My car mysteriously caught fire, and the inside of my car melted while it was parked in my driveway. I had a mechanic tell me it looked like an electrical problem with the car. I called Suzuki and they told me there was no recall on my 2008 Suzuki Forenza at the time. However, they volunteered to have one of their dealerships do a full investigation free of charge. I had a feeling something fishy was going on when the agent assigned to my claim suggested that they would reimburse me the Blue Book value of the car, around $4,500. This was before they had conducted the supposed investigation.

They held my car for weeks and kept telling me an investigation was being conducted. I tried finding a lawyer at that time, but no one would take the case because there was no personal injury involved and the potential recovery was too low. Finally, they offered me a settlement of $2,000 stating that the car was too badly burned for them to determine what caused the fire. Because I had bought the car used for $5,000 just months earlier, I effectively lost $3,000. It was a take-it-or-leave-it deal as they made it very clear that if I didn't accept I would have to pay for them storing my car and pay to tow my burned up car from their lot, and I would receive nothing from them. I accepted the settlement pending a copy of the investigation report. I signed over the car to them and they never sent me a copy of the report despite my numerous attempts to get it.

Recently, I received a recall notice that describes the problem of what happened with my car exactly, the melting of the interior front left side of the car due to an electrical malfunction. I think Suzuki was receiving claims like mine from other customers at the time, and that the recall process was already underway when they duped me into signing over my car. After receiving the recall notice, I called Suzuki again and was informed I could not file a claim because I had "settled" with them already. I wonder how many other consumers they have deceived, and whether a class action lawsuit is in order?