Comments on: And you thought that laptop fire sucked…

By: AuricTech

AuricTech — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:03:48 +0000

I dunno. Looks more like a Fuego to me.

(Or, if the owner is particularly unfortunate, a Phoenix.)

By: Captain Tungsten (of GM)

Captain Tungsten (of GM) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:47:05 +0000

If you squint it looks like a Fiero

By: confused1096

confused1096 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:27:25 +0000

Car fires happen. She could have accidently dropped a Marlboro in the floor board and walked inside for all we know.

By: starlightmica (Richard Chen)

starlightmica (Richard Chen) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:29:01 +0000

Donal:

AP is ready for Britney, they’ve already written obituary.

Follow-up article from TG Daily: unclear if this was an accidental fire or a test burn (huh?). The article also reports 2 more GEM EV fires in addition to the above two.

By: Donal

Donal — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:46:37 +0000

Can you imagine the coverage if a Tesla Roadster or Chevy Volt ever appeared suffered a similar fate?

Can you imagine the coverage if Britney’s car had suffered a similar fate? … if Anna Nicole had died in the fire? … if aliens had started the fire? … if a new GEM rose from the ashes?

Imagine if we change the fundamental facts of the situation – what then? I’ve never understood the appeal of this sort of argument.

By: Stein X Leikanger

Stein X Leikanger — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:02:42 +0000

@Paul Niedermeyer

The GEM vehicle pictured uses lead acid batteries, same as have been used since the late 1800’s. Sh*t happens.

Yes – though I have seen GEMs modded with “custom” battery packs for greater range. Maybe an electrical fault not necessarily attributable to the pack itself?

By: Paul Niedermeyer

Paul Niedermeyer — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:39:40 +0000

The GEM vehicle pictured uses lead acid batteries, same as have been used since the late 1800’s. Sh*t happens.

By: schempe

schempe — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:53:38 +0000

One of my neighbors had an unscheduled carbeque with their Jeep Wrangler last summer. I wonder if there is a connection there or even worse, a conspiracy.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:26:18 +0000

My neighbor’s Wagoneer burned one day for no particularly good reason. Apparently Wagoneers had a habit of doing that.

He replaced it with a very sweet Mercedes 300S circa 1980. The car was previous generation to the then current pig cars (you know the Ss that looked like mid 70s Cadillacs). It had a 3 liter in-line 6. Very smooth, beautiful car.

By: quasimondo

quasimondo — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:56:31 +0000

“I’ve owned many cars and none of them have ever caught fire.”

The plural of anecdote is not “data”.

I’ll keep that in mind whenever I hear some sob story about somebody’s ‘89 Cougar that suffered from spontaneous destruction.

By: Raskolnikov

Raskolnikov — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:08:27 +0000

Amazing how a random story about some golf cart catching fire garners domestic bashing comments.

How do u spell a-g-e-n-d-a?

By: Stein X Leikanger

Stein X Leikanger — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:50:23 +0000

I agree that this is wildly overcooked.
And that EVs will catch stick without deserving to — unless: it could be that her GEM has been customized with a new battery pack, to extend the range and increase acceleration. There are quite a few shops that will do the honors.
In that case, you have no guarantees. You could be sitting on top of a Li-Ion battery pack just itching to begin deflagration, which is what happens when you run a battery hot to the point where it begins burning uncontrollably.

The dog bought it, which means that this is on a par with the Darfur crisis, I guess, as far as the media are concerned.

By: CarShark

CarShark — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:56:40 +0000

Gas cars lost to fire: (wild guess) 10’s of thousands over the decades

Pbbfft. There were probably that many lost in France in the past two years.

By: Qusus

Qusus — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:51:01 +0000

Crap, I’m gonna be hit by a bus?!?!? Now I’ve got to worry about that AND the TERRORISTS?!?

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:49:13 +0000

If you squit it looks like an F150.

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:39:59 +0000

“I’ve owned many cars and none of them have ever caught fire.”

The plural of anecdote is not “data”.

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:38:32 +0000

How many Fords have started house fires due to their well known wiring harness problem?

This kind of thing is always going to happen – the question is does it happen infrequently enough to be an acceptable risk?

But risk tolerance is something that most people are really bad at evaluating in an impartial, unemotional way. Look at how worried some people are about a terrorist attack. Statistically, they should be much more worried about being hit by a bus. But that’s not as “scary”…

By: tdoyle

tdoyle — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:59:43 +0000

“Burn Baby Burn, Disco Inferno”

By: quasimondo

quasimondo — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:55:33 +0000

I’ve owned many cars and none of them have ever caught fire.

By: BuckD

BuckD — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:24:05 +0000

My mom and dad’s Chevy Corvair nearly baked them on the California highway when it caught fire. The car was barely a year old.

By: bfg9k

bfg9k — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:02:37 +0000

Let’s tally ‘em up…

EV’s lost to fire: 1
Gas cars lost to fire: (wild guess) 10’s of thousands over the decades