[2cents]

Looks like its the fuel tank area where it started. Could be a leak, which got ignited. Lucky that the owner got out by then.

I still would give it the benefit of doubt till details emerge, and definitely not compare it with the Nano so soon.

[@Chaand]

Good that there are no lives and limbs lost.

My first thought (even before I read the article) was that this must be CNG/LPG retrofited skoda. OPening the link clarified my doubts.

Tata Nano has some serious competition now!

[MARCUS_520i]

Comparing ONE flare-up incident on the Skoda side to the MANY that happened on the Tata side would be unjust.

The Nanos that burned to the ground were either spanking brand new or at least a couple of months old. It was a manufacturing flaw. The Octavia in question is three years old.

Now I do understand that since it belongs to one of the journalists, no wait... senior jounalists, the issue and the person are getting a lot of footage! But them saying, and I quote, "I cannot fathom why a luxury car from a reputed brand caught fire" unquote, is plain naive. I wonder what the owners of the burnt Ferraris and Lamborghinis have to say! If one goes through the article, you can see that the person who supposedly 'owns' the car was not the one driving, but it was someone else from their family.

A three year old car driven by multiple people, obviously with different driving styles is subject to having gone through a rough patch at least once in it's life(which is over now!).
Maybe a bumpy ride or some wiring changes in the boot somewhere back in time caused some damage there which took it's toll now. Agreed that the insurance/warranty will take care of what has happened, but I doubt that it's the car's fault! Just my POV though.

[bluevolt]

This is sad incident and that too with a Skoda car. Thank god your friend is safe. I read the article and according to that the car was new and no CNG/LPG was installed. Now that doubles up the worry, how such thing happened to a fairly new car? It will be interesting to see what Skoda do in this matter.

[jinojohnt]

While it's too early to start thrashing skoda for this, I feel that 'multiple people driving a car and bumpy ride' are flimsy reasons for a car to go up in flames. (Don't give ideas to skoda, they'll start using this to refuse warranty ) Wiring changes causing fires is more believable.

[xingamazon]

Guys, In a forum like Team -BHP one should enforce some restraint before making any comments like what have been done above.

Just because one car goes all flames doesnt mean Skodas are bad. Understand that a car like this can go for flames owing to many reasons starting from wrong wiring to ignored petrol tank leak.

Of these reasons, only 10% are actually attributed to the manufacturers error. Until Skoda comes out with thier investigation (which is unfortunately not published by scibes like this), no one should be blindly commenting on Skoda.

Additionally, note that if the wiring of the car were handled by the local mechanic (for fitting audio etc) then the warranty would be void, thus making Skoda not responsible for this.

Thats why please show restraint until on gets to see facts..

[mayankk]

^^egg-zhactly!!
It may be the car's/manufacturers fault, or it may be the owners fault.
I am not trying to point fingers here, but the main reason this came up in the newspaper with so much column space was because it was a scribe(HT, i believe).
lets see how this develops.

[mishraak]

Just had a word with my friend, I have introduced him to this forum and have invited him to join it.

It was God's grace that no one from the family was with him, or stories might have been serious.

He says there was absolutely no smell or diesel. He did not even smell any wire burning.

He keeps his car well maintained and is a frequenter of SilverTone Motors Okhla. This time he got it done at some service station at Motinagar, possibly new station of SilverTone. He is doubtful of the service station activity.

He updated that GM of Skoda called him up last night, he said to skoda guy that "I will talk to you after insurance evaluations are done...".

[johnjacob]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Understand that a car like this can go for flames owing to many reasons starting from wrong wiring to ignored petrol tank leak.

Another possibility is rodents like rats could chew on the wiring eventually causing a short circuit that could start the fire.

[EasyR1der]

I know skoda has a bad image in india (specially when the issues are being discussed in depth on TBHp) but i have driven skoda in Europe it aint as a bad car.
And i think Skoda and big daddy WV are trying real hard to re-work on Skoda's image.

We should know more about this incident before we burn da wi*** on the stake.

[phamilyman]

Hold on folks.

Was the locking mechanism original? I ask because for e.g I have an autocop. Something like it if badly fitted can be responsible for the problem, no?

[fuel_addict]

That looks really bad. Glad no one was injured. I hope Skoda does not have another case to add to their ever growing list of woes due to this incident. Lets hope your friend gets the compensation he deserves from Skoda assuming they are to blame. Modifications to any of the wiring/additional electrical fittings could have also led to this as pointed out by others.

[GTO]

C'mon guys, back the truck up! The Octavia has been on sale for like a decade in India now, and it certainly does not have a reputation of going up in flames. In fact, I haven't heard of any other Octavia burning to the ground.

While a problem with this particular car cannot be ruled out, I do think an after-market install has caused the fire (as it is in most cases). Since the car wears after-market wheels, we can safely presume it to have had an after-market stereo too? And just the fact that smoke started pouring out after the car was locked, makes me believe that the locking system (either original or after-market) is at fault here.

I'm just glad the car owner wasn't seated in the car when it happened.

[mac187]

If the insurance guys do the examination there would be a better picture. Skoda's investigation will not be a fair one.

On the lighter side, this is a good way to get rid of the Skoda compared to burning your money!

[@Chaand]

Originally Posted by GTO

In fact, I haven't heard of any other Octavia burning to the ground.

I remember once such incident happening in Hyderabad two years ago. But dont have any proofs/links to validate this :(