A DISGRUNTLED customer has locked horns with a car company after her car caught fire while she was sitting behind the wheel.

Susan Dillon has had nightmares about being burnt alive after her red Vauxhall Viva was destroyed by a fire outside her house in Birch Hall Avenue, Darwen, in January.

The 55-year-old said her two-and-a-half-year-old car would not start and error message ‘code 68’ appeared on her dashboard. The grandmother-of-two pushed her OnStar security button, to connect to a trouble-shooting call centre, and was trying to establish what was wrong with the car when she saw smoke.

The Nelson and Colne College lecturer said moments after she got out the car she watched the £12,500 motor burst into flames before her eyes.

Mrs Dillon said she was in complete shock and felt helpless as she watched her car ferociously burn at the side of the road.

She said: “The car was suddenly engulfed in flames and the fire started coming up the windscreen.

“This all happened outside my house, it was terrifying.

“The fire service arrived quickly but my car was destroyed.”

The mother-of-three, who suffers with fibromyalgia, said the fire service told her the blaze had started due to an electrical fault in the car.

However Vauxhall took the car for inspection and said a manufacturing or material fault was not found and the fire was caused from ‘outside influences’.

Mrs Dillon's insurance company has paid out on the fire but she wants Vauxhall to accept liability for the fire.

She said: “I feel like they’re trying to avoid me and are shutting the door on me.

“I was sat in the car when it set on fire, there wasn’t anyone interfering with the car.

“I was speaking to the OnStar operator and it just went up.”

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Mrs Dillon added the situation has been extremely stressful.

She said: “I have had nightmares about being trapped in the car and being burnt alive. It’s awful. The car went up in flames in seconds and what if I had my grandchildren in the car and couldn’t get them out?”

A Vauxhall spokesman said: “No manufacturing or material defect could be identified. The fire was of a fluid nature.

“Based upon the burn pattern and heat traces, the most likely cause was from outside influences.”