When internet celebrity Luo Yonghao was upset at the poor performance of his Siemens fridge, he hit on a unique solution. He laid down a few of the brand’s fridges outside Siemens China headquarters and smashed them up with a sledgehammer. Photos were soon doing the rounds on social media.
In a similar vein a Shandonger from the city of Binzhou has just demonstrated his disgust with Mercedes-Benz. In his case he not only sledgehammered his car’s faulty engine, but hired a horse to drag the engineless vehicle through the streets.
Onlookers could read an accompanying banner that stated: “Only 6,000km and the Benz engine is scrapped, manufacturer lets the owner change it at his own expense – where are my rights?”
The man, surnamed Liu, says he bought the GLA200 sedan for Rmb240,000 ($34,076) in January but that it made a loud noise and lost power on the highway in October. It turned out that the engine had “exploded”. When he took the car back to the dealership he was told the failure wasn’t covered by the warranty as it was caused by water damage and that the engine would cost Rmb130,000 to replace. Livid, he took to the internet saying this was unacceptable. After continued pressure the price of repairs was dropped to Rmb70,000. But Liu was still not satisfied, deciding to hire the horse for the publicity stunt. “My only request is that they fix the car,” he told Phoenix TV. Negotiations remain ongoing.
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