Government opens probe into GM SUV fires

Government opens probe into GM SUV fires

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is investigating reports of engine fires in General Motors' full-size sport utility vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a posting on its Web site that it has received two reports of fires on 2007 model year Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs.

Both reports allege that the vehicles were parked in a home garage with the engine shut off when the fires occurred, causing significant property damage.

The investigation, which also includes the 2007 GMC Yukon SUV, involves about 423,000 SUVs.

General Motors Corp. spokesman Alan Adler said Monday the company was cooperating with the government. "We didn't have anything on our radar. We didn't see anything on this one that suggests a pattern or trend," he said.

Ford Motor Co. has recalled about 10 million trucks, SUVs and vans following reports of fires while the vehicle was turned off and parked. The recalls have involved a faulty cruise control switch system.

Adler said the GM vehicles do not use the same kind of cruise control switch.

Reply to
Jim Higgins
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Greetings,

I have been wired-in to the fire and emergency service departments here in central Florida for the past 2 1/2 decades and I can tell you with a certain degree of authority that the number of fires involving Ford light trucks is probably underreported to the NHTSA, etc. In fact, we had yet another one here just recently where the fire from the truck was just starting to impinge on the eave and garage door of the house before it could be knocked down. Good thing the truck was parked outside or it would have been much, much worse.

Looking back over my past experience, the only trend that I can recall involving GM truck fires was arson, and even then probably only a coincidence. You're going to have to do an awful lot of data mining in fire incident reports to come up with anything even remotely like a pattern in GM truck fires that wasn't either deliberately set or related to an auto accident that was so severe it wouldn't have mattered what vehicle was involved.

Cheers - Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan

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