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In
October, pressure began to mount on the carmaker after a
Facebook group, which currently has more than 15,000 members,
began highlighting the fires with pictures published in major
British newspapers and websites.
A month later Vauxhall, the British equivalent of the Opel brand
under which GM sells elsewhere in Europe, said it would recall
around 235,000 of its right-hand drive mid-sized cars to inspect
the heating and ventilation systems and ascertain the cause of
fire-related incidents.
But on Tuesday, the firm's customer experience director told
British lawmakers on the transport select committee that the
first related Zafira B fire was noted seven and a half years
previously and struggled to explain why it took so long to act.
"We have the first recorded case in a Zafira B that can be
clearly attributed to the heating and ventilation fire that we
are talking about here on the 11th of February 2009," Peter Hope
said.
"We didn't know what we were dealing with," he said.
The firm also said a fire in a car which had been recalled and
repaired helped contribute to a second recall which it announced
in May.
Vauxhall blames improper repair of the blower motor resistor and
its thermal fuse for causing the fires and said it would fit a
new resistor, blower motor and moulding.
The cost of the recalls is expected to cost 40 million euros
($44 million), according to Charles Klein, an engineering
executive director with General Motors, who also appeared before
the committee.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Giles Elgood)
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