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3K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  thumper_330 
#1 ·


UFC legend Randy Couture is thanking his lucky stars -- because his manager narrowly dodged a gruesome death this month in L.A. ... when his BMW spontaneously burst into flames .... and TMZ has video of the fiery inferno.

Randy's manager Sam Spira tells TMZ, he was driving to a friend's house several days ago when "without any warning, my BMW X6M burst into flames, exploded and was completely totaled."
Full story and video of the fire on TMZ.com

UFC Fighting, Randy Couture
 
#3 ·
Well, the reason that BMW isn't returning his calls right now is that no doubt there is a police investigation into the fire. As soon as an investigation like that is started the lawyers basically put the company in a lockdown mode where they are unable to talk about it to anyone. Basic corporate law; the company I do does the exact same.

There are too many unknowns here to make a judgment about what happened; were there modifications to the car? Recent maintenance? Was there ill-repaired damage from an accident or incident?

While it's possible it could have been a manufacturing defect, depending on the age of the car it's far more likely that something happened after the car was sold that led to this problem. The fact that it had been implied that the car was older (Randy Couture mentioned riding in it several times) I would say either badly repaired damage or a failure of maintenance.

I have seen car fires like this that were caused by someone not tightening down a head bolt properly after a gasket replacement... or failing to properly torque a fuel line. Too many variables to make a judgment... and I don't blame BMW for this at all; they're protecting their interests by refusing to talk about it just like any other corporation would do until the results of the investigation are in.
 
#4 ·
I completely disagree with most of the post above. This was my car. BMW NA and the dealer, have obviously answered my calls and emails. However, they have done nothing to figure out what happened - other than offering me a net $250 owners loyalty credit towards another BMW. I told them that it seemed to me what was more important was ensuring the safety of the general public - determine if this was a one-off or systemic. If BMW won't even stand behind their brand and product to at least figure out what type of problem happened here - I don't know what to tell you - especially after promising to do so.

The car was serviced at Center BMW in Sherman Oaks, CA from October 25th - November 2nd for an engine malfunction. Center BMW and BMW NA decided to replace all eight (8) fuel injectors as well as other fixes. I picked the car up on the evening of November 2nd and barely drove the car. The next day, November 3rd, was when the fire occurred. And it happened just like I said. Both my kids were in the car - we had only 15 seconds to get out prior to the passenger compartment becoming engulfed in flames. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen.

And the passenger's door would not open and I had to drag my daughter out my side of the car. My 9 year old son, who was sitting behind me, got out very quickly. I burned my hand as I got out of the car as the flames were already sweeping past the driver's door.

Not sure how anyone could come to any conclusion other than the direct correlation between the week-long service and the car catching on fire and exploding. And I don't see how anyone who owns a BMW would be satisfied with your theory of BMW just ignoring the problem and hoping it will just go away - as being remotely acceptable.

Sam
 
#7 ·
Sam, welcome to the 'fest... and I think you misread my message.

Simply put; BMW will not make any statement until an investigation into the cause is complete. This is not hoping the problem will go away; it's simple Corporate legal crap that all corporations do. They don't want to say anything because to do so would be to commit themselves to an answer before all the facts were in. Even once all the facts were in, saying they will provide you any sort of resolution before legal has had a chance to weigh in (which could take weeks) is actually automatically going to be a falsehood on their part. Like it or not, corporations are run by lawyers.

Second, BMW isn't the ones who have to do anything here; the dealership replaced the parts, not BMW. BMW is not involved and all the dealerships are franchises and therefore not directly answerable to BMW.

Finally, truthfully this is an insurance issue now. Your insurance should cover replacement cost of the vehicle, and at that point they are responsible for the investigation into the cause. If they find the dealership is liable then you can partake of their lawsuit, file your own lawsuit or just choose to walk away. That's your call (though my non-professional advice would be to seek your own legal counsel for your own lawsuit).

I am glad no-one was hurt... and yes you went through a terrifying ordeal that I hope noone else does; but at the same time this really is between your insurance company and the dealer at this point. Even BMW is legally obliged not to get involved unless the investigation finds that the problem was a design or manufacturing flaw. I don't believe that there's a design flaw here because (a) we'd have heard about a lot more of these kinds of events and (b) a design or manufacturing flaw is most likely to come up soon after a vehicle is manufactured. Basically by the time a vehicle is a year old, manufacturing defects mostly will have worked themselves out... and design flaws... well they tend to come up a lot sooner. Considering how long your particular vehicle has been in production a design flaw seems unlikely.

I realize that in your current understandably emotional state you may be leery of BMW... I know I probably would be. But please understand I was merely trying to convey the fact that there is a process when stuff like this happens; first you get your insurance involved and they pay out for repair or replacement. It is then up to the insurance company to move on and attempt to find the root cause of the issue and then seek retribution from the party deemed responsible for the fire. Given the situation as I said, I would urge you to seek legal counsel regarding pain and suffering against the dealership... but understand that nothing will happen until the official investigation is complete.

You pay insurance on a vehicle for a reason; partly so that you have money to replace your lost goods (the car) and partly so that you can let them deal with the problems that come after (finding the responsible party, retribution, legal wranglings and so forth).

TL;DR: Seek legal counsel on whether you can file a lawsuit... leave the identification of the guilty party to your insurance company... buy a new car... hug your kids.
 
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