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PCP and Car Fire

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mareen7
mareen7 Posts: 16 Forumite
edited 21 November 2018 at 8:58PM in Motoring
Hi All,

Yesterday my 2013 (63 plate) BMW 525D stopped midway through journey and started to catch fire on its own - My wife was lucky to make it out alive. Whatever was remaining on the car was towed away for my insurance to take a look. I spoke to my insurance company today where they confirmed that it is almost certain that the car is a total loss (80% burnt to ground) and once they find that the fault is electrical they will pay out the market value.

I am on a PCP with BMW and my current outstanding is £18,000 but the MV at the moment is around £12,000. I don't have any GAP but i will be short by £6,000 - what are my options?

I have owned this car for just 20 months and have got it serviced by BMW every 6 months/5000 miles - is there a responsibility from BMW to write off the £6,000 because it surely is an issue with this car rather than me just crashing it.

If anyone can help, it would be great.

Thanks,
M
«1

Comments

  • loskie
    loskie Posts: 1,761 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    did you crash it?
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    mareen7 wrote: »
    Hi All,

    Yesterday my 2013 (63 plate) BMW 525D stopped midway through journey and started to catch fire on its own - My wife was lucky to make it out alive. Whatever was remaining on the car was towed away for my insurance to take a look. I spoke to my insurance company today where they confirmed that it is almost certain that the car is a total loss (80% burnt to ground) and once they find that the fault is electrical they will pay out the market value.

    I am on a PCP with BMW and my current outstanding is £18,000 but the MV at the moment is around £12,000. I don't have any PCP but i will be short by £6,000 - what are my options?

    I have owned this car for just 20 months and have got it serviced by BMW every 3 months - is there a responsibility from BMW to write off the £6,000 because it surely is an issue with this car rather than me just crashing it.

    If anyone can help, it would be great.

    Thanks,
    M
    Should that read "I don't have GAP insurance"?
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    I think your options are to find the £6k yourself and hope you can get comp from BMW.
  • wgl2014
    wgl2014 Posts: 1,144 Forumite
    Out of interest how many miles do you do for it to be serviced every 3 months?
  • mareen7
    mareen7 Posts: 16 Forumite
    loskie wrote: »
    did you crash it?
    Nope, just casual london drive to local shops. Stuck in traffic and no response on throttle and smoke comes out of the vents and my wife rushes outside and the car goes on fire.
    neilmcl wrote: »
    Should that read "I don't have GAP insurance"?
    Yes - i will amend the post
    AnotherJoe wrote: »
    I think your options are to find the £6k yourself and hope you can get comp from BMW.
    if this is the case then it sucks that BMW is not taking any responsibility. I understand if i crash it but i have done nothing wrong.
  • mareen7
    mareen7 Posts: 16 Forumite
    wgl2014 wrote: »
    Out of interest how many miles do you do for it to be serviced every 3 months?
    Sorry, should say around 6 months/5,000 miles - which is their cycle.
  • Scrapit
    Scrapit Posts: 2,304 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Is that exactly what gap insurance is for?
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,580 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    BMW are supposed to be recalling loads of diesels because they might burst into flames in extremely rare cases (= very likely to or they wouldn't be recalling them) when the egr cooler springs a leak.


    If that caused the fire, you might get BMW to chip in, but I'd have thought their liability was the market value of the car, so they'd basically re-reimburse your insurer and give you your excess back.
    It isn't BMW's fault that you owe more than it is worth I'm afraid.


    The ones that set on fire because of problems with the battery cable were older than yours.



    You can always type your reg into https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall and see if there was an outstanding recall that BMW should have done before they sold it you- maybe then you might have a bit of leverage.
    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • ratrace
    ratrace Posts: 1,021 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    mareen7 wrote: »
    Sorry, should say around 6 months/5,000 miles - which is their cycle.


    I dont think thats true dude, all the newer stuff is on long life service intervals which i think its too long but 5k or 6months blimey they must be racking in the cash

    as sad as it is BMW are not to blame for the car catching fire unless you can prove that this is a inherent fault with them models, the insurane will only pay you out what the car is worth on the open market they dont care if you have £££'s in negative equity as the newer the car the more it loses in the first few years etc....

    thats the reason gap insurance has been a blessing for a lot of people with new cars
    People are caught up in an egotistic artificial rat race to display a false image to society. We want the biggest house, fanciest car, and we don't mind paying the sky high mortgage to put up that show. We sacrifice our biggest assets our health and time, We feel happy when we see people look up to us and see how successful we are”

    Rat Race
  • Jonesya
    Jonesya Posts: 1,823 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Given the large amount of money at stake and the fact that cars catching fire is incredibly rare, I'd be looking at options under Consumer Rights Act - have a look below, looks like you need to get a specialist technical report from an expert to confirm what caused the fire, to demonstrate it was due to a fault present at the time of purchase.

    https://www.whatcar.com/news/your-legal-rights-if-something-goes-wrong-with-your-car/n3307

    There seems to be an acknowledged issue with the EGRs, so if the fire started in the engine bay, you're starting with an advantage that there's already an acknowledged issue known to potentialy cause fires. But clearly need to check that your vehicle is affected as was due for recall.

    https://www.bmwblog.com/2018/08/08/bmw-starts-technical-campaign-to-fix-faulty-diesel-egr-valves-in-the-eu/
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