The millions of car owners left behind by the bankrupt car companies have been forced to become repair experts.

Over the past decade, more than 30 large automobile manufacturers have been eliminated in the brutal competition. Some went bankrupt, while others effectively ceased operations.

Automobile manufacturers can go under overnight, but the millions of vehicles they sold are still in use among the public.

How are these "orphaned" vehicles faring now?

01. One Million Abandoned Vehicles

In the first half of 2025, Nezha Automobile was reported to have a debt of over 26 billion yuan, with only about ten million yuan left on its books. It owed a large amount of money to suppliers and employees. The chairman was once cornered in the office by his subordinates demanding their salaries. Subsequently, Nezha entered a state of paralysis and awaited bankruptcy reorganization.

By the time of production halt, Nezha had sold approximately 500,000 vehicles. These abandoned car owners began to feel desperate just one year later.

Recently, a lady in Beijing found that the range of her Nezha vehicle had severely decreased. The car was only two years old and had traveled 30,000 kilometers, but its range had been reduced to 40% of the original. She hardly dared to go on long trips. Thinking that there was an official warranty, she took the car to the original Nezha after - sales service point for repair. However, the repairman told her that she had to pay out of her own pocket. The car owner argued and pleaded, but to no avail. Finally, she had to grit her teeth and spend over 20,000 yuan to repair the battery pack.

Fortunately, the lady was willing to spend the money. When the repairman opened the battery pack, several battery cells were damaged and swollen, becoming a ticking time - bomb. It could turn into a flaming chariot at any time...

This situation of paying for repairs during the warranty period is not an isolated case. Many consumers were attracted to Nezha because of the lifetime warranty for the three - electric systems. As a result, many cars developed problems after only one or two years of use. When it came to repairs, they found that most of Nezha's after - sales service points were empty.

The few remaining service points that are still in operation also require car owners to pay themselves. Since the after - sales service cannot contact the manufacturer, they cannot reimburse the repair costs. The battery factory also said that Nezha owed them money, so they would not honor the warranty. This is really painful. Just removing the battery for inspection costs 800 to 1000 yuan, and opening it for repair starts at 10,000 yuan. In the worst - case scenario, it costs 70,000 to 80,000 yuan to replace the entire battery pack.

Paying out of pocket is one thing, but the main problem is that many parts that need to be repaired are out of stock. It can take half a month to repair a data acquisition device, and it takes two months to replace a seat ventilation module. Even for a simple window regulator, the after - sales service says they have no parts and can only take your registration and tell you to wait.

For those whose cars are not broken, they are now in a torturous period. Since Nezha is unable to maintain the data center and has not paid the service provider as promised, the Nezha cars that were promised five - year free data have all lost their network connection.

Not only can they not use "high - end functions" such as remote unlocking and remote parking, but sometimes they cannot even refresh basic information such as the battery level. Car owners have to guess the vehicle's condition. To restore these network services, they need to buy a data package from the service provider at their own expense.

As we mentioned before, Nezha entered the bankruptcy reorganization process in 2025. In just one year, so many problems have occurred. For the car owners of those automakers that were eliminated earlier, the situation will only be worse.

WM Motor had a cumulative total sales volume of about 110,000 vehicles by the time of production halt in 2022. The next year, due to the company's failure to pay the vehicle - networking service provider, all car owners across the country lost their network connection, and all warranty commitments became invalid. All repairs had to be paid for by the car owners themselves.

As time passed, the inventory of spare parts was gradually depleted. Many WM cars appeared on the road in a battle - damaged state, with the paint peeling off and rusting, and only half of the taillights working. They all look like they've been through a war.

The most pitiful thing is that as soon as the insurance companies heard about WM's collapse, they immediately changed their attitude. The original car insurance cost 3,800 yuan, but later the quote was directly 6,800 yuan, and this did not even include the vehicle damage insurance. The insurance company claimed that since the manufacturer had gone bankrupt and could not supply parts, they could not assess the damage and make claims, so they could not provide insurance.

Then there is HiPhi, once the pride of domestic ultra - luxury cars. By the time the crisis broke out, it had delivered more than 20,000 vehicles. As a luxury car worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, HiPhi was very well - equipped, with a lot of complex designs such as double - swing doors, gull - wing doors, electric spoilers, electronic rear - view mirrors, and LED front faces... These fancy features were very attractive.

However, when HiPhi went under, these configurations became a nightmare for car owners. The structure is extremely complex, the special - purpose parts are expensive and hard to find, and specific repair tools are required. After the manufacturer went bankrupt, these things could not be found at all. Even outside repair shops could not read the fault codes.

If HiPhi car owners see the owners of Evergrande Auto, they may feel a little better. Due to well - known reasons, Evergrande Auto came and went quickly. It only delivered about 1,000 vehicles in total and did not have time to establish an after - sales system before the company collapsed. For these 1,000 car owners, the problem is not about how much it costs to repair or how long they have to wait. The problem is that no one in the whole city knows how to fix these cars. They basically have to rely on tape to make repairs, patching up wherever it's broken.

Unable to use and difficult to repair, this is the fate of the owners of abandoned vehicles.

Some car owners simply put up a large - sized sign on the back of their cars, "Don't hit me, no parts for repair." They may seem very angry, but after hearing their stories, people can understand them. It's better to avoid these abandoned vehicles if possible.

Of course, there is an exception. If two abandoned vehicles collide, the two car owners may get out of the cars and cry in each other's arms.

02. Owners' Self - Rescue

Although they self - deprecate, life goes on. The owners of these abandoned vehicles have started to band together for self - rescue.

They have established car - owner sharing groups. Those who are more technically savvy offer free guidance to others in the group, shooting small tutorials to help car owners solve some common problems by themselves, such as replacing the air filter, manually clearing fault codes, and even identifying the source of some minor faults. Others also share the faults they have encountered and the final inspection results, so that they can avoid many detours.

Some experienced car owners have opened online clinics, offering free consultations every day. There are a lot of difficult problems in the comment section waiting for them to solve.