[Stribog]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

It looks nothing but a damage control to me.

With all due respect, on what basis are you discounting the customer fault? Why is everything a 'damage control'? Human error is definitely possible and given that there are 10k + Hectors on the road and 2 have caught fire, should we not give the OEM the benefit of the doubt?

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Stribog

With all due respect, on what basis are you discounting the customer fault? Why is everything a 'damage control'? Human error is definitely possible and given that there are 10k + Hectors on the road and 2 have caught fire, should we not give the OEM the benefit of the doubt?

I would like to give the OEM that benefit of doubt, but then, I also see other OEMs rolling out lakhs of cars every month and not a single example of one getting caught in a fire is seen.

And hence my doubts!

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

I would like to give the OEM that benefit of doubt, but then, I also see other OEMs rolling out lakhs of cars every month and not a single example of one getting caught in a fire is seen.

And hence my doubts!

Not correct. Practically every major brand has fires from time to time.

Here is an example from Toyota in the US:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...hy-112718.html

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/6/17...lion-fire-risk

Here is another example of over 300 complaints of Hyundai and Kia cars catching fire in the US without any crash. Hyundai agreed to a 760 million $ settlement with the US government on this:

https://www.autosafety.org/kia-and-h...n-crash-fires/

Here is an example from VW:

https://realmoney.thestreet.com/arti...day.-buy-apple

You can easily find thousands of such incidents across all brands.

[NAVREVV]

Well, The customer has issued a clarification on his letter head that he fitted accessories which may have caused the fire. To me, it seemed a fabricated reply. Of course, he might have been compensated by MG.

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Not correct. Practically every major brand has fires from time to time.

I think his point still holds true. Going by MG sales numbers , there are about 20k Hectors on road in India. Two went up in flames. Another couple were shown with smoke coming out of the bonnet area. 4 out of 20k is a big number considering the impact of the outcome.

All the other incidents you mentioned were investigated properly by government agencies. Hyundai, Toyota and VW has millions of cars on road, while MG has a fraction of that in Indian roads. So the number in case of MG is alarming. Also troubling is the fact that they seem reluctant to conduct a proper investigation and is only interested in handing the PR issue associated with it.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Practically every major brand has fires from time to time.

You can easily find thousands of such incidents across all brands.

Let's be specific to this thread. We are talking about MG India and Indian market. I find the above quoted statements incorrect with regards to Indian market.

There are a few examples of Indian cars going up into flames. But what stands out to me is the ratio.

2:10000 (fire incident : cars sold) is quite a big deal when we consider 1: 1 million of Maruti/Hyundai

[Latheesh]

Come on, that is just Dragon spitting Fire!

The way they are handling the issue is all suspicious. If another one or two catches fire, they are in deep trouble. Hope there are no threat to the human life. Owners, please carry a small fire extinguisher and car window breaker/belt cutter just to be safe.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

. Owners, please carry a small fire extinguisher and car window breaker/belt cutter just to be safe.

This should be made mandatory in all passenger cars, like they did with school buses.

As for MG, let them have an extra extinguisher, just in case.

[Roadster17]

There are too many angles and queries here .
1. Can anyone please explain if the foreign cloth inside engine bay was an issue, how come there was a letter from Turner logistics blaming accessories ? That too within 2 days.
2. There is no way a cloth can catch fire inside engine bay until unless there is a supply of fuel to it, else it will just burn and that's it. How can it engulf entire engine bay? Do they have highly inflammable objects inside engine bay ?
3. Can they make the report from so called government agency "public" ?
4. Now, if it was a foreign object inside the engine bay then it amounts to negligence by customer. In this scenario a replacement of vehicle was not necessary. Why MG was in so hurry to provide a replacement vehicle?

On a lighter note --

1. May be someone in the car would have said " Hello MG, Its cold outside in Delhi. Heat up the car".
2. MG do not import any part from Pakistan or else they would have easily passed it of as "Isme Pakistan ka haath hai"

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

There are a few examples of Indian cars going up into flames. But what stands out to me is the ratio.

