Vauxhall now admits that they were aware of the HVAC fires back in 2009.

Vauxhall first logged a case of a fire linked to the ventilation system in its Zafira minivans in 2009, several years before a number of incidents were widely publicized and prompted two recalls, the General Motors-owned UK brand said.

In October, pressure began to mount on the automaker after a Facebook group, which currently has more than 15,000 members, began highlighting the fires with pictures published in major UK newspapers and websites.

A month later, Vauxhall said it would recall around 235,000 of its right-hand drive minivans to inspect the heating and ventilation systems and ascertain the cause of fire-related incidents. Vauxhall said at the time that the potential risk affected Zafiras built between 2005 and 2014.

But on Tuesday, the firm's customer experience director told UK lawmakers on the transport select committee that the first related Zafira fire was noted seven and a half years previously and struggled to explain why it took so long to act.

"We have the first recorded case in a Zafira B that can be clearly attributed to the heating and ventilation fire that we are talking about here on the 11th of February 2009," Peter Hope said.

"We didn't know what we were dealing with," he said.

The firm also said a fire in a car which had been recalled and repaired helped contribute to a second recall which it announced in May.

Vauxhall blames improper repair of the blower motor resistor and its thermal fuse for causing the fires and said it would fit a new resistor, blower motor and molding.

The cost of the recalls is expected to cost 40 million euros ($44 million), according to Charles Klein, an engineering executive director with General Motors, who also appeared before the committee.

GM sells the Zafira through both its Vauxhall and Opel brands in various markets.

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Vauxhall announces pricing and specification for the all-new Zafira Tourer MPV.

• Prices announced for New Vauxhall Zafira Tourer, available from October
• Design model starts at just £18,615 OTR
• Elite Nav model comes with panoramic windscreen and sunroof from just £25,445 OTR

Vauxhall’s new Zafira Tourer will be in showrooms from October across the UK, priced from £18,615 on-the-road. The new Zafira Tourer comes with an attractive new exterior and interior that emphasises its spacious design and outstanding in-car connectivity. 

The latest model comes with all the well-known virtues of its predecessors such as the Flex7^® seating system, ergonomically-certified AGR front seats, the Flex-Fix^® bicycle carrier and FlexRide adaptive damping. The new Zafira Tourer range includes Design, Energy, SRi, SRi Nav, SE, Tech Line, Elite and Elite Nav trim levels.

Prices start from £18,615 for the 1.4i 140PS Turbo Zafira Tourer in the Design trim, which comes with Vauxhall’s IntelliLink system and seven-inch display, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto available. OnStar is standard across the range and the base model comes with digital radio and cruise control, LED daytime running lights, 17” alloy wheels and front and rear parking sensors.

Vauxhall offers the choice of two engines for the new Zafira Tourer, the 1.4i 140PS Turbo or the 2.0CDTi 170PS in either manual or automatic transmission. By choosing the 2.0CDTi 170PS diesel engine with Start/Stop manual transmission, the Zafira Tourer offers customers CO₂ figures from 129g/km and achieves a combined fuel consumption of between 57.7mpg and 54.3mpg.

The range-topping Elite Nav model adds the Vauxhall 950 Satellite navigation system and 18” Alloy wheels. The panoramic sunroof is also standard in this trim, as are heated leather ergonomic front sports seats, dark tinted rear windows, electronic climate control and front fog lights. The Elite Nav trim is priced from £25,445 OTR. 

	*On-the-road price
Design
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£18,615
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£20,135
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£21,625
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£22,750
Energy
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£21,735
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£23,255
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£24,745
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£25,870
SRi
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£23,280
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£24,800
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£26,355
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£27,415
SRi Nav
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£23,980
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£25,500
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£27,055
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£28,115
SE
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£23,265
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£24,785
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£26,275
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£27,400
Tech Line
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£20,310
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£21,830
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£23,320
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£24,445
Elite
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£24,745
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£26,265
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£27,820
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£28,880
Elite Nav
1.4i 140ps Turbo	£25,445
1.4i 140ps Turbo Auto	£26,965
2.0CDTi 170ps S/S	£28,520
2.0CDTi 170ps Auto	£29,580

Vauxhall launches the second recall to fix the issues, hopefully once and for all this time.

Vauxhall has announced that owners of Vauxhall Zafira B models will be invited to bring their vehicles back to Vauxhall dealerships so that a preventative action can be carried out to protect the vehicles from the risk of fire.

In December last year we wrote to all 234,938 Vauxhall Zafira B owners to make them aware of an issue which could affect their vehicle.

Our investigations had found evidence of improper repair of the blower motor resistor and its thermal fuse, which is designed to protect the blower motor system.

These improper repairs, which may have been conducted without the owners’ knowledge, can lead to overheating of the system’s electrical components and the potential for a fire. Resistors should never be repaired, they should only be replaced.

Since then we have been conducting a recall programme designed to return vehicles to their original condition.

This has involved replacing the resistor in every vehicle we have inspected and the blower motor and the pollen filter in many thousands of vehicles.

All of this has been free of charge to the customer.

At the time of the recall we said we would consider additional actions we might take and we have been in constant contact with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).

On May 9^th we presented a status update to DVSA and agreed the additional action we are announcing today.

While the current action achieves the objective of returning vehicles to their original condition, after extensive investigations we have decided to go further and improve the overall robustness of the system.

We will therefore be initiating a second recall to replace the current soldered fuse resistor with a wax fuse resistor so reducing the opportunity for manipulation. When the recalls are complete, all vehicles will have a new wax fuse resistor, a new blower motor and a new moulding at the base of the windscreen to address water ingress.

Again, this work will be conducted free of charge.

