The late Lynn Faulds-Wood was a presenter on Watchdog (or another 'consumer program' way back when t'haunted fishtank were worth watchin') along with her husband John Stapleton.

I've been riding/driving for 35 years, I am 51 years old, I have smoked since I was 19 ........ I've never seen a ciggy cause anything to catch fire, let alone a car.

I've seen scorch marks on seats, furniture, etc, I've even put lit ciggies out actually in the petrol tank of bikes (long story), but I've yet to see anything combust because of a lit ciggy !

Have I led a sheltered life ..... or do people claim a ciggy caused a fire for the easy way out ?

I think its an accepted fact that cigarettes can start a fire. But can a cigarette start a fire as a result of being ingested through the air cleaner box???? I think it a very unlikely set of circumstances for this to happen myself.

Back in my teenage years I had a Mk1 Fiesta. That backfired through the carburettor. It singed the filter element, and bits of the resultant ashy stuff dropped into said carburettor, resulting in strong smell of petrol which on investigation proved to be petrol pissing out of said curburettor all over the hot engine. A fire did not result, even though for a short period, there must have been flame in the air cleaner box.

In the OP's situation, is it worth having a word with the insurer. Whilst it may initially sound unpalatable to claim, what are the chances of the insurer taking up a claim from the dealer who sold the car? With their financial clout they can employ experts, who could if deemed worthwhile, recover the costs from them, resulting in the OP's father having only a no fault claim on his record. Basically use the insurer for what you pay them, and get the whole mess tidied up far quicker.

Why? The car which caught fire was covered by the policy at the relevant time. Stop scaremongering with bks.

If the battery arrangement in the Golf is anything like the Audi 80 , then a short circuit is a distinct possibility .

An Audi 80 belonging to a company I used to work for went on fire ( thankfully extinguished quickly without too much damage ) after the battery positive cable shorted against the bulkhead .

Similarly , another Audi burst into flames outside my house due to the same fault . I ran out with an extinguisher after calling the fire brigade , and had the fire out/ battery isolated just as they turned up .

It is possible that there may be a flaw in some VAG cars which leads to this happening ?

Worth a web search to see if other instances are recorded .

Incidentally , I work for the fire service too , often attending fire investigations , so respect to your dad .

I have to say whilst I dont at all buy he cigarette caused it argument I have noticed my Skoda Superb (golf based) seems to work very well as a vacuum cleaner picking fag ends up of the road , I clean the air filter every 10k and it's rare not to have a few cigarette ends in there

Good to hear about some excellent service (apart from selling a potential death trap of course).

One reason to spend your cash with a main dealer, I suppose.

That's a great result.Nice to hear that a dealership is accepting responsibility.
I would hope that a superior vehicle is supplied-for the inconvenience alone!

Wasn't a cigarette one of the most likely causes of the 1999 monc blanc tunnel fire?

Thanks for all your replies, my initial impression of the dealer seems correct, that he seemed a pretty decent sort!

Re: potential death trap

I guess I'm showing my age but the Lynn Faulds Wood tags were meant to imply an impression of her condemning everything ever presented on Watchdog as "a potential deathtrap" something which the comedians of the day really picked up on! I guess most are now too young or too senile to remember, still only a couple more years and I wont remember either! (odd fact is that even though the comedians used to ape her with the phrase, nobody can find record of her saying it!)