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Old 7th February 2012, 13:54   #61
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nanduchitnis

This is so very sad and most unacceptable.

For Gods sake we talking about VW German technology car.

Mods at Team BHP will show you the way forward to deal with VW.

I hope they dont stonewall the way Skoda does.

R.I.P.

Now way man !

I agree. RIP.

Why doesn't our country have something like the NTSB (national transportation and safety board) in america. Lack of something like this has eased the path that VW has taken and thus they have confiscated the car. And i don't blame VW for this, any manufacturer would do that if the government is so lame.

And you know what the outcome will be, it will be the usual. VW would blame it on something else even if and i stress even if there was a manufacturing problem with this particular car. And again i wont blame VW for that because any manufacturer would do that. Even ford would, if it were to happen in India to protect its identity.

What i am saying is that the government is lame and they should have a transportation safety board and if an incident like this happens then the car company should not be allowed to confiscate the car and the board should investigate with the help from the manufacturer.
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Old 7th February 2012, 14:00   #62
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Re: Accidents : Vehicles catching fire in India

@ nawalsingal

my sincere & heartfelt condolences to you and the family of the deceased. but please do not let brush this matter under the carpet. if what you say turns out to be correct then thousands of vento & maybe even polo owners are at risk. i'm sure VW will never acknowledge, even remotely admit that anything can potentially go wrong with their products. once the situation stabilises on your front maybe you should pursue this matter with rigour.
once again all our support and good wishes with you.
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Old 7th February 2012, 15:16   #63
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Re: Accidents : Vehicles catching fire in India

Shouldn't the car be taken by Police since its not a natural death? Did the Police even come there to take stock of the situation and find out something? Who called VW? the Police?
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Old 7th February 2012, 15:59   #64
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mustang.101 View Post
I agree. RIP.

Why doesn't our country have something like the NTSB (national transportation and safety board) in america.
What i am saying is that the government is lame and they should have a transportation safety board and if an incident like this happens then the car company should not be allowed to confiscate the car and the board should investigate with the help from the manufacturer.
I fully agree with you. Our country should have something on these lines, but will that be of any use? We have DGCA for air travel & we all know very well how it functions. Fake pilot Licenses, fake schools & what not. Similarly Railways & Road travel: less said the better .

As to why such incidents are allowed to happen & forgotten is that we tend to accept things as they are, say "Bhagwan ki marji-will of god" & move on. Unless we start putting pressure on manufacturers & Govt., nothing will change. That's where I feel our forum TBHP is doing a wonderful job in educating people about their rights & fighting for a just cause.
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Old 7th February 2012, 19:38   #65
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

Why is there so much over-reaction about one vento catching fire?
First of all, a car catching fire is not a very rare occurrence.
Secondly, a vento is mechanically very identical to polo, which is a very successful model world over. If there is a design flaw wont is show in polo in hundreds?
Third, some comments that a car will catch fire due to engine overheating is laughable. This-engine overheating- is even more common event in India. Overheating due to blown fuse can happen in any vehicle and it is not a big disaster- although it is a big nuisance. And when this happens the temperature rises very rapidly, so even if you have a temp guage it is not going to make a huge difference, a warning light will do just fine(FYI, I prefer temp guage too for other circumstances).
Please note that I am not talking just about vento, I would have made this post even if this was a ford or a fiat. Point I am trying to make is there is such over-reaction and illogical statements just because 1 car caught fire.
Are you guys going to file FIR against hm, maruti, hyundai, tata, ford and all because I can say for sure there has been fire incidents in cars from these manufacturers too.
PS: normal rescue procedure is to break glass or cut metal(if fire personals at spot) if doors locked, cut seatbelt etc. Not to try and open door and unbuckle seatbelts.
There are many stupid comments about seatbelts and pre-tensioners too, which I am surprised to find in team-bhp of all the places. I will go too off topic if I explain those. So, I suggest people read articles online before commenting about technical stuff if they are not sure.

Last edited by mxx : 7th February 2012 at 19:39.
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Old 7th February 2012, 20:05   #66
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by mxx View Post
Why is there so much over-reaction about one vento catching fire? .
For Christs sake the owner lost his life in this fire. This situation deserves an over reaction against VW.

Lets wait for the reaction of the VW Company on this issue.

This incident occured just after the car was serviced.

