Re: Runaway Car - BMW Emulates Audi?

[SMILLER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Jason...

>Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 15:38:40 -0500
>From: Jason Cammisa <jcammisa@domain.elided>
>Subject: Re: Runaway Car - BMW Emulates Audi?
>
>	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.

Actually, Car and Driver did this same analysis less than a year after the
big Audi "unintended acceleration" scare hit the public.  They came to the
same conclusion:  Offset pedal placement caused drivers to hit the gas
while they thought they were on the brake.  That is why I said, in my
original post, that I knew that the Audi scare was just drivers getting on
the wrong pedal.  Was the TV story current when you saw it a year
ago?  It seems like kind of old news, at least as far as the Audi is
concerned.

I was only interested in finding out if there have been instances of BMW
throttles sticking open, and so far I've seen no responses that this is
common.  I therefore conclude that  T.D of Virginia Beach, VA, the
person who wrote the letter to the newspaper columnist, in fact did "an
Audi" (i.e. hit the wrong pedal).  Except, as far as I know, the E30 with
automatic does not have the pedals offset to the left like the Audi.

Scott Miller
Golden Gate Chapter
BMW CCA #44977

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