Customer takes Renault SA to task over Sandero fire

On the evening of January 11 KwaZulu-Natal's Nobuntu Mkhize arrived home in her 2011 Renault Sandero and, shortly after getting out of the car, noticed smoke coming from the steering column.

She watched in shock as the steering column caught alight. After shouting to a family member inside the house to bring a fire extinguisher, Mkhize took a video of the incident for evidence. The extinguisher could not be found and she used water to put out the fire. There was nobody else in the car and no one was injured.

Mkhize lodged a claim with her insurance company, which towed the fire-damaged car away the next day. She posted the video on social media and to her surprise it went viral, reaching more than 1.6 million views on Instagram.

“Receiving the bad publicity, Renault immediately responded on my Instagram page asking me to inbox them my details,” says Mkhize.

“That's when the conversation started with Renault. I asked them, what happens in a situation like this? They said they will either find a car with the same mileage as mine in their fleet, or alternatively give me a new car.

“After a month and a half of being sent from pillar to post by Renault, asking for this and that, I furnished them with everything they needed because I could see that they are trying to point the finger at me. For a month and a half, I'm the one sitting without a car and I'm the one busy following up with them daily.”

On February 17 Renault came back with an offer to repair the car at their cost, but Mkhize was unhappy with this as she was worried about getting back inside a car that had burnt.

She asks: “It's their factory fault and what guarantees me that it will not burn again? Where is the diagnostic report of exactly what happened?”

TimesLIVE reached out to Motus, the local Renault importers, who responded:

“Motus Vehicles Distributor (MVD) was made aware of a thermal incident on a Renault Sandero and made contact with Nobuntu Mkhize on January 18 via e-mail.

“Prior to MVD being made aware of the case and post the incident, the owner had the vehicle towed to the Outsurance Assessment Centre in Cato Ridge and Alans Panel Shop. On January 18, MVD requested that Nobuntu Mkhize provide copies of the vehicle service history and any accident damage history as the vehicle had been serviced outside of the Renault network since 2018. The majority of the information was provided to MVD on January 25, which included disclosure of impact damage to the right rear of the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to Renault Pietermaritzburg on January 25.

“MVD sent a technical representative to Renault Pietermaritzburg on February 1 to conduct an inspection on the vehicle. Below are the salient points observed during the inspection:

• The investigation confirmed that the vehicle encountered a thermal event in the vicinity of the steering wheel and steering wheel airbag.
• Subsequent removal of the airbag unit revealed chafing of the wire insulation on the 12v positive wire of the horn wiring.
• This chafing was a result of prolonged contact with the metal casing of the drivers’ airbag unit.
• Contact between the wire and the metal casing resulted in a short circuit, producing the smoke encountered during the thermal event.

“The nature of the event prompted a further inspection of the rest of the vehicle, and the following salient observations were noted:

• Remnants of broken tempered glass were observed when removing the steering column cover.
• The vehicle displays signs of prior paintwork repair on the drivers’ side of the vehicle and the frontal area of the vehicle.
• The right front fender displays minor indentations.
• The passenger side of the vehicle displays damages on the front and rear fenders. The driver-side headlight, the coolant radiator, the air-conditioning compressor and the air-conditioning pipes display production dates that are post the assembly date of the vehicle.

“The findings above allude to the vehicle being subjected to additional paintwork repairs in addition to the rear impact as disclosed by the owner,” said Motus.

“The investigation revealed no conclusive indications of the thermal event being related to a manufacturing defect.

Despite this, MVD in conjunction with Renault Pietermaritzburg are prepared to settle this matter amicably and in good faith, without admission of any liability whatsoever and in full and final settlement. In this regard, MVD will cover the costs of the replacement of the steering wheel, airbag unit, and the associated labour costs in full.”

Mkhize denies that any repairs were done to the front of the vehicle as Motus claims, and questions why Renault has gone back on its initial commitment to replace the vehicle, opting to repair it instead.

Motus responds: “Our correspondence mentioned, purely as an example, that should there be a manufacturing defect, a plausible solution would be a vehicle replacement. The answer was in context to the question posed by the customer ‘what if insurance declares the vehicle as a write-off?’

“The vehicle has not been written off; hence the hypothetical scenario was not realised, and as there has been no evidence of a manufacturing defect, there is no obligation to provide a replacement vehicle.”

Motus says it was an isolated incident and there was no airbag-related recall of the first-generation Sandero locally or internationally. TimesLIVE’s online search found no fire-related incidents on the first-generation car, though a handful were reported on the second- and third-generation Sandero on the car-recalls.eu website.

The Sandero was first launched in 2007 as a budget vehicle from Renault’s Dacia division in Romania. The first-generation car was built locally at Nissan’s Rosslyn plant near Pretoria and was replaced by the imported second-generation Sandero in 2014.

The third-generation Sandero launched in 2020 is not available in SA, and its place was taken by the Kiger crossover.