Re: Runaway Car - BMW Emulates Audi?

[Jason Cammisa <jcammisa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:55 AM 12/14/98 , SMILLER@domain.elided wrote:

<snip>

>Well, first of all, I'm pretty sure that T.D of Virginia Beach, VA is NOT a
>member of this list!  Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone who IS on this list
>knows of a condition where the throttle could have stuck open?  One
>also wonders why T.D. didn't shift back out of gear, turn off the ignition,
>use the parking brake, or any number of the other things that might have
>gotten the car stopped before wiping out his/her own car and doing
>damage to three others?  Then again, I've never been in that situation
>myself.  Oh, and the ABS failure?  Presumably, with foot planted on the
>brake pedal, the car would have left skid marks all over the place, right? 
>Or would that have been TOTAL brake system failure?  Boy, it sure
>sounds like the Audi problem all over again to me, but what do I know?


	First, I think it should be pointed out that just about every single car
model available with an automatic transmission since 1987 has had reports
of unintended acceleration.  I saw a really great story on TV about a year
ago, where a safety engineer actually put his brain to work and came up
with a great hypothesis.
	His hypothesis was that it was pedal placement in the Audi 5000 which
contributed to its unintended acceleration problem.  Because of the extra
space needed by the 4-wheel drive systems, the pedals in the audi were
offset slighly to the left, putting the accelerator pedal almost directly
under the center point of the steering column, and the brake pedal off to
the left.
	The Jeep Cherokee has long been victim of unintended acceleration claims,
and his findings were that the Jeep's pedals were placed much like the
Audi's-- offset to the left.  He then did a statistical analysis of all
claims of unintended acceleration in cars; taking into account the position
of each car's brake pedal in relation to the steering column.  What he
found shocked me...  I still remembered watching the famous 60-Minutes
episode where you could actually watch the pedal push itself down on a
rigged Audi... There is a statistically significant positive relationship
between left offset of the pedals and reports of unintended acceleration.
Cars with brake pedals directly under, or to the right of the steering
column have very, very few complaints against them.  Cars like the Audi and
Jeep, however, have hundreds and thousands.
	That, IMHO, is proof enough.
	Now, let's completely disregard that for a second.  Let's talk about the
impossibility of an E30 325iA overpowering its brakes.  It is simply not
possible.  As performance nuts, I'd wage bets that many of you with an
Automatic have brake-torqued-- one foot on the brakes, one on the gas,
right?  And do you careen through the parking lot, hitting 3 new cars and
totalling your 30,000 mile car, do you? Nope... at the Mercy of the
130-some lb-ft of torque that make their way to a 325s back wheels, the
tires will begin to lose traction and spin-- but there's no way that those
tires could overpower the front brakes and tires. 
	And... hello? The ignition key isn't that far away, and nor is the gear
selector.  People always say "Yes, but in a panic situation, you don't have
time to react".  Sorry, that's a load of crap-- hitting the brakes is pure
instinct when you've been driving for a while-- and we know T.D. isn't a
spring chicken-- he's owned the car for 10 years. I have had an accelerator
stick on me while driving once in a Mercedes.  I gunned it to shoot through
a yellow light at about 25 mph.  It downshifted into first and launched
through the light, but when I let up on the pedal, it didn't move.  I
applied the brakes, and even though the engine downshifted *back* into
first as I came to a stop, I still was able to get the car to a stop, turn
the key off, and then put it in Park without a scratch.
	Point being, this ninny wants to blame someone else for hauling ass
through a parking lot with his right foot burying the accelerator pedal in
the carpet.  Not that I don't feel bad for him; that would *suck*... but he
would look a whole lot less like an ass if he would just accept
responsibility for his mistake.
	My .02

	

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