BMW recalls 1 mn vehicles in North America

BMW AG yesterday issued a recall of about 1 million vehicles in North America over two separate issues involving fire risks and said the recalls may be extended to other countries.

One recall covers 670,000 2006-2011 US 3-Series vehicles to address a wiring issue for heating and air conditioning systems that could overheat and increase the risk of a fire.

The second recall pertains to 740,000 US 2007-2011 vehicles with a valve heater that could rust and present a fire risk in rare cases. The recall covers some 128i vehicles, 3-Series, 5-Series and X3, X5 and Z4 vehicles.

According to BMW spokesman Michael Rebstock, the recalls overlap and cover about 1 million vehicles, nearly all in the US and about 15,000 in Canada. He added the recalls might be extended.

''We are examining whether it will be necessary in the future to widen this (recall) into other countries,'' he said.

According to BMW both recalls follow recent meetings with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

BMW told NHTSA about the heating and air-conditioning recall that the first incident was reported to it in 2008 involving heat-related damage to a 2006 3-Series sedan, but it did not determine a root cause. Over the following years the company continued to monitor additional field incidents.

The mass recall comes as the latest setback to the German titan, after raids at its Munich headquarters by EU antitrust regulators late last month as part of a probe into alleged collusion between German carmakers.

The recall comes only six months after an investigative report from ABC News in May, which found more than 40 cases of BMWs catching fire while parked over the past five years.

The fires were seen in several models, years, and generations of the iconic luxury brand's vehicles, which can range in price to over $100,000.

At the time, BMW denied that they've found 'any pattern related to quality or component failure' and said that out of the 4.9 million vehicles it has on US roads, fire incidents are exceedingly rare.