No, millions of cars are not catching fire every year

With all the 'spin' going on...it's hard to believe anything in the news anymore. It's also hard to believe so much actual news is left unreported.
 
With all the 'spin' going on...it's hard to believe anything in the news anymore. It's also hard to believe so much actual news is left unreported.
One head of a very prominent or previously prominent cable news network direct told his reporters NOT to chase down the source of something HUGE. Really terrible. Lapped up by the masses.
 
Let's compare by fleet age and count. I remember reading about aging cars and fire risk. Are new-ish gas cars really likely to self ignite and burn to the ground?
 
I really don't believe a lot of this stuff.

Especially when no one is clearly collecting data using a logical controlled and reviewable method - let alone a method without bias.
One reason I will never take Consumer Reports serious on anything with an engine using internal combustion.
 
Let's compare by fleet age and count. I remember reading about aging cars and fire risk. Are new-ish gas cars really likely to self ignite and burn to the ground?

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So the peak was on vehicles that were 15-17 years old and the peak range was from 10-17 years, falling off a cliff once the vehicle was newer than 10.
 
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My brother's car got burned up while parked on the street in Dorchester. Around 1998 if I recall correctly. Just ordinary vandalism, somebody lit a rag in the fill pipe.
 
What is not mentioned here is the number of cars that are set on fire. This is a regular occurrence where I live and I suspect it happens everywhere. A car will be stolen and later found burning and abandoned.

These could be counted as vehicle fires by the fire dept.

This for sure. While I have seen cars that have caught fire for various reasons, most have been lit on fire intentionally and ditched. I don’t know if that is because of the combination that I am in areas with the railroad where they’d be more likely to be ditched and previously with a rental car company where all the worse things happened to cars. One of the cars I remember from there was a Chevy Malibu that had an electrical fire that started in the center console. Most were just stolen and torched, or caught fire after an accident.
 
Eliminating accidents that result in a fire, and adjusting for age, I believe EV's are more likely to spontaneously combust.
 
I did road service for about 7 years, 5 days a week, 40 or more hours per week out in the streets..
. I probably saw one car fire a week.. but when you factor in how many vehicles there are operated by how many half wits and accidents and other factors, it isn't noteworthy.
 
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