general problems of the 1999 Dodge Stratus

I was driving the car all day and it began to smoke; which had been an ongoing problem under the hood, a light white smoke as if something was dripping and burning off the engine. Once I parked the car about 10 minutes late the smoke became dark and black and fire erupted. Car was totaled, fire dept was called to the scene.

The contact owns a 1999 Dodge Stratus. While parked at a store parking lot, the vehicle's hood caught fire. The puerto rico police department filed report number 200835803237. The failure was not diagnosed. The manufacturer advised the contact to have her insurance company investigate the failure and forward them the report. The current and failure mileages were 54,000.

: the contact stated while traveling at 50-55 mph, the vehicle caught on fire from the engine compartment. 5 minutes prior to the incident, the contact noticed grey smoke escaping from under the hood. The vehicle was pulled over and the fire department and police was alerted. The fire was extinguished and the vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. The fire department was unable to determine what caused the fire. A representative of daimler Chrysler inspected the vehicle on 06/04/06, but did not provide any feedback. A letter was received from the manufacturer dated 06/09/06 that declared daimler Chrysler would not be held responsible for all the incurred damages to the vehicle. A card was also received from daimler Chrysler alerting the contact to call the dealership about recall e23 about a week before the incident occurred. On 06/19/06, a recall letter was received stating that there was a recall on the high pressure steering hose for the vehicle that caught on fire.

Engine caught on fire on my 1999 Dodge Stratus. Parked vehicle and went inside the store, and came out and vehicle was on fire. Had the vehicle towed to my house. Contacted Dodge, they sent out an inspector to review the vehicle. The inspector said, the vehicle should have exploded and do not fix the vehicle, Dodge will fix this for you. Rec'd a letter from Dodge, stating they denied my claim to fix vehicle, but would not offer any reason. They also would not give me a copy of the inspection report, they indicated that I would have to hire an attorney to get a subpoena to get a copy of the report. Called the inspector back, found that really strange they always give the reports out and they must be hiding something. Called Dodge 4 different times and they were rude and hung up on me. They would not transfer me to any one, and did not answer my questions. This is my only vehicle, I thank god everyday that my children were not in the vehicle at that time. Now I have to rely on other means of transportation for myself to get to work and my children to school. This is very difficult with 2 school age children and 1 infant.

Drove 4 to 5 miles, then the vehicle was parked inside of the garage when it caught on fire in the engine compartment and totaled . The fire department was called to extinguished fire. No injuries. The insurance company will come out tomorrow for inspection. Please fill in additional information.