Consumers enraged by BMW’s deceptive business practice

Another BMW caught fire while parked in Gwangju City, doing damage to two nearby vehicles.

According to the Gwangsan Police Station in Gwangju on Tuesday, a case was filed at 6:24 p.m. Monday regarding a fire accident on a BMW 320d, parked at an apartment complex in Dosan-dong, Gwangju. Firefighters put out the fire in about 10 minutes with no casualties.

The accident burned down the engine room of the vehicle in question, causing soot and melting down plastic exterior parts of a K5 and a Morning, which were parked nearby. The fire authorities see that the car in the accident is not subject to safety inspection advised by the government following a series of fires on BMW vehicles.

The owner of the car, 46, said that he saw the engine room fuming out smoke on his way home from his store three to four kilometers away. According to his testimony, he called 119 as flare occurred while driving, but he had to park the car in the apartment parking lot because he failed to find a place to park on the way to home. He said that he thought of receiving safety inspection but he did not because his car did not qualify for the inspection.

The public-private investigation group on BMW fire accidents revealed in its final report briefing on Monday that it acquired a bunch of evidence that the car producer had hidden and minimized defects and taken inept approach to recalls.


Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com