We will soon be writing to all customers to inform them of the second recall action and provide appropriate advice.

Subsequently we will write to customers on a staggered basis to invite them in for the second recall.  It is planned to commence sending these letters during the month of August.

Owners of vehicles which have not yet had the initial recall completed should still bring their vehicles to their dealership to have them returned to their original condition.

The Driver Vehicle Standards Agency has found the cause of a number of fires in the vauxhall Zafira 'B'

The Driver Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has acknowledged that the root cause of a small number of fires in Zafira B vehicles is improper repair of the thermal fuse of the resistor in the heating and ventilation system, undertaken outside of Vauxhall’s authorised service and maintenance processes and schedule.

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Nevertheless, the Agency has requested that the inspection and rework programme, which is already underway, be reclassified as a safety recall. This has no impact on the action being taken by Vauxhall. The rework replaces the resistor pack and other faulty components and returns the heating and ventilation system to its original design condition.

“We recognise that owners may have vehicles which have been improperly repaired without their knowledge or before they bought the vehicle,” said Rory Harvey, Chairman of Vauxhall Motors. “Safety is our priority and we have been working tirelessly in the past weeks to find the root cause and contact owners to explain the situation and our actions.   The DVSA’s acknowledgement of the root cause is an important milestone but the important thing now is to ensure that all Zafira B owners bring their vehicles in for inspection and rework.”

All 234,938 Vauxhall Zafira B owners have been contacted by letter to inform them of the issue and explain how they can remain safe pending inspection. To date, Vauxhall dealers have inspected and repaired more than 45,000 vehicles. The goal is to have all vehicles inspected within a 10 to 12 week time span.

While owners wait to be asked to arrange an appointment, Vauxhall has written to them all with the following important advice:

If you are the first owner of your Zafira B and your heating and ventilation system is functioning well, and your car has never been subject to any repair in this area, there is no risk of a fire.

If you are not the first owner or you have had repairs in this area you should set your fan speed to zero (0) on the heating and ventilation system. If necessary you should use fan speed four (4) only for the time needed to demist the windscreen. Please continue to follow this advice until your vehicle has been inspected.

When owners bring their vehicles in to a retailer, Vauxhall technicians will inspect the heating and ventilation system on each vehicle and, as a precautionary measure, replace the resistor in every

vehicle. This is because it is not always possible to detect an improperly repaired resistor without extensive examination of the part. In addition, the retailer will also test the performance of the blower motor, inspect the wiring harness and the pollen filter to ensure they have no damage and are in good condition. As a matter of extra caution, we will also install additional water protection below the windscreen scuttle panel to minimise any opportunities for water ingress following improper refitting after removal.

All of this work is being carried out free of charge.

Vauxhall responds to the panorama programme that states the Zafira is rigged, the BBC refuses to share info, WHY ?

TMW THOUGHTS

If there was in fact any issues with teh car that was tested, why is thet the BBC has refused to allow the brand to review the infomation, and to be informed of the way the test was set up, run and teh condition of the car that was used, maybe there is something in it that Vauxhall states it believes in wrong doing by the BBC, if there is nothing to hide, why refuse to allow the sharing of info ?????

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Vauxhall has clearly stated that its vehicles do not have any feature that detects that a vehicle is undergoing an emissions test, including any feature that would respond to wheels turning.

Vauxhall products comply with all regulatory requirements, including the in-service emissions testing program, according to EU rules. These requirements are periodically audited by the approval authority.

All Pictures below are used solely for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered to be part of, or inferred within the BBC Programme, Panorama - If there is any confusion, then just ignore the pictures.

We suspect that the vehicle tested (Zafira 1.6 diesel) was not performing correctly and/or the test execution was not correctly set up.  In order that Panorama did not potentially draw the wrong conclusions from their testing we requested full test reports and data from the testing including how the vehicle and test was set up, the technical state of the vehicle and details of the pre-conditioning of the vehicle which is necessary to achieve a stabilised condition for the test.

Panorama has refused to share information on the technical accuracy of the test prior to the broadcast.

When DUH tested the Zafira in Germany they were not willing to share their results before they went public.  We subsequently concluded that the campaign contained misleading elements. In response to the incorrect accusations of DUH we ran a full series of tests. Those tests proved that the Zafira 1.6 meets all the legal emission limits both in 2WD and 4WD roller testing. Those 4WD tests were conducted under the supervision of the TUV agency and officially protocolled.

Opel denies having any "cheat" programs within any of it's products, as the VW scandal widens.

Opel emphatically rebuts the claims of the German Environmental Relief. We would once again like to emphasize the following, valid for all our cars: GM developed software has no features that detect whether the vehicle is undergoing an exhaust emissions test.

The results of the alleged Zafira test conducted by the German Environmental Relief (DUH) are not comprehendible. It is not fair that the German Environmental Relief makes assertions but did not disclose the alleged results, despite us asking for them on multiple occasions.

After receiving the communication from the German Environmental Relief, our engineers immediately put a corresponding vehicle (a Zafira with a 1.6-liter Euro 6 diesel engine) on the test bench and conducted and protocolled additional tests in accordance with the regulations – both on a two-roller and a four-roller test bench. 

The result: the values comply with the legal limits both for testing on two-wheel or four-wheel setups. This is the only result to be expected, as it has no influence on the emission systems whether or not the rear wheels are in motion. This means: The allegations are clearly false and unfounded.

An approach, as implied by the German Environmental Relief, would contradict our integrity, our values and the work of our engineers. We are committed to the reliable compliance with exhaust emissions thresholds in all our vehicles. We have clear global processes that ensure that our products meet all exhaust emission standards in the markets they are sold in.