[Mafia]

One more Nano being driven home just after delivery turned into an inferno! Saw pics of it in times of india Page 16 of the Bangalore edition I wonder if this some sort of smear campaign by the competetion.

TOI quoted 'MUMBAI MISHAP: A brand new Tata Nano belonging to Satish Sawant, a software engineer, stands in flames on the suburbs of Mumbai '

[Latheesh]

I saw the picture in today's news paper that too after few days of the incident with no details. Looks like someone asked to do it!!

But it is sad to see a brand new car on fire. Hope they come out with the detailed report soon.

[Gansan]

@Ponmayilal
If a car burns up totally a few weeks/months after purchase instead of just a few hours, does that make it superior in any way? I am referring to the Daewoo Cielo here!

[Sawyer]

Just struck me - the nano is cheap enough for someone to buy a bunch and set fire to in a few strategic locations as part of an aggressive competitive strategy!

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by Mafia

One more Nano being driven home just after delivery turned into an inferno! Saw pics of it in times of india Page 16 of the Bangalore edition I wonder if this some sort of smear campaign by the competetion.

TOI quoted 'MUMBAI MISHAP: A brand new Tata Nano belonging to Satish Sawant, a software engineer, stands in flames on the suburbs of Mumbai '

Ya I saw it is same car and same story but why after so many days and how come Satish Sawant became software engineer from an Insurence agent in matter or days ? this time around AC and PS details are omitted

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Just struck me - the nano is cheap enough for someone to buy a bunch and set fire to in a few strategic locations as part of an aggressive competitive strategy!

Yes brother, there are companies who does similar activities in India itself. I know a company (market leader in India) who purchases their competitor product in bulk and scrap them just to prevent from others entering the market. Crores of Rupees they spend for this activity, and they are successfull. period.
I cannot post the company name here but can give you a clue, they are market leader in India with literally no cometition, almost all types/brands available in India are made by them.

[wildon]

Spokesperson for Tata Motors -

This is a unique case. We are trying to figure out what went wrong.

Over the last one year three other cases of Nanos going up in flames have been reported. All the three cars were parked when the incident happened.

Tata Motors announced the problems with the static cars catching fire were due to a faulty switch placed near the steering wheel. The company stopped sourcing that faulty component from the vendor and performed checks to vehicles on the road.

Tata Motors has offered to return the money to Mr Satish Sawant, the insurance agent who cheated death yesterday when the car he was driven in by the company driver suddenly burst into flames, barely 45 mins into the drive.

The exact cause of the fire is still being investigated and it remains to be seen if Tata will deploy one more round of checks before cars are delivered to customers.

Source

[Gilead]

Did anyone catch the Tata's spokesman's comments published in the TOI today?

He first denies any connection between this fire and the earlier fires. In the next sentence he says they have no idea what caused this fire and that they are still investigating. Then how can they rule out any sort of connection?

It's obvious that TOI was under pressure not to publish the news as soon as it came out. But when the whole world has reported it, they must have felt like fools and ran a report after several days.

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by wildon

Source

A layman question. If the switch is faulty, would not the fuse blow first? My recall of domestic electric wiring fires is that they are caused by someone bypassing the fusebox by replacing the fuse with a conductive shunt that is a lot stronger than the wiring, instead of the other way around. I assume that the Nano has a fusebox, I have never seen the car up close, hence the question.

[wildon]

^^ The source is Indian auto blog site. Unfortunately t-Bhp system masking the original link.

http://indian autosblog.com/2010/03/tata-reacts-orders-probe-for-latest-nano-fire-case

[adits]

Originally Posted by airbender

Thanks a lot for the link. I would say this is the first useful post on this thread.

Having a law is the first step and enforcing it should be the second step.

In some cases where we have a law, concentrate on the second step(enforcement).

If we don't have a law, work to make the first step a reality.

We have a thread where people died bcoz of car fire but no one was guilty. If both steps are completed not only it will save some lifes but also a lot of money. Only if people are ready to act(as long as lwe won't we will remain a laughing stock for rest of the world).


By Greatmama2000:
Well , I just wanted to point out that Tata is not a fully indian owned company and does not need any nationalist sentiments whatsoever .

Another silly statement. Go check out wikipedia(or Google) on who holds how much stake in Tata group or Tata motor's. Nothing to do with nationalist sentiments but only about facts and fiction.

Let me help you out here. TML is publicly listed, so the shareholding details are available on their site at Tata Motors - Investor Interests - Performance - Shareholding Pattern

To summarise it, the % as of December 31, 2009
Promoter and group - 38,08%
Institutional Investors - 34.12% (includes FIIs 16.64%)
Non-Institutional Investors - 15.53% (includes Indian Retail Investors 8.83%)
Custodians for Depository Receipts - 12.27%

From which angle is TML foreign-owned?

[rbp]

Same details at economic times, follow the link.

Tata Motors investigating Nano fire incident- Automobiles-Auto-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by Gilead

It's obvious that TOI was under pressure not to publish the news as soon as it came out. But when the whole world has reported it, they must have felt like fools and ran a report after several days.

I think otherwise , TOI is adding fuel to keep the fire burning secondly many details in today's report are incorrect or missing including change in profession of Mr. Sawant may be insurance agents are not as credible as software engineers

[sanjayc]

Just wondering, what is the probability of death/serious injury in a fire incident like this in any car?

Will a car explode, under any circumstances, like we see in movies? IMO, if it does, then there are high probability of death, but in all other fire incidents, is'nt there sufficient time or symptoms like smoke etc, for the occupants to get out? What situations will prevent occupants to get out of the car?

[Ponmayilal]

Originally Posted by Gansan

@Ponmayilal
If a car burns up totally a few weeks/months after purchase instead of just a few hours, does that make it superior in any way? I am referring to the Daewoo Cielo here!

For the record I never said or even implied that a car that burns after a few weeks/months is superior. ( Sorry, I do not know about the Cielo you have mentioned but I presume that does not have a bearing on what I say here.)

What I tried to convey is that in this case the root cause ( whatever it is) is directly attributable to the manufacturer/dealer.

In the case of the car that burns even after a mere 24 hours after it came into the possession of the owner and reached its home, many things could have happened in the interegnum that could have caused the fire - such as a rat chewing the wires resulting in an electrical short circuit, an improper after-market electrical device installation, and even as CPH had mentioned a child shoving something somewhere in the engine bay) and without a real investigation of the underlying cause neither the manufacturer nor the dealer can straightaway be blamed for the fire.

It is my contention that we speak of cars that burnt only under similar conditions instead of blindly quoting this or that car too burnt. And this is exactly why I raised the query whether any one can cite of a 100% similar instance of a car burning straight out of its dealership.