In a fitting finale to a week Tesla Motors executives would rather forget, a law firm announced Friday that it had filed a class-action suit against the electric car maker for allegedly misleading investors over the fire risk posed by the company’s Model S sedan. 
 
 The firm of Pomerantz Grossman Hufford Dahlstrom & Gross accused Tesla of making misleading statements about the car’s safety, in spite of “undisclosed puncture and fire risks” that the law firm attributes to “material defects” in the Model S battery pack. 
 
 On Wednesday, a Model S caught fire on a Tennessee freeway after striking a metal towing hitch lying in the road. The hitch punctured the electric car’s battery pack, which lies beneath the floorboards and is protected from the road by a steel shield. It was the third Model S fire in six weeks, and it helped drive down the company’s stock. 
 
 Reviewers have given the Model S high marks for safety, and the car scored higher on tests from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration than any other U.S. vehicle. But the new suit alleges that the car “suffered from material defects which caused the battery pack to ignite and erupt in flames under certain driving conditions.” 
 
 The first Model S fire, on October 1, happened after a driver on a freeway outside Seattle struck a curved piece of metal, which punched through the plate protecting the battery pack. The second fire, which happened in Mexico, involved a driver racing through a roundabout, striking two walls and finally hitting a tree. 
 
 Pomerantz seeks to represent shareholders who bought Tesla stock between May 10 of this year and Nov. 6, the day of the third fire. May 10 roughly marked the start of a spectacular run-up in Tesla’s share price. The stock closed May 10 at $76.76 and peaked in late September at $193.37. It closed Friday at $137.95. 
 
 Tesla, based in Palo Alto, declined comment on the suit Friday. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. 
 
 Pomerantz specializes in corporate, securities and antitrust suits. The firm on Friday also sued J.C. Penney, claiming the retailer tried to hide its shaky finances from investors. 
 
 — David R. Baker ||||| With reports of car fires and other bad news driving the price of Tesla Motors shares down 30% from its all time high reached almost six weeks ago, is this the time to start buying into the electric car company? 
 
 Not yet, said Efraim Levy, a S&P Capital IQ equity analyst. Levy is maintaining his sell recommendation even though the shares are trading at $135.57 Friday morning, down about 4% from Thursday's close and below his $140 target price. 
 
 “People are watching like hawks for anything to happen to this company,” Levy said. “There is such intense scrutiny.” 
 
 Tesla, which for most of the year has been one of Wall Street’s best performing stocks, has faced brisk head winds this week. 
 
 On Thursday the automaker confirmed that a fire burned up one of its $70,000-plus Model S hatchbacks. It was the third such incident in five weeks and triggered calls for a federal safety investigation. 
 
 "There is no question that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should start looking at this," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety. 
 
 Meanwhile, car shopping website and auto reviewer Edmunds.com said its has encountered mechanical problems in its Tesla that have forced the replacement of numerous parts, including the entire drivetrain. 
 
 A battery supply bottleneck, heavy research and development spending and declining sales of lucrative environmental credits also have created head winds for the Palo Alto automaker. 
 
 Earlier in the week Tesla said it lost $38.5 million, or 32 cents a share, in the third quarter. That compares with a loss of $110.8 million, or $1.05 a share, in the same period last year. 
 
 “Headlines of fire are never good from a marketing perspective,” Levy said. 
 
 He noted that all three incidents were triggered by accidents rather than an internal issue with the vehicles. Levy said that once an automaker starts to have thousands of cars on the road – Tesla has sold almost 17,000 cars in the U.S. this year – fires and other incidents are bound to happen. 
 
 Levy still believes that Tesla is an innovative automaker that is carving out a strong brand and that it makes sense to value the company more like a technology company and growth story rather than a mature automaker. 
 
 “But if there are more fires the stock won’t be so hot,” Levy said. 
 
 Follow me on Twitter (@LATimesJerry), Facebook and Google+. 
 
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– Headlines about cars starting on fire tend to do bad things to said car company's stock prices, and investors in Tesla have gotten angry enough to sue. A class-action suit announced yesterday accuses the company of misleading investors on safety issues, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The suit follows a Model S fire on Wednesday in Tennessee, the third such fire in six weeks. The latest happened when the driver ran over a tow hitch, which punctured the electric car's battery pack. The suit says the vehicle “suffered from material defects which caused the battery pack to ignite and erupt in flames under certain driving conditions.” It seeks to cover anyone who bought stock from May 10 through Wednesday. In that span, Tesla stock went from $77 to a peak of $193 in September to its close of $138 on Friday. Of course, with the stock dropping, a Los Angeles Times article raises the question, Is it a good time to buy? The short answer from one analyst is not yet. As more Teslas hit the road and presumably get involved in more accidents, it's likely we're going to be reading about more fires until a fix is in place.