Vauxhall blasted by MPs over Zafira fires
Manufacturer was said to have shown a ‘reckless disregard for safety’ of drivers
Vauxhall was “too slow to alert drivers of real safety concerns” after a pattern of fires in its cars was identified, say ministers.
The first report of a Zafira fire came in 2009, and concern was raised to Vauxhall in 2014 when the issue started to form a pattern. However, the manufacturer waited until August 2015 to actually look into the issue.
Now, MPs on the Transport Committee have claimed that Vauxhall showed “a reckless disregard to safety” of drivers, and was “too quick to attribute them to improper and unauthorised repair”.
Louise Eliman, chair of the committee, said: “Vehicle fires are terrifying for their occupants and other road users. In this inquiry, we heard how one car manufacturer was too slow to acknowledge drivers’ concerns, too slow to begin an investigation, too slow to address the causes and too slow to alert drivers of real safety concerns. Drivers and their families were needlessly put at risk.
“Despite Vauxhall blaming the fires on unauthorised repair by third parties, no effort was made to find out where this may have taken place. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) should consider how information to prevent improper and dangerous repairs can be collated for future vehicle safety issues.”
Vauxhall issued a statement in response to the Transport Select Committee report, which said: “Vauxhall acknowledges that there are lessons learned from the cases of fire in Zafira B models.
“We have made improvements to the way we investigate cases of vehicle fire and strengthened our recall process to ensure vehicle safety and to minimise customer inconvenience.”
The manufacturer explained that it had made “good progress” with a second recall, and that 183,172 cars to date had been put through the procedure. It also said that it “act[ed] with urgency based on the information available” when it first discovered the issue.
The statement added: “We apologise to anyone who has experienced anguish or distress as a result of this incident. Nothing is more important to us than safety. We go to enormous lengths to maintain the safety of our vehicles and we have strengthened these processes further as a result of the learnings from Zafira B.”
