Toyota Unintended Acceleration

[Brendan Walsh]

yup that was it, i did some looking around the web today for curiosities 
sake(google audi unintended acceleration). couldn't find the specific 
article i read, but everything you said jives with what i found.I also found 
it interesting some released court documents for Illinois (Ithink)came up. 
People were still in court with VAG in 1998 apparently. i scanned through, 
and to my shock and suprise the case was dismissed due to insuffucient 
evidence of direct negligence on audi's part... apparently this case was 
filed after the AT lockout was added,the car in question was produced with 
it factory installed, leaving only (insert score for dramatic effect) driver 
error!!! I was only a kid at the time(4 or 5) but i remember my parents 
freinds selling there car because of the whole mess, I think it was actually 
a 4k, but it amazes me the panic that runs through the masses. 1800 
questionable cases out of how many cars produced? numbers of unintended 
acceleration that were not statstically higher than the case with z cars 
etc? THat's why you can't believe everthing you read...
brendan



>From: Huw Powell <audi at humanspeakers.com>
>Reply-To: audi at humanspeakers.com
>To: "Brendan K. Walsh" <bkwalsh4201 at hotmail.com>
>CC: Dan DiBiase <d_dibiase at yahoo.com>, Kurt Deschler <desch at alum.wpi.edu>,  
>quattro at audifans.com
>Subject: Re: Toyota Unintended Acceleration
>Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 18:04:15 -0500
>
>
>>There is an article I read somewhere on the web on this, audi responded by
>>moving the brake pedal in the 85(?) models up and over to decrease the 
>>risk
>>of a driver doing just that.
>
>While I don't think they moved the brake pedal, they did do a recall on 
>previous production to install a lockout preventing shifting slushboxes 
>into "drive" if the brake was not depressed (poor, poor brake, should have 
>used prozac), and this was also installed on new production.
>
>The carpet holding pegs we are so familiar with now were also introduced 
>(to stop the carpet from getting caught on the loud pedal).
>
>There may have been one or two other minor things done (like a sticker on 
>the inst cluster saying "don't use the pedal on the right when you want to 
>stop"), but since the cars were not at fault, this was mostly window 
>dressing, other than the A/T lockout, which does make sense.
>
>Unfortunately (or, fortunately, for those of us who were able to buy used 
>Audis dirt cheap), VAG's response to the 60 Minutes piece of irresponsible 
>yellow journalism was tepid and did not seem to understand the American 
>marketplace.   See, for contrast, the rapid and effective response of the 
>pickup truck mfr (GM?) to the 60 Minutes rigging of explosives in their gas 
>tanks.
>
>Audi also introduced some buyer programs to support their resale value, in 
>those darkest sales years on the late 80's.  My 89 90Q came with such 
>protection, pegged to a couple of similar market models by other 
>manufacturers.
>
>>I don't think a cause was ever truly determined other than "eliminate the
>>impossible and whatever remains...."
>
>The NHTSA eventually returned a verdict of "pilot error" in all cases.
>
>>the same article also stated that the in initial report, some lady 
>>crashing
>>into her garage,  that the car's brakes were properly functioning and 
>>there
>>was no other damage to the car(other than what she caused).
>
>In some, or many, cases, cars were found to have the A/T kickdown switch 
>(under the gas pedal) to be damaged from the amount of force the drivers 
>were using to try to stop the car with the wrong pedal in their panic.
>
>I hope these ancient memories are still reasonably accurate...
>
>--
>Huw Powell
>
>http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi
>
>http://www.humanthoughts.org/

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