Beware all Chevrolet vehicle owners in the country! Expose General Motors/Chevrolet India for its callous treatment of car-buyers in India and for knowingly putting their life at risk.

In Aug 2014, one fine morning, when I was driving to work in my Chevrolet Captiva, a fully imported all-wheel drive automatic transmission SUV that had done just 27,000 km, the engine compartment caught fire and the vehicle was reduced to burnt metal within minutes. I managed to escape with my life and saved many passersby from a 2200-kg mass of thundering metal whose brakes had failed and doors had jammed. On investigating, I have found at least 6 cases over the last one year in India of Chevy Captiva's engine compartment catching fire in a moving vehicle. Further, I found out that GM had announced a global recall of Captiva in Dec 2011 to correct a "reported fire risk in engine compartment" www.oncars.in/car-news/chevrolet-captiva-recalled-worldwide-over-fire-risk/1578. Strangely, this recall was never, and to date, has not been announced in India! 

On this incident, I wrote and put up a blog on Team BHP (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/155423-my-horror-story-chevrolet-captiva-fire.html ), it received more than 65000 views in less than a month. At least 5 existing Captiva owners have written to me stating their vehicle has engine overheating issues, which is a definite fire risk. The insurance surveyor and the fire department, in their inspection reports, have mentioned "short circuit becasue of wiring fault" and "manufacturing defect" as the most likely cause of engine compartment catching fire.

General Motors India management's response, a thick-skinned bunch of insensitive people drawing fat salaries, including their India MD, Arvind Saxena has been that a "vehicle of such pristine make is impossible to catch fire" and that "extraneous circumstances and likely fuel leakage are to blame". Their global CEO, Mary Barra, to whom I tweeted innumerable times, never responded, although she was in India in Sep and waxed eloquent about GM's high consumer safety and ethical standards!

I am now putting together my case to approach the consumer court in Delhi. General Motor's US and global Chevrolet entities have been paying hefty damages and conducting recalls globally to settle similar cases. But, we in India are getting a raw deal because our legal system moves slowly and regulations are lax in such cases.

Please sign up on the petition, spread the word, and help me fight the good fight... it is one individual standing against the injustice and might of a callous MNC.