A motorist watched as his car burst into flames just minutes after it filled up with black smoke while he was behind the wheel.
Gary Aylmer had just reached Stonehaven on the B979 Netherley Road when his BMW X5’s engine failed.
The 50-year-old, from Kingswells, pulled over to check underneath the bonnet and discovered flames had already broken out.
He managed to remove his personal possessions from the vehicle and call the fire service.
It was while he was waiting for the emergency services that the three-year-old car became completely engulfed in flames.
He said: “At the end of the day it’s not something that’s happened to me so I was taken aback – it was a pretty frightening experience.
“I managed to get most of my stuff out in time and then tried to stop the traffic, people were trying to go by but it’s not safe to do that.
“By the time the fire brigade got there it had gone up in flames and it took them about 20 to 25 minutes to put them out.
“It’s a little bit alarming that a car can catch fire like that, I’m just glad I was on my own at the time as if my kids and my dogs had been in the car it could have been a lot worse.”
Mr Aylmer, who works in oil and gas, managed to capture the blaze on video on his mobile phone.
And he also took pictures of the charred and blackened vehicle, which was completely destroyed, after the fire crews had finished extinguishing the flames.
Mr Aylmer has now claimed with his insurance company and while he thinks it may be connected to a pre-existing valve problem, he fears it will be difficult to establish what caused the fire as the engine is unrecognisable.
BMW said it was unable to comment while the insurance company’s investigation was ongoing.
