Dumb Question

[Donn York <dyork@xxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I hate to ask this, but someone in my office knew of my participation
on this list and requested that I ask this (really, I swear).  So here goes...

According to someone at the British company which has just acquired us,
BMW at some point in its history had a car that would shut off or refuse to
start if the scheduled maintenance hadn't been done in, say, three cycles.
So if the scheduled maintenance lights hadn't been reset for, say, 3 10,000
mile periods, the car would not run.  Picture being stranded in the desert
somewhere with a car that was working perfectly fine.  However, you turned
it off to look at the scenery.  Then you tried to start it and it wouldn't
start, BY DESIGN!  Because BMW programmed it not to start, to protect the
car!  Yes, I know how stupid it sounds, but the only reason my PC works is
because of this person, so I'm humoring him by asking you.  Can someone
please categorically deny that BMW ever did anything quite so foolish, or
at least that they never did this very foolish thing?

Thanks and sorry for the WOB.  (At least I refused to ask the Y2K question
he posed).

Donn

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