Part VI — Keeping Customers (after-sales)
Status: 📝 annotated outline — to research. No repo source yet. Needs a consumer-law (CDC) + after-sales-operations pass.
This part answers: “once we’ve sold the car, what does Brazil legally and commercially require us to do for the customer — and how do we turn that into a moat?” Note: after-sales is where the dealer actually makes money (Part V §25), so this is not a footnote — it’s core to attracting dealers at all.
30. Warranty & the CDC (Código de Defesa do Consumidor)
Section titled “30. Warranty & the CDC (Código de Defesa do Consumidor)”What to cover: Brazil’s Consumer Protection Code (Lei 8.078/1990) is strong and pro-consumer; mandatory legal warranty (garantia legal) on top of the manufacturer warranty; the consumer’s right to repair/replace/refund. A Chinese entrant underestimates CDC at its peril. 🚩 Source the legal-warranty periods and OEM obligations.
31. Parts — logistics and the legal duty to supply
Section titled “31. Parts — logistics and the legal duty to supply”What to cover: the legal obligation to supply spare parts for a period after the model leaves the market; parts-distribution logistics across a continental country; why weak parts availability kills a brand’s residual value and dealer appetite. 🚩 Source the parts-availability legal period.
32. Service network & technical assistance
Section titled “32. Service network & technical assistance”What to cover: assistência técnica / authorized workshops (oficinas), tied to the dealer network (Part V); training, tooling, warranty-claim processing; coverage outside the “dealership desert.” 🚩 Source typical service-network build-out norms.
33. Recall obligations
Section titled “33. Recall obligations”What to cover: SENATRAN/Senacon recall rules, the OEM’s duty to notify and remedy, penalties. 🚩 Source the recall framework.
34. Extended warranty as a weapon (the Caoa Chery 7-year case)
Section titled “34. Extended warranty as a weapon (the Caoa Chery 7-year case)”What to cover: how Chinese brands used long warranties (Caoa Chery’s 7 years) to overcome residual-value/trust skepticism — a documented competitive lever (cross-ref rede-concessionarias-uf.md). A concrete, sourced precedent BAW can copy.
35. Customer financing & the residual-value fear
Section titled “35. Customer financing & the residual-value fear”What to cover: CDC financing (bank auto loans), consórcio (Brazil’s distinctive group-purchase savings model), F&I at the dealer (Part V §25); the Chinese-brand residual-value / depreciation fear and how warranty + parts + a financing partner mitigate it. 🚩 Source financing penetration and consórcio share.
Connects to: Part V §25 (after-sales + F&I are the dealer’s real profit pools — get this wrong and no dealer wants the brand).