article that maliciously slandered us, but also many other articles that explicitly or covertly slandered us."
To be continued...