It would be pretty interesting to see if there were ever any complaints about unintended acceleration in diesel powered Audis.

Also, an excellent point.

If you hit the brakes and burned rubber, you didn’t hit the brakes.

Zackly. End. Of. Story. Period.

Ah well, things happen for a reason… who knows why this happened. It sure was a cracked situation though…

????

You’ve never owned one have you? The brake assist for these cars is provided by the same hydraulic pump that provides the steering assist. there is no vacuum booster…

Maybe the diesel powered 5000s, but the gas ones had vacuum operated boosters. Check for yourself.

http://www.napaonline.com/masterpages/NOLMaster.aspx?PageId=470&LineCode=NBB&PartNumber=535903&Description=Power+Brake+Booster+w/o+Master+Cylinder

????

You’ve never owned one have you? The brake assist for these cars is provided by the same hydraulic pump that provides the steering assist. there is no vacuum booster…

See http://www.ifitsgotanengine.com/2004/11/unintended-acceleration.html

Dazed bejeweled woman gets out of damaged Audi, and starts going on about unintended acceleration. Not her fault.

Police arrive and actually listen to us, since we are in almost identical car, and have some interest in the matter, not unnaturally.

Her brake lights never came on during the 3 or 4 second debacle, we tell police Test brake pedal, one not-so-smashed brake light bulb bravely lights up.

So, all she did was mash the gas and not the brake.

However, in her defence, have to say that the Audis used to take perhaps 2 seconds to engage reverse from Park, and on several occasions, forgetting that, in our Audi, my mind expecting to move and getting nothing during that 2 second period, foot automatically goes down on gas, car finally goes into gear and takes off like a rabbit. Your body bumps into steering wheel, and the first time it’s quite disorienting. Used to demonstrate the trait to anyone who wanted to see it after I bought that car from my friend — he got a 1988 Merc E class, and I used the 5 grand deal Audi gave for the depreciation and bought a new ‘88 Quattro 90 manual cheap.

And it’s not just old grannies either.

-Exactly, left foot braking is crucial to every form of race driving and I practice it quite often. It should also be taught in civilian driving as braking reaction time is substantially reduced – thus adding a margin of safety. Now people that drive 20mph in a straight line with their foot on the brakes are another story.

And I’m pretty sure they never apologized to Audi or anyone else for using that remote-control setup.

In other words, Katie Couric ain’t the only reason they’re in last…

may be related – it happened to me in my 94 cougar, all i could do to stop it. later realized that to me, the pedals were a bit closer than i was used to, plus my 13EEs…well i was hitting both pedals at once.

Never been in an Audi 5000, but I did test drive a VW Quantum (remember those? It was the Audi 5000 badge twin) when I was car shopping (settled on a NUMI Nova at that time).

My GF in High School had a Quantum, 5 speed. I credit that car with starting a lifelong love of driving.

I’m pretty darn sure that it was NOT the A5K badge twin..it was the badge twin of the Audi 4000 instead (the Audi 80 version B2)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_80
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_Quantum

Tell ya 2 things: Never did a set of main bearings on an Audi straight 5( tough motor!) ; and CBS still sucks.

Then you were in The Twighlight Zone. And you weren’t the the first. And probably not the last.

The only taxes that should go to the roads are gasoline taxes. Only usage fees are fair. If you don’t use the road, or you ride a moped that uses little gas (and does no damage to the road), no problem. You wanna drive a leviathan, get ready to pay for your pollution and your road wear. If regular taxes were eliminated, we could afford the $8/gallon that appropriately road-taxed gasoline would cost.

As for schools–are we really getting a fair deal for what we pay? Our goverment schools (public isn’t an accurate description) teach nothing more than basic obedience and socialization (and don’t you *ever* question authority). On the other hand, they do serve as holding pens and keep the miscreants out of my home while i work.

Pedal confusion or The Twighlight Zone.

Oh, it had nothing to do with the pedals. It was a faulty plunger in the throttle linkage, driven by a solenoid. I’d be cruising at, say, a steady 30, and my steed would suddenly rear back on its figurative haunches and surge to about 45.

This was one of about 55 defects the car suffered before I literally lost count. A shock came loose and pounded out the rear package shelf. Screw caps fell off all over the interior. The air failed on the first warm day I owned the car. The odo went bad at about 30,000 miles. The driver’s seat literally snapped under my butt as I jumped in (and I wasn’t even fat yet!).

And finally, the clincher: the day after I got the car back from L’affaire Driver’s Seat, the car suddenly couldn’t generate enough power to get out of the driveway under full throttle. It bucked, surged and died all the way to the shop. The cause turned out to be a broken screw holding down the distributor cap. Talk about variable timing. I decided the next day to unload it.

Through all this, the dealer was worthless and the zone office was worse (”that 45-minute tow from your home to the dealership was outside our free radius—pay the difference,” and “we’ve found your part now that we’ve had your month-old car for a week—we’re getting it in by SECOND-DAY air”). Pardon me for feeling VW/Audi had/has zero credibility when it comes to customer support. Yeah, maybe the owners were hitting the gas instead of the brake. Let’s just say the company whose cars they were doing it in wasn’t exactly the Nordstrom’s of German rolling stock.

By the way, any of you up on what they did to their more recent owners of 4-cylinder Passats when the coils went bad, one cylinder at a time? Google that.

So please, tell us, how many Audis have you owned?

A few days later, then head of Audi USA, a big burly former Marine named Richard Mugg, assured those assembled to scribble notes, that “Audi was coming back.” I remember thinking he had the epitome of wishful thinking; but as the late Molly Ivins might say, “Who wudda thunk” that Audi was be competing favorably with Mercedes-Benz and even Porsche, by 2007?

Mr. Mugg made the point that Audi had worked with the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in tearing apart the transmissions from several Audi 5000; and never found a thing that would explain the “unintended acceleration” rear-ward the drivers on “60 Minutes” experienced. He also said – I have never seen it – that “60 Minutes” publicly apologize – but only for rigging one car up to run sans driver and not very convincingly.

The thing is, most any manufacturer selling cars in America has to “dumb down” the product for the general American consumer. Yes, the enthusiast might want all the pedals – accelerator, brake and clutch (for cars with one) – in a row, so as to better perform the tricky manuever of heel-and-toe. But for the average American driver, who these days is likely more engaged in a heated cell phone conversation, it is best to stagger at least one of those pedals; as well as keep them different sizes.

But I can still recall showing an Audi a few years back to my pal, Larry Dreon, owner/operator of Daisywagen (sic) Foreign Car Service who noted the tiny pedals, all in a row, and said,”You’d think Audi would’ve learned.”

It seems now that Audi is being bought by a different kind of driver. But then again, I could be wrong.