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-   -   Brand new 2021 Honda City (4th-gen) catches fire, destroyed (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/244695-brand-new-2021-honda-city-4th-gen-catches-fire-destroyed.html)

Thanks to Saket Saurabh for sending this in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page!

This is horrifying, to say the least. How can honda be so irresponsible to the incident? They and dealership should jointly own the responsibility of finding a solution to this issue and resolve it.

Some mistake has happened during 1st service and now they are trying to cover up by not responding to owner.

Suggest owner to keep all communications official, record all the calls and start publishing in social media. Also, suggest him to write to Honda senior management by taking email id from web.

Honda, you have to respond and respect your customers.

PS: To grab more attention of team members to suggest actions, request MODS to move this to new thread.

Sorry to hear of an almost new car having to suffer this fate. I fully empathize with the owner. I'm just presenting an argument based on whatever has been reported. It hopefully might help in knowing what caused the fire.

1. Based on the details provided, the car was driven to Chikmagalur twelve days after the car was serviced. The 7 hour drive was uneventful.
2. The car was fine on the night of 5th November and all of 6th November till approx. 10.30pm. The incident has occured just before 10.30pm on the night of 6th November, six hours after the car was parked for the day.
3. From the images, the right side of the car has borne the brunt of the fire ( looking at the right ORVM , the right headlamp and the right portion of the grille) .The fire has originated from inside the engine bay somewhere to the right side of the car.
4. The flame has impacted the hood and because it got deformed, the hood support frame got detached from the hood top.

There is no fuel line on the right side of the car.The only hot surface there in that portion is, IIRC the exhaust manifold, but then, even that would have gone to ambient temperature in 3 hours max. (viz. 7.30 pm of 6th November)

If you can get CCTV footage, it would throw more light on what has happened. It definitely cannot be a short circuit as most people happily report.

@saket saurabh, firstly, I'm sad for the fire accident. Glad to know that both you and your wife are safe. Please share if any third-party accessories were fitted in the car. RSA not coming to the aid is appalling. Was the RSA taken from Honda? Request you to share the details.

Assuming that no third-party accessories were fitted:

1. Escalate to Honda customer care. They usually transfer the case to a dealer, though, which is a sore point. But you have no choice in this matter.
2. Work with the Insurance company as well. I do hope that insurance from Honda approved company has been taken. This will make your experience a bit better.
3. This whole episode will be very stressful. One has to power through this phase. There is no other option.
4. Please document all communications with Honda, and the dealership.
5. Inform the police and get a report from them on the accident. This will help with Insurance.

These are the points that I can think of. Experts can add in more.

Regards,
lsjey

[Mods: Please move this to a new thread. This deserves it.]

Oh boy. Such a horrific incident, feel sorry for the owner. More than financial impact, the traumatic experience will have more impact as an owner.

Quick question, has the owner fitted any aftermarket accessories in the car? Like aftermarket headlights like LED or HID. If wiring is not done properly, this is possible. I have been seeing many videos on YouTube where new cars are being modified from day one.

Another possibility is rodents issue. They might have messed with the wiring as the vehicle is parked on road side. Not sure. Recently seen a video of new Nexon catching fire on road.

I hope these incidents are investigated properly by authorities.

Thankful that you and your wife are safe!
Considering the number of hours after which the car was parked that the fire started, nothing in the engine bay or anywhere else in the car would be even warm, let alone hot enough to catch fire from even an external source of ignition.

This does seem to be a very weird situation, short-circuit is the obvious go-to in such cases, but that does seem unlikely.

Hopefully you're able to get a solution from Honda and compensated for your loss. Its heartbreaking to see a new car like this suffer such an incident.

Really sorry to hear about this unfortunate incident. What is the latest you got from insurance adjuster/ honda service.
Since it happened 6 hours after you parked, makes it really strange.
Any ways of finding out if battery exploded ( may be was already leaking or damaged?)

Horrific and unbelievable.

First thought is glad that no one was around the car and no one suffered any injuries.

But it is tragic to see a new car engulfed in flames and it is much more outrageous Honda did not attempt to address the issue and as per the report of the owner, no additional works are done on the car.

The USP of the Honda City is its impeccable reliability and that is the biggest reason why the Honda is able to move the numbers in this age of Seltos & Cretas & Sonets.

If that forte is also compromised, not many would choose the brand. I hope the Honda addresses the issue empathetically.

Request the mods to make this a new thread.

An unfortunate incident. It is really sad to see ones brand new ride burning.

Just to rule out any unruly act of vandalism, hope the owner got to check CCTV footage of the hotel.

So, how does one go about claiming insurance is these cases,
- do they insist on a police report?
- the car is moved, transported to Bangalore, so how to do a forensic examination?
- Or should we insist on insurance company to survey on the incident spot? (Might not be practical if the 3rd party property on which it is parked insists on it be moved or when such incidents on busy roads).

Hope the owner tides over this incident and the insurance company supports well.

A similar incident occurred at my friends apartment, couple of months old Honda WR-V was parked in the parking lot and it suddenly caught fire.

Being the eternal pessimist a few questions,
- Did you have an argument with someone on the road or in the resort (including its staff) ?
- Did you notice anything strange where your car was parked?

Trying to rule out the sabotage angle here. Please get CCTV footage for that areas if available

If no aftermarket fittings were installed, and the fire occured after the car had fully cooled down from it's last trip, shouldn't arson angle too be considered? Did the parking area have CC cameras?

This is absolutely horrific. I am glad you are your wife are safe. I own a City 4th gen and it sent shivers down my spine.

As other members have pointed out, Arson cannot be ruled out here considering that the car caught fire 6 hours after being parked. Please ask for CCTV footage and comb it thoroughly. You may need it for your Insurance claim.

A very unfortunate event, and an event that no car owner should go through. After going through this incident it just makes me wonder what might have caused this incident. From my point of view:
1) Each and every car is tested extensively before rolling out of the manufacturing plant. I have experience working in a manufacturing plant and I have seen this first hand. The car being a Honda the margin of error while production might be very negligible. Since it was just serviced few days ago, I anticipate there was an issue while refilling the coolent. But as it was mentioned that the fire started 3 hours after the car was parked, this approach is not suggestible, but I would rather suggest to investigate in this angle as there might have been some issue with the coolent.
2) Arson angle might also be one way to go.

As the damage is already done and we need to focus on remediation than finding a cause for this event. I would like you to focus more on the remediation. This whole event might be very stressful but please remember all the bad times end and I am very grateful that you and your family were not inside the car during this event.

Steps for Remediation

1) As you have got the insurance for the car you ll be reembursed, but I would suggest to follow up very frequently with the guy who raises the claim and be proactive while raising the claim.
2) The dealer will always try to cover up what has happened. Please reach out to the Honda management in India & Japan to escalate the issue as soon as possible.
customer_relations@hondacarindia.com
corporate@hondacarindia.com

CEO email gnakanishi@hondacarindia.com
Head of Sales : Dharmendar Kapoor (you can find his account on Linked In)
Head of Marketing : Shakeel Anjum (you can find his account on Linked In)
Please check linked in for point of contacts to honda management.
3) Please post this in twitter and other social media sites mentioning all the auto blogs in India to grab the attention of the management.
4) Write to Autocar india as they help customers with issues like this.
5) I hope it doesn't come to this but file a case in the consumer court if nothing works.

Sad for the incidence.

Resorts are a happy area to attact small animals especially rats etc. Given the cold it can also attact slightly bigger animals like cats. Being prone to rat damage I would just put a word of caution that a short may have caused this.