Gasgoo.com (Shanghai July 11) - The issue with faulty DSG gearboxes in Chinese Volkswagens has made another interesting development. According to a report appearing on Gasgoo.com (Chinese) today, VW China Vice President Yang Meihong, who is in charge of PR work, may leave the manufacturer soon. Her possible departure, which would come on the heels of the recent removal of VW China CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann, may be linked to the DSG gearbox issue, which has both affected the manufacturer's profits and damaged its reputation in the country.
When asked for confirmation, Wen Jiyong, a senior member of VW China's PR staff, responded that he was unaware of any such news. Mrs. Yang (pictured above) also has yet to comment on the matter.
Simultaneously, unconfirmed rumors of VW China Executive Vice President Zhang Suixin's impending removal have also been circulating across the media.
Problems with DSG gearboxes in VWs have been reported in the Chinese media for over a year now, with some owners going as far as publicly suing the manufacturer. Despite accusations from the government, media and its consumers, VW has refused to acknowledge that the gearboxes were defective, and as such has avoided issuing a recall for its vehicles.
The issue took a turn for the worse in mid March, when Mrs. Yang claimed that it was the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), China's safety watchdog, which told VW that a recall was unnecessary. Almost immediately, AQSIQ issued several statements denying Mrs. Yang's claim, further lowering VW's brand image in the eyes of both current and prospective customers.
As one anonymous industry analyst explains, "As director of public relations, for [Mrs. Yang] to make such a statement, it makes it easy for people to doubt her professional ability." The analyst added that both her and Dr. Neumann's (pictured below) removals were inevitable. When asked about the DSG issue, Christian Klingler, member of VW's management board responsible for global sales and marketing, answered that it was caused by improper communication between the manufacturer and its customers. That sentence seemed to seal Dr. Neumann and Mrs. Yang's fates.
VW China attempted to placate consumer dissatisfaction by extending warranty coverage for affected vehicles to ten years and 160,000 km. However, the so-called 'solution' instigated even more problems, with several reports of dealerships preventing owners from taking their vehicles to rival repair shops on threat of suspending their warranty.
According to a report appearing in Der Spiegel, the DSG issue has cost VW at least 400 million euros ($491.52m) to date.
