Renault import cars banned in China by Quality Inspection Agency

China's quality inspection agency has halted the import of several models made by French carmaker Renault, citing what it called 'serious safety risks' and failure to meet technical standards.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine said that 'in recent import inspections, we have repeatedly found batches of passenger vehicles made by the French Renault which do not conform with our country's mandatory standards and relevant technical regulations, and there are serious safety risks.'

A Renault spokesman said the company was 'surprised' by the decision as the quality of the models cited by the statement -- which mentions all the models the French company imports to China -- had been demonstrated by studies and specialist press reviews.

AQSIQ also said that in the past year Renault cars 'have many times revealed quality problems'.
The statement, however, did not specify what safety problems it had identified. The quality watchdog urged Renault to carefully examine all vehicles exported to China to ensure the security of products to Chinese customers

Just a few days ago the Renault mother-company recalled worldwide several thousand units of the models Renault Twingo, Dacia Logan and Dacia Sandera because of technical problems with the ABS braking system.

The Romanian Dacia Logan is sold in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries under the name Renault Logan, whereas the Dacia Sandero hatch-back is sold in this region as Renault Logan Hatchback.

Just a few days ago at the AutoMech 2009 Motorshow in Cairo we asked several sales persons and hostesses at the Renault Egypt stand about the recall regarding the ABS braking system, but they all told us that there was no such recall.

After such misleading information we can fully understand the reaction of the Chinese authorities. We just hope that the Egyptian and other Middle Eastern governments and Consumer Protection Agencies would take the same step and ban the import of Dacia and Renault cars until those safety issues are cleared.

Renault owners in Egypt, suffer severely from the low quality of the imported Renault cars and the unacceptable and over-priced service offered by its importer EIM / EIT, who is at the same time importer of the Korean car manufacturer KIA in Egypt. Especially the Renault Megane owners are suffering with their cars in Egypt, due to the many electronic, software, brakes and gear-box problems. This resulted in extreme low resale-values for the used Renault Megane models, and which will even become worse after KIA Egypt releases some models like the KIA Cerato, the KIA Carens and the KIA Soul in Egypt.

Even Auto Arabia's own Renault Megane long-term test-drive car was not exempted from these electric and software problems as well as from the severe braking system failure.