One of the most popular car brands in the world has been forced to recall hundreds of thousands of its best-selling cars in response to a fire risk.
BMW has announced that it will be recalling a “mid-six-figure” number of cars from a number of different models.
The company stated that product inspections and customer complaints had revealed an issue with the starter motor.
An increase in wear and tear in the magnetic switch of a defective motor after a high number of starts could make it “harder or impossible” to start the car.
A spokesperson for BMW said this also carries the risk of causing a fire in the vehicle, with this being the worst-case scenario.
German outlet kfz-betrieb claimed that a total of 575,000 vehicles produced between July 2020 and July 2022 are impacted by the recall.
Impacted vehicles include variants of the 2 Series Coupe, 3, 4, 5, and 7 Series sedans, 6 Series Gran Turismo, X4, X5, X6 and Z4 models, the outlet reported.
In a statement, BMW recommends that the vehicle should not be left unattended with the engine running, especially after remote engine start.
BMW said hundreds of thousands of vehicles would be recalled over a fire risk
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REUTERS
It added: “It was determined that the starter of the engine in the identified vehicles could become defective.
“In addition, a short circuit in the electromagnet cannot be ruled out.
“As a result, local overheating of the starter may occur. In the worst case, this can lead to a vehicle fire while driving.”
A spokesperson added that the company would write to owners to replace potentially faulty starter motors.
BMW said it would write to drivers if they are affected by the recall
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REUTERS
Reports from kfz-betrieb stated that around 28,582 of the impacted models are in the domestic German market.
It added that the car battery may also be replaced and adapted to the new starter motor, with this repair taking up to two hours.
In the first month of the year, BMW had the third-highest number of new car sales in the UK, with 8,099, falling only behind Kia (9,983) and Volkswagen (12,539).
Although it has retained an impressive 5.62 per cent share of the market, the German brand has seen year-on-year sales fall 12.58 per cent compared to last January.