After a bombshell report by ABC News last week uncovered over 40 instances of parked BMWs spontaneously bursting into flames since 2012, the company is on the defensive. Or rather, offensive. According to Automotive News, BMW of North America called the story “sensationalistic” and went on to say “With approximately 4.9 million BMW vehicles on U.S. roads, fire incidents involving BMWs are extremely rare.”
In all of these instances, the cars were parked and turned off. The cars range from 1 to 15 years old and have up to 232,250 miles on the odometer. Sometimes they blow up after being parked for a few minutes, sometimes after several days.
BMW owners are understandably a little upset about this, especially the ones whose cars exploded, or had their house burn down as a result. The company has not conducted a recalls for any fire-related problems.
Neither BMW nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are certain of the cause of these fires. Naturally, without knowing the cause, it’s hard to determine a solution. What BMW is claims is after inspecting some of these vehicles they’re sure the problem isn’t “related to quality or component failure.”
While they have a point about a small percentage of BMWs randomly exploding, it’s still a mysterious issue. An issue with major consequences for the unfortunate drivers which may put a dent in brand loyalty and overall public image. The company stated, “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.”
So if your BMW happens to self-immolate, give your local dealer a call right after the fire department.