— A BMW fire lawsuit alleges a 328i caught on fire while it was parked because electrical problems were never repaired during numerous previous visits to BMW dealers.
The BMW fire lawsuit was filed by California resident Mehvish Mona Shaikh, who leased a new 2013 BMW 328i on July 5, 2013, for a total price of $36,622.75. Everything with the car seemed to be fine until January 2014 when the BMW 328i started allegedly having electrical problems.
The iDrive system used to control various systems of the car shut off while Ms. Shaikh was driving, causing her to contact a BMW dealer for an inspection of the car. After the vehicle was inspected and diagnostics were performed, Ms. Shaikh was told the vehicle only required a software update and the issue had been resolved.
Ms. Shaikh says the iDrive system shut off on her way home from the dealership, so she called the dealer and told them that she refused to wait for an appointment this time. The plaintiff took the BMW to a different dealership in February 2014 and after the car was at the dealer a few days, technicians told the plaintiff there was nothing wrong with the car.
However, the plaintiff says the car continued to experience electrical problems and the iDrive continued to shut off on Ms. Shaikh while she was driving over the next couple of days.
The lawsuit says the BMW was again taken to a dealer on February 26, 2014, and this time the plaintiff was informed the entire iDrive system needed to be replaced due to an electrical problem. After it was replaced, the car allegedly continued to experience electrical problems, so the plaintiff contacted BMW customer relations and filed a complaint.
On May 30, 2014, Ms. Shaikh received an email from Rachael Schultz from BMW’s customer relations department indicating that “Molly” had been previously assisting her, and that Molly would be in touch regarding her concerns.
Not only had Ms. Shaikh allegedly never had any interaction with Molly or anyone else at BMW prior to the email from Ms. Schultz, but neither Molly, nor Ms. Shultz or anyone else ever followed up to assist her.
According to the lawsuit, in September 2014, the passenger front seat malfunctioned and would no longer move forward or back. On September 30, 2014, Ms. Shaikh brought the vehicle in to have this electrical issue fixed and less than two weeks later, the check engine light came on sooner than would be expected for an oil change.
Ms. Shaikh brought the vehicle in on October 10, 2014, and the dealership replaced a faulty O2 electrical sensor.
Then on January 18, 2016, the supposedly repaired iDrive system failed yet again and Ms. Shaikh smelled what appeared to be burning wires while she was driving. The plaintiff says the burning smell scared her and she immediately took her foot off the accelerator and pulled to the side of the road.
The smell dissipated from the passenger compartment after several minutes, however, the iDrive allegedly shut down about 30 minutes later.
Ms. Shaikh made plans to get the BMW 328i back to a dealership, but before she could do that, she was awakened by a loud siren at around 1 a.m. on January 25, 2016. A short time later there was a knock at her door. It was a neighbor there to inform Ms. Shaikh her BMW 328i was on fire.
According to court documents, Ms. Shaikh ran down to her underground parking garage only to see the garage flooded with water and the building surrounded by fire trucks and police vehicles. When she was finally able to see what was left of her BMW 328i, it had been completely destroyed by fire.
A report was prepared at the scene, and a supplemental report was completed following a thorough investigation as to why the car caught fire. The investigator determined that no external factors caused the BMW to catch fire, stating “[t]here is no indication of an intentional fire, nor was there any indication of vandalism or negligence which could have resulted in this fire.”
After the fire, Ms. Shaikh called BMW and asked the automaker to forgive the remaining lease payments since she no longer had the car, and because the fire was allegedly caused by the vehicle’s faulty electrical system.
The plaintiff says even though the car was burned, BMW continued to charge her monthly lease payments which ultimately went into collections and ruined her credit.
Blaming BMW for the alleged electrical problems and fire, Ms. Shaikh says she had no choice but to contact her insurance company for help to pay off the vehicle, even though she did nothing to cause the fire. As a result, she faced increases to her insurance premiums of over $2,500 per year, which will continue for at least the next five years.
The BMW fire lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division -Mehvish Mona Shaikh v. BMW of North America, LLC, et al.
BMW has faced recent scrutiny concerning car fires after an ABC News report in May looked at reports of BMW fires occurring while the vehicles were parked. ABC says it's a "mystery" why the cars catch on fire, but the automaker responded to the report by saying it investigated the reports and could find no pattern to the fires and no defects.
The ABC report says "more than 40" BMW fires have been reported over the past five years, but didn't say which models were among the bunch. In one part of the report, ABC says a "2003 BMW" caught on fire and then described another fire in a "2011 BMW." The one model mentioned was a 2008 BMW X5, so it's clear that fires occurred over a span of model years.
Car fires occur to every automaker, and BMW told ABC that with nearly 5 million vehicles on U.S. roads, car fires for the automaker are rare and can occur from numerous causes such as faulty maintenance, aftermarket parts installed on the cars and even nests created by rodents. One BMW owner said he believed the fire may have been related to a new battery that was installed days before the fire.