Rgds
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Old 7th February 2012, 20:10   #67
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by mxx View Post
Why is there so much over-reaction about one vento catching fire?
First of all, a car catching fire is not a very rare occurrence.
Secondly, a vento is mechanically very identical to polo, which is a very successful model world over. If there is a design flaw wont is show in polo in hundreds?
Third, some comments that a car will catch fire due to engine overheating is laughable. This-engine overheating- is even more common event in India. Overheating due to blown fuse can happen in any vehicle and it is not a big disaster- although it is a big nuisance. And when this happens the temperature rises very rapidly, so even if you have a temp guage it is not going to make a huge difference, a warning light will do just fine(FYI, I prefer temp guage too for other circumstances).
Please note that I am not talking just about vento, I would have made this post even if this was a ford or a fiat. Point I am trying to make is there is such over-reaction and illogical statements just because 1 car caught fire.
Are you guys going to file FIR against hm, maruti, hyundai, tata, ford and all because I can say for sure there has been fire incidents in cars from these manufacturers too.
PS: normal rescue procedure is to break glass or cut metal(if fire personals at spot) if doors locked, cut seatbelt etc. Not to try and open door and unbuckle seatbelts.
There are many stupid comments about seatbelts and pre-tensioners too, which I am surprised to find in team-bhp of all the places. I will go too off topic if I explain those. So, I suggest people read articles online before commenting about technical stuff if they are not sure.
Sorry mxx. I have to say that your post is so uncalled for. The reaction is about a loss of human life because of a car catching fire, and not specific to Vento. Just that the discussion is happening here because the accident happened in a Vento. Spare a thought about the person who lost his life.

And please give some respect the fellow bhpians who are jotting down their comments. You maybe better aware of the rescue measures when a car catch fire, but no way the comments from the fellow members can be called as stupid and illogical. Thanks!
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Old 7th February 2012, 22:24   #68
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

The whole purpose is to have a discussion amongst folks who want to get to the bottom of it - I think very few of us are hard core subject matter experts on anything and everything related to cars . Most of us are average Joes who hang around here to share and gain knowledge.
Given that there is a thread dedicated to cars catching fire where this specific topic is being discussed , it would be apt to shift our attention to that particular thread rather than take this thread more OT .
The link to the thread ( and start of the discussion on the Vento catching fire ) is provided herewith http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...-india-13.html

If and when it is proven that Ventos regularly catch fire , we would include that in the Vento - User Discovered Features and Quirks thread for the time being we cannot rename our cars as Chariots of Fire
cheers !
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Old 7th February 2012, 22:48   #69
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Re: Accidents : Vehicles catching fire in India

Quote:
Originally Posted by moralfibre View Post
Coming back to the topic of doors getting auto-locked and not having a manual override feature:

Please see the picture I posted in #193. The door of the Vento is "Open". I doubt the windscreen breaking + "seatbelt cut" rescue theory posted by many here via the media. If a car is engulfed in flames, it is going to be mighty difficult for any person to jump on the bonnet, break the windscreen. Climb into the cabin from the front (saving himself from the cuts through a shattered glass) and cut / undo the seatbelts to rescue a person. But, I could be wrong in the way the rescue operation was carried out. I wasn't present there but I'll ask the person who took the picture.
Brother if you read my post #190, it is in 1st person.

Quote:
Originally Posted by antz.bin View Post
The owner was going to park his car and suddenly it burst in fire. First huge black smoke started coming out. In a minute, the car caught fire. Owner could not escape at first due to his seat belt. Roopali regular members broke the seat belt from its mount and got him outside. By that time, he was completely on fire. However, we could put that out in a minute. By that time, all his clothes were burnt out. Police and Fire-brigade responded extremely fast. They were on site within max 5 minutes. Hats off to them. - Vishwas Mokashi
This person was one of the people who helped in the rescue operation. An eyewitness, not a Pune Mirror correspondent. I would believe what he has to say. There was no 'Cutting the seatbelt'(as clearly mentioned in the part in Bold). He has not said anything about breaking any glass either. Maybe it was just the seatbelt which was stuck.

When I told Vishwas uncle about his death yesterday, this is what he wrote on his FB profile (from where I picked up the very 1st picture).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vishwas_on_FB
This is really sad. He was fairly ok (considering he had burned completely) and was able to stand on his own feet and walk a bit. Never thought it would reach this point.
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Old 7th February 2012, 23:08   #70
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Re: Accidents : Vehicles catching fire in India

Quote:
Originally Posted by antz.bin View Post
Brother if you read my post #190, it is in 1st person.

This person was one of the people who helped in the rescue operation. An eyewitness, not a Pune Mirror correspondent. I would believe what he has to say. There was no 'Cutting the seatbelt'(as clearly mentioned in the part in Bold). He has not said anything about breaking any glass either. Maybe it was just the seatbelt which was stuck.

