A BMW driver brought her vehicle into a service center to get an oil change and now it looks like she’ll be driving a new car.
In the TikTok clip, user @waitbutwhytho said the auto tech parked her vehicle beside another that appears to have spontaneously combusted, rendering her German vehicle collateral damage in the process.
“Pov: you get an oil change and the car next to where service parked it explodes,” a text overlay in the video reads. The montage shows a picture of a white BMW SUV parked beside a Range Rover in a parking lot. The next image looks like something from a post-battle scene straight out of Transformers—the bimmer is charred, its tires are waxy and misshapen, melted and stuck to the asphalt, and with its burnt rims stuck to the material.
Additional pictures further show the extent of the damage, along with the obliterated one as well. In the final picture as part of the video montage, the two cars can be seen resting side-by-side, completely decimated beyond recognition. As of this posting, @waitbutwhytho hasn’t posted any additional information on their TikTok account that could explain what caused the fire.
Viewers weigh in
A viewer said there was an upside to the BMW explosion, writing, “Well congrats on a new car.”
Another person said they’ve seen several BMW vehicles on social media become overwrought with flames.
“Why did this happened??? This is third bmw I see this week that caught on fire,” they wrote.
It appeared that another user said they were having problems with a part in their own BMW vehicle and they wanted to know if OP had similar experiences. Judging from her response, this wasn’t the case: “No, but it has had a lot of problems throughout our ownership. She’s very temperamental.”
And while there was one commenter who speculated that the Range Rover beside the BMW was an EV that caught fire, as battery fires on electric vehicles are extremely difficult to put out and can last for days, not to mention reignite.
However, @waitbutwhytho clarified that the vehicle that ignited and ruined her BMW was indeed a gas-powered car.
What causes a car to catch fire?
According to Guerra LLP trial attorneys, there are two leading causes for parked vehicles to catch fire. High-speed crashes that can cause sparks to damage fuel lines are an understandable hazard of car accidents. But what about parked cars?
The attorneys penned “rotted fuel lines” as one culprit—fuel leaks onto other parts of the car and especially when these vehicles are left out in the sun, a little bit of heat or a static shock can cause enough of a spark to set a car on fire. And then there are “electrical system failures” which the legal office states “are the second most common cause of car fires in America.”
These failures are often linked to a vehicle’s battery: “The battery’s charging cycles can cause explosive hydrogen gas to build up in the engine bay, and the electrical current the battery provides can produce sparks that can quickly ignite a fluid drip or leaked vapors.”
And because most vehicles contain over a mile of cumulative wiring, that means there’s just more of a chance for a spark to occur: “The engine compartment is not the only place you will find electrical wiring. It can be found in the doors, under carpet, and through power-heated seats. All of these wiring locations could potentially cause a fire,” Guerra LLP writes.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @waitbuywhytho via TikTok comment and BMW via email for further information.
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