BMW knowingly concealed fire-causing vehicle defects: Official

"BMW 차량결함 은폐•축소•늑장리콜"…형사고발•과징금 112억

More than 50 cars made by BMW caught fire in Korea this year.
Faulty engine was suspected to be causing the blaze.
After a probe that's went on for months, the nation's transport ministry and a team of investigators from the government and private sector concluded that is the case.
According to our Choi Si-young, the shocking revelation is this: the German auto-giant deliberately tried to conceal the problem.
The fires were caused by a faulty engine part known as exhaust gas recirculation, which caused coolant to leak.
BMW told the transport ministry it only became aware of the problem in July this year, but it turns out the auto giant knew something was wrong with the part as early as 2015.
First, the faulty engine part.
Before the investigation, BMW admitted that something was wrong with it, but said there were other factors that could cause a fire like the car traveling at high speed or over a long distance.
The investigation team said that's not true,... and that the automaker should not have designed the engine part the way it did.
In other words, the part was made wrong from the start.
Second, the cover-up.
According to the investigation team, BMW's South Korean unit was aware of the faulty EGR in 2015... since it established a task force at its German headquarters at the time to tackle the problem.
The investigators said they're turning over their findings to prosecutors.
They also want BMW Korea to pay a fine... of roughly10 million U.S. dollars... for issuing a recall of the cars too late.
BMW Korea said findings coincide with its own assertion that the EGR is the problem,... and it said replacing the part fixes it.
But it has yet to answer the question of why the part had a problem in the first place.
Choi Si-young, Arirang News.