1 year old vento catches fire in Pune

I am not so confident about fully electrical locks in current day cars. No matter what protection can be given to keep the system alive, it always requires external power, from the battery or even its own backup. Instead, why dont manufacturers continue the electro-mechanic version? It will be useful if there is an electrical failure. Even if the motorised system fails, we can operate the door lock manually without trouble. Also, in such incidents, I believe mechanical systems fail a lot later than the electronic circuit does hence, I believe they can be relied upon. Any pointers?

Between all this I hope VW comes through with honesty and the Indian establishment takes serious note of this. However given the crony capitalism here little can be expected.

@Sankalp - its got to do with greed and the rush to maximise profit. Why let outdated stuff come in the way of new-fangled fully-automatic stuff? Ever since the central locking motors in my car failed one by one, I have only removed each leaving just the manual (mechanically operated) door lock. Yes its a little more effort checking each door and manually locking them but I can rest assured that the doors will open when I want them to! Its like this: Inventing a high tech pen that will work upside down or in zero gravity v/s using a pencil for the same...! Unfortunately nowadays the former is the fad.

It is really very scary news. It should not be happen. As the VW is a Brand and supplies excellent cars but then why there is no option for good safety.

I have seen the news in http://www.wheelomania.com/2012/01/vw-vento-caught-fire-near-roopali.html

If cars going to catches fire like this then no one would be able to trust on a Brand of cars.

Giving a mechanical linkage to the locks is the best override method in my opinion. At least it wont be much affected in the initial stages of the flame. Another question is that how can the manufacturer take possession of the vehicle now? Is it not a property of the owner?

Please clarify, all the seat belt systems in cars are operated manually right ? or is there a automatic one in these luxury cars ? can't understand clearly.

Normally we need to pull the seat belt and lock it(manual) and also even the car has a auto lock system, still the doors with a kind of lever , can be operated to exit out.

Surya, in some modern cars, the locking system will be purely electronic. When you want to unlock or lock, you just have to press a switch. But in lower end cars, there is a mechanical linkage. In your car too, there is a cable operated lock. The remote locking system will just act as a piggyback, ie it will replicate the locking action if you want to do so with the remote. So, if your remote system fails, you can operate the doorlock by hand. In cars like the vento, etc its not possible.

from what i gather, it appears to be a fuel leak near the engine. as long as the car was moving, the fire was starved of oxygen due to the moving car, but as the car slowed down to park, fuel rich air under the bonnet flared up so fiercely that there was nothing for the poor owner to do.

also the driver could open the door on his own. it was his seat belt that got jammed. probably due to the heat deforming the buckle mechanism just enough to make that the one thing that prevented the driver from escaping the fire.

do i have any faith that VW would come clean on this? after reading about how they rate their indian customers, i feel we should be lucky if they even give the family peanuts in exchange for them to sign some letter saying that the owner tampered with the car / was smoking / was carrying inflammable materials in the car.

It appears that in this case, news is little slow to come (FREEDOM OF PRESS).  Is it the first case of auto fire in recent years causing death, in India???  Anyway, # of auto fire in India is little on higher side.

Seeing a photograph of burning Vento TDI (#23), I feel fire started in passenger compartment (not under the hood), closer to driver, causing major burn.  Driver door lock became inoperative and either driver froze seeing fire  and smoke or seat belt manual release button jammed due to heat (plastic and metal).   Though by any International standard Vento is a good car costing close to one Million INR (not affordable by many)

Most global cars have fire retardant type upholstery and passenger cabin material but in India, seat covers are very popular and common, which may not have same heat and fire quality.  Some time back, it was also a serious concern with burning of Indian Railway coaches. 

It gives me spine chill, if the burning car would have been New Swift with plastic gas tank and 40 L gas in tank, car may have exploded like a huge petrol bomb and may have caused lot more damage and a possible terror scare.  I guess, India is the only country where NEW Swift (and possibly Dezire) is sold with plastic gas tank due to poor safety regulation and to maximize profit, as mentioned by Rohit (#22).  Your high tech pen example/joke is very common with NASA.  I have seen lot more power window motor failure at odd moment than locks.

In my view, fact finding should be performed by an independent agency rather than VW experts, who have natural interest in Vento.

If I was an owner of Vento/Polo, I would have certainly fired emails to VW Germany as well as Indian office showing my serious concern - some of you may like to do that.

A key chain hammer

Thanks for the answer Sankalp. Now i am somewhat able to understand the issue.

So all our cars(be a simple maruti or like in this case VW) come with some flaws or something that misses during emergencies,

Sorry to sound O.T, philosophically talking, it is only just our own fate that decides what happens of our every moment of life in this earth.

+1 to ZANTO.the car company will simply push the case under the carpet