A man is “lucky” to be alive after his Mercedes burst into flames while he was driving.
Jack Wharton, 20, from Moreton, managed to escape from the vehicle after hearing a loud pop whilst driving down Pasture Avenue on Thursday, May 12. Jack said: “I was just driving along with my mate in the car on the way back from footy, and we heard a big loud pop in the engine.
"Obviously, we pulled the car over and these lads ran up to us saying ‘Get out of the car, it's on fire!’. I’d had no idea but the whole back and front of the car was on fire while I was driving. As soon as we got out and shut the doors, the electric in the car cut off so the doors wouldn’t open.”
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Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene and were able to put out the fire without anyone being seriously injured. But Jack has told the ECHO he failed to realise the severity of the incident until the following day.
He said: “At the time, I didn’t recognise the seriousness of the situation because I think I was running on adrenaline. It wasn’t until I woke up the next morning that what had happened hit me. I was lucky to get out alive.”
Jack bought the £30,000 car from Mercedes-Benz of Stockport just five months ago but has now been left unable to work whilst an investigation into the incident is carried out.
He said: “After ringing Mercedes about ten times a day for the last few weeks, they’ve agreed to investigate it. But I’m basically stuck here now without a car. They won’t supply a courtesy car until the whole thing has been investigated which will take months and in that time, I still have to pay £500 a month for the car to pay the finance off.
“I can’t do anything at the moment. I have my own business but I can’t go out and see clients because I don’t have a car. It’s stopping me from being able to do work.”
Jack opted to buy the car directly from the dealership in the hopes of receiving quality customer care in the event of an incident, but the 20-year-old is frustrated with the way Mercedes is handling the situation.
He said: “This is my second Mercedes. My first one I just bought from a garage down the road and I had some problems with it so I thought, the next one I buy, I’ll pay the extra cost to buy it directly from the dealership. I thought they’d really help me out. But from what I’ve experienced, that’s not the case at all.”
A spokesperson for Mercedes told the ECHO: “We are very sorry to hear about Mr Wharton’s experience. We take any incident extremely seriously and our technical experts are inspecting the car. Our customer service team are currently discussing different mobility options with the customer but as the investigation is ongoing we’re unable to comment further at this time.”
