[AdiSinghV12]

First the Vento in Pune and now the Rapid The driver is unhurt but if I'm not wrong the driver of the Vento passed away in the incident. Its a serious issue and VW/Skoda should give a proper explanation for these fires.

[anoop_lamba]

It is a common conception that there is no possibility of a short circuit in a car with ignition key turned off.

This is wrong. Even when everything is switched off, there are still 'n' number of wires which carry battery supply (we can call them live wires). If they get damaged due to some reasons and come in contact with sheet metal body, result would be a short circuit.

There could be broadly two kinds of short circuits:
1. Strong, where wires makes a good contact with grounded sheet metal
2. Weak, where wire makes intermittent or weak contact with the sheet metal
Contrary to what it may sound like, stronger short circuits are safer and in these cases high current will flow and the relevant fuse will blow.
In some cases when a weak short circuit occurs, there is no high continuous current so fuse may not blow. Current flowing through poor contact may cause overheat, arcing etc. This may ignite a fire.

As I mentioned in my thread,
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...cessories.html
most OEMs take full care that this does not happen with OEM harness design by providing proper mechanical and electrical safety features. Mostly problem arises in case of aftermarket fitments.

Please go for approved accessories and further make sure that fitment etc are done properly.

[SedatedDrive]

The most important thing here is:
1. No one was hurt.
2. No property other than the car was lost.
3. The manufacturer was quick to contact the owner rather than vice versa.

I wonder if any service center regularly checks the electrical parts in a car.

[boohooper]

I am sure the Insurance Companies that have covered this car and the Vento would do a thorough investigation to check the cause of the fires. Is there any way of getting a report from them? Or are such reports confidential? May be somebody from the insurance sector can throw some light on this.
Volkswagen SHOULD make public what the causes of the fires were (and the steps they have taken to prevent such future incidents), after they (VW+Ins.Cos) finish their investigations.
No point in calling themselves 'VOLKSWAGEN' when they are going to hide stuff from us Volks. Verstehen Sie?

[nanduchitnis]

Well there is a dedicated thread on TEAM Bhp of cars catching fire.

What we never get to know from the Car companies is :

1. What caused the fire.
2. Recall of cars to prevent fires.
3. Compensation paid to dead drivers family consequent the recent Vento fire in Pune. My guess is they have not received any compensation from VW.

No press release what so ever from VW on this issue.

We members speculate with all sorts of reasons but Companies are not forth coming at all.

Indian laws are lax so idhar kuch bhi chalta hai.

[wilful]

I get the impression (of course I may be wrong) that in both the cases, the car companies would have come out nice and loud pronto if they had found conclusive evidence that the fires were due to faulty aftermarket equipment/fitment. The deafening silence from VW on the Pune disaster is not a good sign. As far as this (Skoda) incident is concerned, it is 'early days.' Hopefully they will go public with their findings and restore customer confidence.

[handsofsteel]

i have the following doubts, might be OT though
1. is your insurance company obliged to pay you if the fire is attributed to an after market fitment? because, when i insure my car from the showroom, it is all stock.
2. again, how do you ascertain the cause of the fire post an accident like this. it is but obvious that the manufacturer would blame the later mods especially if they have not been carried out by the A.S.S.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by handsofsteel

i have the following doubts, might be OT though
1. is your insurance company obliged to pay you if the fire is attributed to an after market fitment? because, when i insure my car from the showroom, it is all stock.

If there is evidence which suggests that there were aftermarket parts installed 'outside' the dealership/factory, the insurance company might just decide to wash this matter off its hands. Primarily because the warranty would have been void. Also, one might get some money in return, but not the amount one would be expecting.

Originally Posted by handsofsteel

2. again, how do you ascertain the cause of the fire post an accident like this. it is but obvious that the manufacturer would blame the later mods especially if they have not been carried out by the A.S.S.

Investigating the debris and snooping through salvaged parts. Scanning service records and bills attributed to the car, presumably. The car maker would naturally take that stand.

[motorworks]

I sent an email to Skoda customer care 4 days ago and there has been no answer from them as yet. This is expected since VW has not responded either. Spoke to the customer care executives and they had no clue!
Visited VW, Downtown showroom in bangalore and i was casually asking the sales execs if they had any information from VW and again nothing!
This is a very critical issue and silence from VW/Skoda is truly shocking!

[carmayogi]

Good news that nobody was hurt. However, I find one thing puzzling. In the photo, it clearly shows that the rear number plate has been removed before taking the photo. This seems rather odd to me because I doubt that anyone would be stupid enough to walk to a burning car and remove its number plate before photographing it.

Can anyone shed light on why the number plate would be removed?

[piyushrm]

One would never expect such incidence from a German brand.
As the components are shared and almost same for Vento and Rapid the reason could be the same and comparatively easy to pin point any technical flaw.

[kingofmyworld]

It's just one odd case if you ask me. Why make it a big issue? One car out of a lakh might catch fire due to whatsoever reasons. maybe an improper aftermarket fitment or a faulty electrical part from the plant or maybe something else. If one model doesn't catch fire in the first 1 or 2 years, It doesn't mean that the car is absolutely safe and nothing wrong can happen to it over a period of time. No company can give you 100% assurance and guarantee that these incidents will not happen. So stick to your choice. Rapid is a VFM sedan if you ask me. It's a call you have to make now.

P.S : There are many cases where supercars like R8, Gallardo, corvette Z06 etc caught fire. People did buy them after those incidents and are very happy with their choice.

[CARDEEP]

To be honest my faith in VW has shaken a bit (though Indians, especially Tatas aren't much better) in this department either. But, must say that VW Group has managed fire incidents much better than Tata Group.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by kingofmyworld

It's just one odd case if you ask me. Why make it a big issue? One car out of a lakh might catch fire due to whatsoever reasons. maybe an improper aftermarket fitment or a faulty electrical part from the plant or maybe something else. If one model doesn't catch fire in the first 1 or 2 years, It doesn't mean that the car is absolutely safe and nothing wrong can happen to it over a period of time. No company can give you 100% assurance and guarantee that these incidents will not happen. So stick to your choice. Rapid is a VFM sedan if you ask me. It's a call you have to make now.

P.S : There are many cases where supercars like R8, Gallardo, corvette Z06 etc caught fire. People did buy them after those incidents and are very happy with their choice.

The sad part about statistics (one in a thousand, million etc) is that you don't want to be part of it

And this is not something like a natural disaster. Forensically, the company should be able to determine the cause.

[Sudden123]

Is there a chance that the photo is a photoshop job? My doubt is because i cannot see any charred surface and the fire seems superimposed on the car. May be i am imagining but just had a thought