The ABC report emphasized how fires occurred in parked cars, but an expert interviewed explained a car is never fully shut off. Once the engine is shut down, the electrical system never stops, something that will never change as vehicles run on computers that are always sending electrical current throughout the cars.
CarComplaints.com will update our website with results of the BMW fire lawsuit.
"I don't understand, how a BMW at sixty thousand dollars, a luxury car, could catch on fire without the engine even being on?" said Mucciacciaro.
The flames went as high as their balcony, and though firefighters arrived quickly to the scene, the car was completely destroyed.
The engineer hired by their insurance company determined that the fire was started by defective electrical circuits.
The couple's insurance company compensated them for the market value of a used car, but they said they were expecting more from BMW to make up for the stress.
After multiple calls, the company offered them a five per cent discount towards a new BMW, which Mucciacciaro said he won't be taking them up on.
The car was completely destroyed by the fire. (CBC)
"They can keep their five per cent," he said, adding that his next car will not be a BMW.
The I-Team and ABC News are looking into a BMW mystery, dozens of reports of cars erupting into flames, some when they're not even running, from across the country.
The I-Team has learned of a possible problem in some BMW vehicles. Some of the fires were captured on camera, and the I-Team found Chicago area customers who also say their cars went up in flames.
Kelly Kolep took dramatic photos of her 2000 BMW 5-series, charred. Burned to a crisp.
"What happens if we would have lost our lives? You can't bring us back; you can't bring my children back to me. And that's what I want them to understand," she said before she started crying.
Her husband Tyrone Brown still holds on to the hub caps.
"I was devastated and hurt," he said.
The flames went up, Kolep said, just minutes after she started her car. Fortunately, she and her children were not yet inside. The car was towed to the junkyard.
"Thank god my children were not in that car, otherwise me and my children would not be here today to tell you this story. And it's hard to sit right here and relive that moment," Kopel said.
The Rantoul Fire Department report from June 2015 only says that the "owner stated it stared [sic] in the glove box." The fire chief told the I-Team it wasn't arson. Kolep purchased the car used from a dealership 17 months before the fire.
The I-Team and ABC News found dozens of reports of similar BMW fires in the last five years around the country and Canada. Some fires were caught on video in parking lots, some fires set homes on fire.
Photos, YouTube videos, reports from fire departments and owner complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They include different makes and models of BMWs dating as far back as 1999. Some models were under recall for a fire risk; most were not.
BMW said with about 4.9 million vehicles on U.S. roads, fire incidents are very rare.
"The interior was completely demolished," Angel Lopez of Rogers Park said.
The I-Team tracked down Lopez after obtaining a record of his BMW fire report through the U.S. Fire Administration.
"I was like, 'The car just started by itself.' And they were like, that's very suspicious, and I'm like, 'That's what happened," he said.
Like Kolep, Lopez said the fire started in the passenger side glove compartment, but unlike Kolep's car he said his was not running. Like many of the cases, Lopez said his keys weren't even in the ignition.
"The engine may be off but all of the electric power systems that are going to do things like keep that high pressure fuel pump ready," said Sean Kane of the Center for Auto Safety.
Kane said even if the engines are off, the systems are always on in high performance vehicles like BMWs.
ABC News sent its findings to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While NHTSA said at this time it has found no evidence pointing to a safety defect, the agency is asking for BMW owners who have experienced this issue to reach out to them directly.
"A lot of times these kind of problems get masked or buried into this pool of fire and no direct cause or origin," he said.
BMW said it "takes every incident very seriously and has a dedicated team prepared to work with BMW owners... We have not seen any pattern related to quality or component failure. Vehicle fires can result from a wide variety of external reasons..."
And it said "external factors like poor maintenance, aftermarket changes and even rodent nesting can cause fires."
BMW encourages owners to maintain their cars at authorized BMW dealerships.
Kolep said in the short time she had the car she received oil changes at a nearby mechanic shop, but Lopez said he only brought his car to a BMW-certified mechanic.
"Of course BMW couldn't' do anything about it, it was a used car, now, and they were just no help," Lopez said.
"They won't help us, why?" Kolep wondered.
Kolep said BMW did tell her they would give her a "special deal" if she bought a brand new BMW at a dealership. The I-Team also gave BMW the information of the two consumers featured in this story, but they did not respond to the specific cases.
ABC News and chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross will have more on this story starting Thursday on Good Morning America and on Nightline, finding more cases of BMW fires including reports of a string of incidents in South Korea and what's being done there.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave the I-Team a statement, saying:
"The U.S. DOT and NHTSA's focus is on public safety. Motorists are encouraged to report potential safety issues to the agency, including strange and unexplainable incidents involving their vehicles. On NHTSA's website www.nhtsa.gov, vehicle owners can send a complaint and upload accompanying photos, police reports, insurance reports and other information that may be relevant. While on the site, owners can also check for open recalls using NHTSA's free look up tool."
