NHTSA Complaint #11609379 — 2008 CHEVROLET AVEO

There was no prior warnings or notices that there was an issue. While diving on a major road with my children, smoke started coming into the cabin from the vents, and around the stereo. Luckily I was near a very vacant parking lot and immediately pulled over. I removed the kids from the car safely and did open the hood to try troubleshoot the problem. There was no smoke anywhere under the hood. Immediately after, sparks started falling from under the steering wheel to the gas pedal. Immediately after that the car was engulfed in flames. The car is currently located at my local police impound and is available for inspection upon request. From the time the smoke started to when the car was engulfed, it was approximately 5 minutes. This could have been dangerous had we been on a highway and unable to pull over and get out of the car safely within that time. It was only inspected briefly by the fire department who arrived to put out the fire and they reported it was an electrical issue that caused the fire.