The Range Rover multimedia center that would have burned down a US$ 5.75 million house

A Georgia family sues Jaguar Land Rover and is seeking more than $7 million in damages after a 2017 Range Rover caught fire in a parked area and destroyed their home. The lawsuit attributes the fire to a failure in the SUV’s central multimedia module, installed under the driver’s seat.

According to the lawsuit, filed in May of this year in the Southern District Court of Georgia, the fire started on the morning of December 24, 2024, Christmas Eve, at the home of Samuel Brett Mitchell and Joy Mitchell, in Glynn County. The Range Rover had been in the covered garage attached to the property for two days, where the couple and five children aged 12 to 21 lived.

Mitchell noticed smoke coming from the driver’s seat area and tried to contain the fire with a garden hose, without success. The flames spread from the car to the residence, and it took firefighters more than seven hours to control them. The property and most of what was inside it were lost.

The module that is always on

The family claims to have hired an engineer who pointed to the Infotainment Master Controller (IMC), a factory-sealed box that commands touchscreen navigation, media streaming and Bluetooth connection, as the source of the fire. According to the lawsuit, the failure of an internal subcomponent caused the module to overheat and the surrounding materials to ignite.

The central point of the allegation is that the BMI remains energized even with the vehicle turned off, powered by the idle current of the electrical system. The lawsuit maintains that the Range Rover had no open recalls at the time of the fire. There are eight campaigns registered for the 2017 model, none related to the component mentioned in the lawsuit.

Loss of US$ 7 million and a property about to be sold

The property was under a sale contract for about US$ 5.75 million, with closure scheduled for 20 days after the fire. In addition to material losses, the plaintiffs report injuries and psychological sequelae: according to the lawsuit, all family members, with one exception, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit accuses the British automaker of strict product liability, negligence and breach of warranty, and lists as defendants Jaguar Land Rover Limited, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, the brand’s U.S. subsidiary and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, the group’s parent company. Land Rover has not publicly commented on the case, and the allegations will still be reviewed by the courts.

It is not the first time that the IMC has been targeted in court in the United States. In 2024, Jaguar Land Rover settled a class action lawsuit over defects in the InControl Touch Pro system, which provided for an upgrade or replacement of the module and extension of warranty, without admitting fault.