Mercedes Benz shop faces probe for oil leak
Global Times
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A screenshot of the video. (Photo: Sina Weibo)

A Chinese legal expert criticized a Mercedes Benz 4S dealership in Northwest China for selling a car that started to leak oil before the buyer drove it out of the shop.

Market regulators in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, told thepaper.cn on Friday that they had started investigations after reading media reports about the incident.

The dealership, Lizhixing, told thepaper.cn late Thursday through email that they had reached an agreement with the buyer but refused to release any detail, nor did they explain why the car leaked oil.

A video on social media that went viral on Thursday shows a woman sitting on top of a Mercedes Benz, complaining that she bought the car for 660,000 yuan ($98,213) - and made a down payment of 200,000 yuan - 15 days earlier but the car started to leak oil even before she drove it out of the 4S dealership.

She then left the car in the shop for 15 days. "I gave you [Lizhixing] 15 days, but you only told me you would change the engine. I am not satisfied with the work," she said.

The dealership offered "three guarantees" after-sales service to the buyer, according to the video. 

However, Li Weimin, associate director of the rights and interests of consumers committee at the Beijing Lawyers Association, pointed out that the service could not apply here as the buyer did not even start using the car, which means the car itself failed to reach sales standards.

"Under this circumstance, the shop should not only refund the buyer but also compensate her with thrice the price," Li explained to the Global Times on Friday.

He said that the dealership was cheating consumers if it really sold the car while knowing it had problems. The incident would damage the brand's reputation and Chinese consumers' trust in it, Li noted.

Benz failed to respond to the Global Times over the incident as of press time.

Some netizens showed appreciation for the buyer's way of safeguarding her rights, saying that merchants have to pay the price for their behavior.

Many lamented that they felt helpless seeing an educated person have to act "shamelessly" to safeguard her rights.