One of the incidents involved a 750Ld that was reportedly destroyed after a fire ignited in the engine compartment. It had been purchased the previous day, according to The Chosun Ilbo.
A separate report in The Korea Times suggests two 520d sedans were torched in separate regions just days apart, while another 5-Series sedan caught fire just last week.
Altogether, at least seven BMW-badged vehicles have reportedly caught fire in Korea within two months. Interestingly, most of the fires are said to have involved vehicles at least a decade old.
“We first would like to apologize for causing grave concerns to our customers,” BMW Korea chief Kim Hyo-joon said in a statement. We are currently examining a 5-Series vehicle, which caught fire on November 3 … We are also working with the company headquarters in Germany to find out the cause as quickly as possible.”
The executive pointed out that three of the cars “had a history of maintenance at non-BMW shops,” however the company has stopped short of directly blaming third-party service technicians.
One owner claims BMW technicians worked on his 520d a day before it ignited. The car had allegedly received service related to a timing-belt recall, implemented to prevent the engine from unexpectedly stopping while underway.
“Since the timing belt isn’t installed inside an engine, engineers say there are no technical relations between the component and fires,” Korea’s Transport Ministry told the Korea JoongAng Daily, downplaying speculation of a potential connection.
Negative attention focused on Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and the BMW fires has been blamed for a dip in imports of foreign vehicles.
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