Gasgoo.com (Shanghai March 16) - The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine's Defective Product Administrative Center, said that it received a total of 8,840 complaints regarding automobile problems last year, Xinhua reported today. The amount is 20.8 percent higher than 2010's figure.

At a press conference on World Consumer Rights Day, AQSIQ Deputy Directory Liu Hong confirmed that complaints were raised against 596 different models from 148 manufacturers.

The vast majority of complaints, 95.5 percent, were for sedans, SUVs and minivans. Trucks, buses and tire recalls respectively made up the remaining 2.4 percent, 1.6 percent and 0.5 percent. 2,202 complaints, nearly a quarter of the total, were for brake system and wheel problems. 1,935 were for engine problems, while 1,550 were for drive train issues.

A third of issues were for two year old vehicles, while 16.8 percent were for vehicles less than a year old. Among the most cited topics were for DSG transmission issues, randomly deploying airbags, defective horns, dying engines and worn tires.

AQSIQ issued a total of 85 vehicle recalls last year, affecting nearly 1.83 million automobiles in the country.