Engine Exhaust System problems of the 2003 Lexus ES300

Our 2003 Lexus ES 300 engine area caught in fire when my wife parked in the parking lot. According to the witness, parking lot security, he saw the smoke came out from the engine area for about a minute and then fire. He said it looks like something is short in the electrical/engine and caught the fire. When the fire department arrived to put out the fire which damaged and burned half of the car, a lead fire man commented that he has seen several incidents that the Lexus sedans were suddenly caught in fire while parking. With this unfortunate tragedy occurred to our Lexus car, we are very concerned with the safety for all Lexus sedan especially ES 300 driving by consumers out there. Fortunately, my wife left the car few minutes before the car caught in fire, but mentally she was still in shock with it. We did contact Lexus to file a complain, and they said an adjuster will contact us next 10 days to review and discuss the case. It's more than 3 weeks and we still have not heard back from Lexus. Of course, our Lexus ES 300 is a total loss now, but we request NHTSA investigating and looking into this case for the safety of consumers and demand Lexus to investigate and answer us and the public the cause for a sudden caught in fire. Thank you!.

Vehicle hesitated from a standing start position. The rpms went up but the vehicle did not move until it got into another gear. It will drive for a while and then vehicle will stop. Consumer did not feel safe. The technicians claim that the cable from the gas peddle to the engine was removed and replaced by a computer in the 2003 models. On the highway, if the vehicle was slowed down, a hesitation would be present while pressing on the gas peddle to resume speed. The engine light would come on along with the hesitation, also when the engine light would come on the vehicle would lose power along with blue smoke blowing out of the exhaust, and the rear seat contained a flaw.