After The Volkswagen Emission Test Cheating Scandal, BMW Loses Their Credibility In South Korea Following Inexplicable Vehicular Fires
After Volkswagen allegedly tampered with their diesel cars to pass emission tests, BMW, South Korea's most popular foreign car brand, loses credibility in the country following seven vehicles of the brand catching fire inexplicably since October, reported Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday.
The most recent account of BMW vehicular fire happened on Sunday at the Seoul Ring Expressway near the Cheonggye tollgate. The trunk of a BMW 7 series sedan reportedly burst into flames due to unknown cause.
Three other incidents were reported this month involving BWM 5 series sedans occurring in Guri, Gyeonggi on Saturday, Sanagam-dong, western Seoul on Nov. 5 and Goyang, Gyeonggi on Nov. 3.
According to Left Lane on Thursday, three of the seven cases occurred in October, one of which was a brand new 750Ld sedan, which was purchased just one day before the fire, destroying its engine compartment. The two others were 520d sedans, catching fire just days apart in different regions.
Except for the newly purchased 750Ld sedan, all the rest of the torched BWM vehicles were reported to be already at least a decade old.
"We apologize for the fire incidents that occurred with BMW vehicles recently," said BMW Korea CEO Kim Hyo Joon on Tuesday. "We are currently trying to find out the exact causes of the fires in cooperation with our headquarters in Germany and will reveal the inspection result transparently as soon as we get the report. If the cars involved were repaired at our service centers before the incidents, we will give refunds."
Some believe that the fires may have something to do with the recent recall in which 23,000 BMW 520d sedans were ordered by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to be repaired due to possible timing belt defect.
"I fixed the timing belt problem recently at a BMW service center, and the fire broke out and completely burned my car the next day," claimed the owner of the 520d sedan that recently caught fire.
"We're trying to find out whether the part change was related to the fires," said a ministry spokesman. "Since the timing belt isn't installed inside an engine, engineers say there are no technical relations between the component and fires."