{"id":148029,"date":"2016-12-15T21:55:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T19:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=148029"},"modified":"2016-12-15T21:55:36","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T19:55:36","slug":"ford-responds-to-kuga-fire-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/148029\/ford-responds-to-kuga-fire-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford responds to Kuga fire claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Motoring company Ford says it is currently investigating alleged incidents of its Kuga SUV models suddenly catching alight.<\/p>\n<p>It comes following reports that a<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.georgeherald.com\/news\/News\/General\/177978\/Update-Man-dies-in-burning-car\"> third forensic investigation<\/a><\/strong> into the cause of a Ford Kuga fire, which killed driver Reshall Jimmy in December 2015, was underway.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.algoafm.co.za\/article\/local\/81929\/family-still-seeks-answers-a-year-after-mans-fiery-death-in-ford-suv\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Jimmy family believes<\/strong><\/a> that a mechanical or electrical fault with the Ford Kuga was to blame for the fire.<\/p>\n<p>The Rapport newspaper said it was in possession of an independent investigation report which showed that the fire was caused by an electrical fault in the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the fire started behind an electrical panel board on the passenger side.<\/p>\n<p>Other Ford Kuga owners have also reported that their vehicles experienced sudden fires.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.netwerk24.com\/Nuus\/Algemeen\/as-jou-ford-uit-die-bloute-brand-20161210\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>According to the Rapport<\/strong><\/a>, these owners said Ford refused to investigate the cause of the fires.<\/p>\n<p>Keveen Jimmy, the brother of Reshall, said 17 local Kuga owners have come forward regarding their vehicles experiencing problems.<\/p>\n<p>Ford said in a statement on Thursday that it had met with the Jimmy family and their legal representatives to take them through the findings of its own &#8216;detailed examination into Mr. Jimmy\u2019s Kuga incident&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our examination shows that the fire in Mr. Jimmy\u2019s Kuga originated at the rear of the vehicle and not in the engine compartment. We have lodged a request to gain access to the police report and other investigative materials to better understand all the facts concerning the case,&#8221; the motoring company said.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to other reported claims, Ford said: &#8220;Our investigations into the alleged incidents involving Ford Kugas in South Africa are not complete at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ford called on Kuga owners who have a concern relating to their particular vehicle to bring it into a Ford dealership for inspection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/147431\/new-investigation-into-ford-kuga-fires-underway\/\" target=\"_blank\">New investigation into Ford Kuga fires underway<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motoring company Ford says it is currently investigating alleged incidents of its Kuga SUV models suddenly catching alight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":147477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-148029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148029"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148041,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148029\/revisions\/148041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}