2:10000 (fire incident : cars sold) is quite a big deal when we consider 1: 1 million of Maruti/Hyundai

Well, if we are going to look at it statistically, to have a fair comparison, we should wait until MG have sold that many cars in India. Or you also take all the cars that MG has sold worldwide into the picture. Hyundai, when they started out in the US, had a very bad reputation. One of my friends had a first hand experience of a used Hyundai (that we went to buy) ending up all smoke during the test drive.

Here's my take on this:
First things first, yes, it is bad for any car to catch fire. And the way things were handled by MG and the customer does raise some suspicion. And we all know, it is too early and too difficult to come to any conclusion. However, we must keep in mind that, we, Indians may have played a big role in how things unfolded.

I think we should do some soul-searching before start the Chinese bashing. I personally believe that the Chinese produce better quality products in general. Other than the Automotive industry, I don't think we have the expertise that the Chinese have when it comes to manufacturing. They are simply miles ahead in process, machinery, automation, quality of end product and not to forget, the price. Considering that there is a lot of Indian resources involved in making the car as well as handling the fire incident, it is only fair to say it's not all Chinese.

Here in India, honesty is so under-rated. You can go to any thread on a manufacturer recall and notice that there are lot of comments focusing on bad quality rather than the manufacturer's proactive approach in addressing them. It is as if people are pouncing on the punching bag rather than appreciating the positive attitude. So, I can imagine some inexperienced PR guy taking a short-cut. The customer must have thought, well, look at the guy who fought with Skoda for years and here I am, getting a brand new replacement in just days. Who knows, may be he was guilty of installing some after-market fitting too!

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

What is irksome is their media manipulation, why can't they simply be more transparent?

Well, I am all for transparency. I was simply trying to see from MG's perspective and that we should start appreciating honesty and transparency little more. Think about it: Someone is interested in the Hector and googles the car and if they see the fire incident on the first page of the results, how many people will try to get to the bottom of it and see the positive side of how MG handled it? My guess is, not many. On the other hand, if nothing on this comes up on the results, for the majority of the car buying public, nothing like this happened.

[varoon9999]

We Indians are soft target for companies like MG. Official MG release says that the car owner has been given new car and they are satisfied with the justification given by MG on cars catching fire. Oh Really! What if there was someone trapped inside the car and died? MG still would have managed to get away as the law in India is very lenient. Why such companies are allowed to pass on the lemons to us? When will the Govt. and authorities understand the real "Human Life Value" of we Indians?

Just to add recent IKEA incident, IKEA had to cough up $14 million in fines to the parents of toddler who got stamped under cupboard. If not huge penalties, bar such companies from operating for one year or so.

Note from Support:

There were several spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors in your post. Please proof-read posts before submitting.

[uditsharma01]

In all fairness I found it hard to digest that with great insulation that today's engines have a "cleaning cloth" was charred due to heat. Again, doesn't it point fingers back at MG for not providing enough insulation that a "cleaning cloth" shouldn't catch fire?

[discoverwild]

If the customer was guilty of an "after-market" fitment or leaving behind a "flammable foreign object" in the engine bay, why was MG in such a hurry to provide him a new car? They are absolved of all responsibility if the above mentioned scenarios were true, isn't it?

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Let's be specific to this thread. We are talking about MG India and Indian market. I find the above quoted statements incorrect with regards to Indian market.

There are a few examples of Indian cars going up into flames. But what stands out to me is the ratio.

2:10000 (fire incident : cars sold) is quite a big deal when we consider 1: 1 million of Maruti/Hyundai

While we are into statistics, can we count the ratio of the number of people who were killed in a Maruti car crash which they may not have been had the cars been built sturdier and/or with safety devices ? This kind of statistical analysis makes no sense.
Lets wait and see if this continues on a long term basis. If MG has a problem, it will surely recall rather than see its brand value ebb slowly on a daily basis due to the relentless social media attention. They've got too much at stake to behave arrogantly.