A BMW driver received a recall letter from the luxury German manufacturer warning that his car was at risk of catching fire – one month after it had exploded in a ball of flames.
Self-employed Raufal Alam had a narrow escape as he fled his burning 5 Series – which caught fire just eight days after he bought it second-hand in July last year.
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To his surprise, he then received a letter from BMW to say the car’s EGR cooler had to be changed free of charge, due to a fire risk.
The recall is believed to affect thousands of vehicles in the UK, although when contacted, BMW were unable to confirm any domestic or wider global figures.
However, when 44-year-old Mr Alam explained what had happened to his vehicle, BMW denied responsibility.
To make matters worse, the company then said it could not investigate the cause of the fire because the vehicle had now been scrapped.
“BMW’s response has been absolutely appalling,” said the father-of-three from Walsall, Staffs., who has threatened legal action to reclaim the £6,500 he paid for the car.
He added: “The whole thing has left me so stressed that I’ve been prescribed anti-depressants.
I just want BMW to hold their hands up and say sorry – I could have had my kids in the car.”
Details of the incident come just days after it was revealed that a 65-year-old grandmother had a narrow escape when her BMW 640d sport coupé burst into flames – just a mile from the West London garage she was heading to after being told her car was a fire risk due to the same EGR cooling fault.
However, BMW denied responsibility and claimed the damage was too severe to properly determine the cause of the blaze.
Last night, a BMW spokesman said: “The BMW Group takes any incident involving its vehicles and all cases of product safety very seriously.
Therefore, we always seek to fully investigate the respective vehicle in order to establish the root cause of the incident.
“The first recorded contact we have received from Mr. Alam regarding the incident with his vehicle was on October 11 – three months after the incident in July.
“After interviews with the customer, we contacted the insurance company asking not to dispose of the vehicle.
On November 23, the insurance firm stated that the vehicle in fact had already been disposed of.
On the same day, we informed the customer that we were unable to continue the case as there was no vehicle to be inspected and therefore no determination of the root cause of the incident was possible.
“We continuously carry out quality checks and intensive test programs during the development, manufacture and life cycle of our vehicles.
As a result of this ongoing work, the BMW Group has developed a comprehensive package of measures for this very complex situation.”
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