Vauxhall is to recall some of its Zafira models after more than 130 were reported to have burst into flames.
The British car manufacturer is investigating the cause of the problem, which is affecting some vehicles made between 2005 and 2014.
Denis Chick, Vauxhall's director of communications, said around 225,000 of these were sold in the UK but the firm will have "no idea" how many are at risk until further inquiries are made.
He said "there will be a recall when we get a root cause" and until then concerned owners are advised to book an appointment with their local Vauxhall dealer for a free inspection.
Mr Chick said: "In some cases there's no advanced warning (of the fire).
"Smoke comes through the dashboard vents and within a few minutes the car's on fire.
"People fortunately have got time to pull over, stop and get out of the vehicle.
"We haven't had any cases yet of an accident or injury - to our knowledge - as a result of all of this but, yes, of course it's serious."
Vauxhall has identified potential problems with the heating fan, pollen filter and resistor in cars that have been repaired using "a non-Vauxhall approved component", Mr Chick said.
The resistor will be replaced in every vehicle free of charge.
"The reason we're going to do that is we have found a number of cases where the resistor is a non-Vauxhall approved component, it's a copycat part," Mr Chick explained.
"We want to see how many of those are in the system. We want to see whether that's potentially an issue.
"It's just one line of inquiry at the moment but that's why we're going to take them all out so we can actually look at them carefully."
Mr Chick added that a lot of the vehicles made since 2005 are on their second, third or fourth owners.
"People go to all sorts of independent operators, back street garages, to get their cars serviced or if they have a problem," he said.
"We're finding a number of these vehicles have not got a full service history."
He continued: "We have no idea how many vehicles may be affected by an issue until we see more."
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