When I told Vishwas uncle about his death yesterday, this is what he wrote on his FB profile (from where I picked up the very 1st picture).
I have seen a couple of cars catching fire in my lifetime - one was an Amby and another was an Indica and for both of them the fire spread from under the hood i.e one could see flames leaping out from under the bonnet and it took more than 6-7 min for the fire to spread to the driver/passenger area.
In pic posted by you ( courtesy an eye witness ) its the mid section which is burning furiously while the bonnet area looks fairly tranquil - strange for a car which is not rear engined !

Interestingly this news is not covered in the mainstream media , looks like VW PR is working overtime . They also took down a post on the FB page related to this news but have responded after being slammed . I would encourage folks to keep a watch there and keep the issue alive so that VW makes the findings public

Last edited by souravc : 7th February 2012 at 23:14.
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Old 7th February 2012, 23:11   #71
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Re: Accidents : Vehicles catching fire in India

@Nawalsingal , that was very unfortunate , my condolences to the family.

It is disturbing that a car can catch fire so quickly without a collision as a triggering cause. I don't know if there were any modifications to the car, but I doubt there would be , and even if there were , engineering discipline would normally allow for some significant margin for overload conditions.

Now to see what VW investigation finds as the cause of the fire.
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Old 7th February 2012, 23:33   #72
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I cant pin point the cause but i can give some information after checking out the pics

I have just checked out the pics in detail and from my experience the car has burnt in such a manner due to

1. Some sort of fuel or inflammable substance was being carried in the car which caught fire (less likely)
OR
2. The fuel tank has caught fire. looking at the pic posted by auto indian, definitely the hottest zone is above the rear wheel and thats where the fuel tank is, i believe.

Some more observations -

The bonnet is relatively at ease, no flames from the grille or near the wipers, this shows that there was no issue in the engine bay. This means the engine and all the electronics in the front were fine and not the cause of the fire.

Last edited by Mustang.101 : 7th February 2012 at 23:35.
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Old 7th February 2012, 23:38   #73
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

A very sad incident, don't know what to say, may god give his family the strength to overcome this.

Why Team-BHPians should react to this ? Let it happen to 1000s of other cars and then we should post our views! Every month 100s of innocent people die in train accidents in our country - why we should react ? Is it rare - no, then ? Poor people die of malnutrition - we should not react, please read newspaper, after all this is not a rare incident. Corruption is everywhere and citizens of this country are made to suffer - please keep your opinion to yourself - because this is not the first time you heard of corruption right ? and moreover this is OT here !

Ok, frankly, we don't know the actual cause for this tragic incident (car catching fire) but the sad part is we will never know this, because this is India and customer will suffer and manufacturer will easily come out clean without even giving proper reason for the incident.

Hope VW takes this issue seriously and investigate, share the cause and rectify any fault (if any) to prevent these kind of incident happening in future.

Airbags do not deploy in accidents (worst part is most of us don't say for sure when it`ll deploy), car catches fire, customer is cheated with faulty cars and poor fellow have to spent years fighting court cases - these things could have been reduced if not avoided, as rightly pointed by someone here, if only we have strong administration.

Agree with the previous post - we are mostly average Joes here but for some reason the experts (I am sure there are many) do not post their views always.

As this is a Videshi Car and that too German, this post may be unwelcome, but it would be interesting to know what would be the reaction if Nano Catches Fire !

Finally - IMO this is not an OT, we discuss everything from F.E. to Audio System in ownership thread and this is quite a serious incident and any prospective buyer/owner should be aware of this incident before buying the car.


PS - Please do not flame me, me too own a VW.
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Old 7th February 2012, 23:59   #74
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

Mustang, How about the fire of electrical origin which started in the cabin. I had a case of smoke billowing from under the steering of my old zen due to electrical short circuit. The fire must have started very near to the occupant which explain his inability to unbuckle the seat belts and suffering 70% burns on lower body despite being rescued in a matter of minutes. Polos and Ventos are notorious for electrical malfunctionings which make this case more serious and cannot be written off as one off incident.

Last edited by poloman : 8th February 2012 at 00:02.
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Old 8th February 2012, 00:17   #75
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Re: Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

Whatever happened is very sad. RIP. The point is that this was not expected from a known brand though things can go wrong with anyone.

I can see news of vehicles catching fire ranging from Tata, VW, Maruti every other day. Yesterday a person died because of his WagonR catching fire.

Guys I don't know what's the cause but we can do one thing to prevent these accidents. Please do not use spurious accessories/parts in your car and always get the installation/replacement from known/authorized service center.

I sincerely hope VW will find the root cause of the accident and will honestly present that to Media/public and rectify the error if any on their side.

PS - This is a setback for VW especially Vento.

Last edited by bluevolt : 8th February 2012 at 00:21.
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