Runaway Car - BMW Emulates Audi? (WOB)

[madsman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Scott wrote that Audis had the pedals offset to the left, potentially causing unintended 
acceleration, and that Car and Driver expressed a similar opinion.

I worked for an Audi dealer on the north shore of Long Island during the unintended acceleration 
scare,( in fact, one of our customers was among the first to sue Audi ) and while the pedal 
offset may have contributed to the problem  , the proximate cause in my opinion was that the 
pedals were placed close together, and a large number of first time Audi buyers were trading in 
full size GM luxobarges - y'know, the ones with large amounts of space between the pedals?- and 
they just weren't used to European pedal placement. 

Did Audi/VW suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? Probably, but I also recall a 
problem several manual transmissioned VW's experienced - when left parked in gear, they would 
suddenly start up and drive away, all by themselves...seems that the radio antenna cable ran 
through the firewall just above the fuseblock, and the grommet around the cable was defective, 
and the starter relay and fuel injection relay were right there as well...anyway, rainwater 
would run down the cable , through the firewall via the defective grommet, and into the 
fuseblock, which would short out and start the car...one or two even ran down their owners after 
they parked 'em!

Gee, working in the service dept for VW/ Porsche / Audi in those days was never dull....we now 
return you to your regularly scheduled BMW broadcast.

regards,

Mike Capaldo 

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