CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A local judge says she was afraid for her life when her car suddenly went up in flames minutes after it had been serviced at a car dealership.
Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Kimberly Bandoh wasn’t happy with how the dealership responded.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
She says it all began after she left Mercedes Benz of South Atlanta after getting routine maintenance service.
“10 minutes later I get my car and it’s in flames,” she told Channel 2’s Tom Jones.
Bandoh has seen some of everything while sitting on the bench. But she never thought she’d see her 2017 Mercedes 450 GSL go up in flames the way it did that day.
She says she quickly got off I-285 and pulled over.
“And I had to go tell the restaurant, ‘Hey get these people out of here because this car is about to go up in flames,” she said.
Bandoh says before she left the dealership, a tech sent her a video saying everything was good on her car. Minutes later it was destroyed.
“Here’s my car. What’s left of it anyway,” Bandoh said, while looking at the shell of her car as it sat in a tow yard.
Bandoh says she was really disappointed in how the dealership responded. “Ms. Bandoh, we’re sorry it happened. You have to contact your insurance company,” she says a manager told her.
She says the dealership also didn’t provide her with a loaner.
The dealership says that’s no longer the case. “She’s got a loaner vehicle. We’ve reimbursed her for any rental charges that she had,” Stacey Ellis Hodges, Vice President of Group Operations, said.
Hodges said the dealership and other parties are now investigating the incident. “We’ll get the findings and we’ll do what’s right by the client. We just got to get some information first.”
Hodges said incidents like this are highly unusual.
But my colleague Justin Gray has reported on several sudden Mercedes car fires, including two that were the same year, make and model as Bandoh’s car.
The judge says this incident has left her traumatized. “I’m thinking what if I wasn’t near an exit and I’m still going down 285 and the flames started.”
Bandoh says she lost most everything in her car. Including $200 worth of groceries and the full tank of gas she had just purchased.
The group that owns the Mercedes dealership says it has been in business 55 years. And its two founding principles are do what’s right by the client and what’s right by its team members. It says it will do that in this case.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
