By now, most of the BMW enthusiast community has been made aware of a provocative claim, by ABC News, that an alarming number of what they term “mystery fires” are besetting BMW owners. Although the numbers are vague, the story claims, “An ABC News investigation… discovered dozens of incidents in which the luxury cars caught fire even though owners reported they had parked their cars and turned them off.” Later in the story, there is mention of some 40 of these mysterious fires nationwide in the last five years.
BMW of North America has issued the following statement in response to the ABC News story, which featured references to four different incendiary incidents, along with comments from a lawyer who is experienced at suing the Bavarian car company:
Woodcliff Lake, NJ, May 10, 2017: We at BMW empathize with anyone who has experienced a vehicle fire. We understand it is a traumatic event and the safety of our customers is of utmost importance to us.
BMW has a long reputation for engineering excellence and is known as a pioneer in safety technology. We have full confidence in our products and strive to always provide the best possible owner’s experience.
With approximately 4.9 million BMW vehicles on U.S. roads, fire incidents involving BMWs are extremely rare. BMW takes every incident very seriously and has a team dedicated to working with BMW owners, insurance companies and authorities to investigate vehicle fire incidents brought to our attention.
We have investigated and in some cases inspected the 16 vehicles identified by ABC News. These vehicles, of multiple generations and model types, span an age range of one to fifteen years, generally with up to 232,250 miles. In cases that we have inspected and are able to determine root cause, we have not seen any pattern related to quality or component failure. Vehicle fires can result from a wide variety of external reasons and can range from improper accident damage repair, unauthorized aftermarket modifications (such as remote starters, stereo installations, etc.), previous vehicle flooding, rodent nesting, lack of or improper preventative maintenance, and even arson.
BMW of North America cannot normally comment on incidents outside of the US. However, we can say that as in the US, the incidents in Korea have been investigated, and it was determined that the majority were caused by unauthorized aftermarket modifications.
Our Customer Relations team will be happy to assist customers with any additional questions or concerns about their BMW and can be reached at customerrelations@bmwusa.com or at 800 831-1117.
_____________________________________
At this point, readers of the ABC News report have little real information to go on, although the anecdotal narratives are affecting—but too few to suggest that we should sleep in our garages, fire extinguishers at the ready. It is too soon to decide whether BMW has unaccountably switched to a Pinto model of automotive design—or whether ABC news is still plying the sensationalistic tabloid journalism they employed with their analysis of Ford crash fires in 1978.—Satch Carlson
