Cats and Audi's and rear fogs....

[George Selby]

At 02:45 PM 12/9/01, you wrote:
>Actually, you're BOTH wrong.  Joe Fritz spent a few years at Ira Audi, and
>we occasionally did lunch when I was in town.  One time, I was making
>noise about the morons in the area leaving their rear fogs on, and why
>didn't the dealers do something?
>His response(from memory so it may not be word-for-word):
>
>"We DO.  When they come in to pick up the car, we spend about an hour with
>them going over everything in the car, top to bottom.  We emphasize on the
>front+rear fog switches etc."
>
>"Ah."
>
>"However, we'll get a call from them a few weeks later.  'Hi, this is
>so-and-so, this Audi's already got a broken taillight, I want it fixed.'
>No, sir, thats your rear fog light.'  'No its not, its the brake light.'
>'Sir, go downstairs, turn on the car, and push the little button with the
>light picture on it and the yellow light in the middle, its on the
>center console, up top.' <clump clump clump. <long pause> <clump clump
>clump> 'Well, Ill be damned.'  'Have a nice day, sir.'"

So what you are saying is that Audi attempts to waste an hour of the
customer's time when they pick up a car by trying to explain a bunch of
features most people have no idea even exist while the customer is getting
impatiently excited about getting to drive their new car, all the while
thinking, "what does this dumb salesman think, I don't know how to operate
a car?"  It is no surprise to me at all that they get the call a few weeks
later asking for repairs.  Once again, it is necessary for the new owner to
read the manual once they get home, in order to fully understand the car
they have just purchased, and away from the excitement of the new car
purchase/pickup.

As an alternative explanation, maybe a bunch of the dumber Volvo and Audi
owners are kinda like my stepfather, they figure if it makes you more
visible in the fog, it must work really great for increasing visibility in
normal weather, and thus is a safety device to be used at all times.

As yet another idea, maybe Audi should label the button in English (or
whatever native tongue is spoken in the country the car is being sold
in.)  That way everyone who drove the car could understand the strange
button, rather than just the owner.


George Selby
83 Audi Coupe GT
gelby4x4 at earthlink.net