NHTSA Complaint #11455816 — 2015 NISSAN ROGUE

On February 27, 2022, my car, 2015 Nissan Rogue, caught fire. My son had been driving it for work when he smelled faint smoke. Within minutes, he reached his place of employ, Papa Johns and parked with the smoke increasing. He went inside for a minute and came back out. At that point the car was on fire on the right side of car by the headlamp. The fire started within 5 minutes of the smoke. People brought out fire extinguishers and were able to extinguish the fire which had gotten very intense. 2-3 extinguishers were needed to put out the fire. The fire department showed up and assessed the car and said it was a electrical fire. There were no personal injuries and no other property damage (beside the car). Two possibly related incidents: 1) February 24, 2022 - the right front tire had to be replaced due to a heat ring on the the right front tire (the tires were only a year old), 2) February 24, 2022 at night - the right front headlamp burned out and was replaced on 2/27/22. The GEICO Claims adjuster believes that whatever caused the heat ring and the burned out bulb also caused the fire as everything happened in the same area. The Nissan Rogue had undergone a 100,000 mile maintenance inspection on January 31, 2022 with no electrical issues cited (but all other issues noted during the maintenance repaired by me to a cost of $1286.40). Caranddriver.com reports that a recall notice is to be issued by Nissan the first week of March 2022 on electrical issues leading to fire on the driver’s side. GEICO totaled the car and took title. The car is now in an insurance lot. My son could have been killed in this car had the car started smoking on the highway and caught fire and my son been unable to pull over and exit the vehicle quickly. The fire could have ruptured the gas tank and caused massive property damage to other vehicles and buildings. The car could have caused my house to catch fire had the car stated smoking in the garage and caught fire.