Duck_Pond

Not sure if this has been commented on before... but last night's episode of the BBC programme Watchdog, again had a feature on the problem with Peugeot's 406 HDi which can spontaneously combust!

Apparently it's a problem with the fan, which can let in water, short-circuit and set fire to the car.

There have been several incidents where the car has gone up in flames when parked up, causing damage to the car (obviously) and also to anything near it... including other cars, garages, and even a house (the fire managed to engage the starter motor, the car was left in reverse, and it shunted backwards into the house, setting fire to that!! )

Yet Peugeot don't seem to give a toss about this. Sure, they had some uncomfortable-looking representative on the programme last night promising compensation, and that they had now started a recall for the cars affected... but the problem was reported to them weeks back, and only now, they're getting down to it.

Seems very poor to me, from a company such as Peugeot, that their concern for the safety of their customers is so low on their list of priorities.

Let's face it, if the problem had been say, an issue with the stitching on a seat, then fine - take your time to fix it, but in this case, where the car can burst into flames, and hence kill the occupants, you'd have hoped for a better response.

They even took the mick on the compensation - one lady had her car wrecked by the incident, plus her drive was ruined, and some other damage... and all that increased her insurance premiums etc, which she had to foot the bill for. So Peugeot gave her a replacement car... and then recalled that very car to have the fault fixed!!!

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

My Dad has a 406 HDi lots of my colleagues here at work have them too and they have all been piles of sh!te in general I am not sure I would be happy if I was my parents because they use theirs for towing their caravan and park it next to their caravan on their campsite most weekends Is there any more info on this story anwhere? Do watchdog have a site?

Paul

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

A quick search produced this

WATCHDOG
16 September 2003
Peugeot 406

The Peugeot 406 is one the UK’s biggest selling cars. However, it seems you don’t even have to drive the car to be at risk.

Alf and Beryl White were just two of a number of people who contacted Watchdog. They were at home watching TV when they heard an explosion outside. Alf had parked his Peugeot 406 on his drive under their car port. When he investigated the explosion he saw his car engulfed in flames. The car was a write off, the fence, car port and driveway were all badly damaged. Peugeot told the Whites that they thought the problem was "of an electrical nature in or around the cooling fan area."

Alf and Beryl weren’t the only ones to fall victim to this seemingly spontaneous combustion. Alistair and Lynda Grote were asleep when their 406 caught fire. Another owner Mrs Eustice also suffered a fire. This time she and her children were in the car. She reversed up her drive and noticed smoke. Peugeot have offered her a replacement 406.

Independent fire expert Steve Hannaford says the problem affects 2002 model Peugeot 406’s with diesel engine and air conditioning. Peugeot knew about the problem in Feb 2003 but didn’t decide to recall until May 2003.

Rod Phillpot, Director of Parts and Services Peugeot UK says: "They have had a difficult time with those cars but they are on track to sort out the problem." With regard to the recall he said they had followed the terms and conditions of the vehicle inspectorate and 80% of cars effected by this problem had been recalled and fixed. He also said that Peugeot want to apologise to customers and if any compensation is necessary to customers they will fix it.

pugoetru

it only seems to affect hdi cars with aircon oh well!

that means most of them

what would scooby do

Peugeot=french=sh1te

simple

BOB.T

I agree it's poor of Pug to have such a big fault but they didn't do it on purpose and to a point I can see why there has been such a delay in dealing with it. Obviously it takes time to see that there is a problem, you're not gonna recall 000s of cars because 1 had a problem. You need to find a solution, again this takes time. You need to source replacement parts, make dealers aware of the problem before they're flooded with customers, you need to inform customers and then there's the massive cost of it all!

Realistically, what's the alternative, tell everyone to not use their car and disconnect the battery! That's all I can think of, imagine the outrage that would cause!!

I wonder how many have fired versus those that haven't?

Duck_Pond

Quote: "imagine the outrage that would cause!!"

Imagine the outrage of the Directors of Peugeot when confronted with a law-suit from a family of someone who has died from a fire on their car, when they discover that someone in the company was aware of the potential hazard, but had done nothing about it.

And there was no denying that they knew because a popular TV show had aired the proof months in advance.

Let's face it - the owners of "Pug" are bl**dy lucky that no-one has died from this f**k up.

BOB.T

Pug have recalled the cars though!

How could it have been handled better then?

I have no reason to stick up for Pug, I just think it seems a bit harsh to have a go at them over something they're dealing with.

NACRO

The program gave an example of someone who was told there was no general safety problem with the cars- 2 weeks before they'd contacted another owner and told him there was a safety related recall. There is also evidence that they knew about the problem months before doing the recall. They also refused to compensate people for damage caused by their shoddy cars.

I think that might be why people are (quite rightly) putting the boot in.

pugoetru

you will probably find the offending cars were made in britain