Consumers not only have benefited from automobiles but also suffered from the effects of the popularization of automobiles in recent years. An obvious fact is that auto complaints increased as the number of automobiles owned by China expanded continuously. Auto complaints have been listed as one of the top 10 complaints in China since 2003 according to statistics.

There were over 6,600 accepted auto complaint cases in total in 2006, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the China Consumers' Association. Nearly 94 percent of consumers were concerned about auto complaints, of which 63 percent of car owners had had auto complaints, according to the survey. Sixty-six percent of car owners thought that if there were too many auto complaints it would influence their purchase or caused them to change cars. The most concerned issue for 82 percent of consumers was auto quality and 76 percent of consumers cared about after-sales services.

Auto complaints in 2006 highlighted quality issues and more collective complaints. Most of the auto complaints cases accepted by the China Consumers' Association were concerned about auto quality problems in 2006, of which over 80 percent were involved in the quality of auto engines, transmissions, paint, and maintenance and other services, said the association.

The collective complaints cases increased in 2006. The collective complaints cases accounted for over half of the auto complaints cases directly accepted by the China Consumers' Association in 2006, according to statistics. The collective complaints mainly focused on quality, price and service problems.

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