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The car suddenly caught fire while driving on the road, and the parts that caught fire had been recalled by the manufacturer before, but the two sides were unable to negotiate on the issue of compensation because the car owner did not enter the store to replace the accident.

Ms. Zhu's Audi A4L, which she bought for $340000 in 2014, has traveled about 10,000 kilometers. Opening the hood, you can see that there are obvious signs of burning in the cabin. According to Ms. Zhu, the car smelled a burning smell while driving last month. at first, it thought it was outside, so she closed the window and found smoke in front of the hood, followed by open fire. Fortunately, Ms. Zhu found it more timely at that time, then got out of the car and called for help, and all the passing drivers took out fire extinguishers to help put out the fire.

According to the accident identification issued by the fire department, the cause of the Audi A4L fire excludes arson and does not rule out the fire caused by electrical circuit failure. The 4S store also gave an explanation for the fire after inspection, which was caused by spontaneous combustion caused by an auxiliary coolant pump next to the engine, which was recalled by the manufacturer in 2018.

According to the website of the State Market Supervision Administration, FAW-Volkswagen recalled 638771 Audis on May 16, 2018. one of the reasons for the recall is that water vapor in the auxiliary coolant pump may cause an internal circuit short circuit and, in serious cases, may cause engine compartment fire, and Ms. Zhu's Audi A4L is on the recall list, which is very similar to Ms. Zhu's Audi A4L fire.

So did the 4S store inform Ms. Zhu that the manufacturer is recalling this part? If the 4S store informed the recall, but why not replace it? Ms. Zhu said that at that time, it was said on the phone that the manufacturer was conducting a recall campaign to replace a part free of charge. Because I don't know much about cars, the 4S store did not inform me of the danger or the necessity of replacement, and it was also in the form of activities, so I felt that it could be changed or not.

So how will the 4S store explain the fire? The marketing director of Hangzhou Aodatong 4S store said that this problem needs to wait until the test report comes out before we can clearly determine the cause of the accident. As for the previous recall, the 4S store said it had made phone calls and sent text messages to Ms. Zhu, and provided phone recordings and text messages at that time.

The following is the recording of the call:

4S shop: your car manufacturer currently has two recall activities, you know the following, one is soundproof cotton, and the other is cooling circulation pump, the replacement of this thing is free, and then there happens to be an activity here. 10L of original engine oil can be given directly to the store on the 20th of this month.

Car owner: let me ask them and contact you when I come over.

4S store: maybe I'll send you a text message later.

Car owner: OK

After negotiation, the 4S store is willing to recycle Ms. Zhu's car at a price of 145000 yuan. The marketing director said, "at present, we have assessed the salvage value of the car is 110000 yuan. We will use the customer's salvage value of 145000 yuan before the accident, of which 35000 yuan will be used as emotional compensation to Ms. Zhu from the 4S store."

As for the compensation proposal put forward by the 4S store, Ms. Zhu said she could not accept it and believed that the salvage value could not be assessed according to the accident. The media also contacted the lawyer, who said that if it is determined that the vehicle quality problem caused the spontaneous combustion, then the compensation standard must be based on the actual value before the accident.

Cars are made up of thousands of parts, so it is normal for quality problems to occur, but manufacturers should keep this error to a minimum to ensure safety. Judging from this incident, 4S stores have done their best to inform consumers of the recall, but the unclear description in this process leads to car owners not paying attention to the seriousness of the recall, and both 4S stores and customers should be held responsible. In addition, the recall of 4S stores is also a consideration for consumer safety, so consumers should actively cooperate with the recall action of manufacturers, and doubts about the recall should be raised in time, which is responsible for themselves and others.

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