Budget warned of service issues with Chery — after Calcalist's inquiry, it promised a "significant improvement"

Service issues with a leading Chinese brand or a misunderstanding? A few days ago, the leasing and rental company Budget sent a message to its customers who are in the process of choosing a vehicle, in which it warned of significant problems in the service and supply system of Frisbee, the importer of Chery:

"As of today, Frisbee - the importer of Chery models - is struggling to meet the service standard that Budget sets as a goal for our customers, including new vehicle delivery times, obtaining quick availability for bringing vehicles into service garages, time spent in service garages, and quick resolution of malfunctions. We are making many efforts to improve the metrics with them, but unfortunately, as of today, they are unable to meet them. In light of this, we are warning in advance at the time of ordering this vehicle for the purpose of early expectation management."

Such a message, in which a large leasing company publicly makes accusations against one of the largest car importers in Israel, is considered very unusual in the industry. Following Budget's message to its customers, Calcalist contacted Frisbee and Budget for a response.

A few hours later, and several days after the original message was sent, a new message was sent today (Tuesday) to Budget customers, stating that:

"Budget and Frisbee are working in close and ongoing cooperation to ensure the best service experience for customers. Following a significant increase in demand for high-quality Chery vehicles, there has been a lengthening of delivery and service times recently. We are happy to update that following a joint and focused effort with Frisbee, we have managed to significantly shorten delivery and service times, and as a result, Budget customers driving Chery vehicles will enjoy a substantial improvement in the level of service provided to them."

It should be noted that just this week it was published in Calcalist that today, Chinese car importers are required to deal with a situation where malfunctions in these vehicles have become more complex, and one of the important indicators that will affect the future value retention of these vehicles is the service index. That is, the ability to provide customers with a quick and effective response to technical malfunctions, to which, at least in these days, some car importers are unable to provide a proper response.

In practice, today it is impossible to ignore the fact that a significant portion of the sales volume is for car fleets, meaning leasing of Chinese vehicles. Today, the method of calculating the value of use for a company car that exists in Israel provides decent benefits of about 1,300 shekels to company car holders who choose a plug-in hybrid car, and the main products offered to customers today are Chinese.

Today, the Chery concern and its derivatives are considered very dominant in the car fleet market in Israel: Chery and Jaecoo cars are marketed in Israel through Frisbee, Colmobil is the representative of Jaecoo and Omoda, while another brand of the concern - iCar - is expected to announce in the coming days its entry into Israel through Samlat, which imports, among others, Fiat. In such a situation, where a large number of brands based on similar components compete for customers in Israel, the issue of service is considered critical both from the perspective of leasing companies and from the perspective of private customers. Frisbee and Budget chose not to comment on the matter.