what's wrong with this picture?

[P.Dooley]

I remember the Audi test driver taking a 5000 up to 60mph and slamming
on the gas and brake pedal simultaneously.
The car came to a screeching halt under full throttle.

That was all the data I needed to know unintended accel was driver
error.


-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com]
On Behalf Of Sean Ford
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 3:11 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: what's wrong with this picture?

For the most part, the person driving THINKS they have their foot on the
brake
pedal and no matter how hard they press that pedal into the floor the
car just
continues to accelerate. The problem is, the driver is pressing on the
throttle, not the brake. The ensuing panic keeps them from thinking of
the
ignition or transmission. It's way too easy to sit at a keyboard and
laugh at
their stupidity.

The sadest story was the one of the women in the Audi 5000 who ran her
son
through the back wall of the garage and killed him. It wasn't the car's
fault,
it was her fault. I wrote a paper in college, for my public policy
class, on
this "unintended acceleration" crap. The professor took the consumer's
side...
friggin' liberal.

It was the 5000 debacle that led to the gear shift lock (foot on brake
to
release), and Audi later redesigned the pedal placement of automatic
transmission cars to move the pedals off to the right and provide more
room
between the brake and throttle pedals.

I remember reading the initial C4 reviews and the drivers were
complaining that
the center console was intrusive on their legs; because Audi had move
the
throttle too far to the right.

I would higly suspect that even the latest Toyota "unintended
acceleration"
issues are nothing more than people pressing on the throttle instead of
the
brake. Education is the answer, but I doubt it'll come across that way.


--- Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net> wrote:
>
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/19/car_in_georgia_par
ade_crash_was_recalled/
> 
> Now, pardon my ignorance, but if the car is suspected(and they 
> indicate they're focusing on it) why on earth is a Chyrsler mechanic 
> doing the inspection to determine if the vehicle was at fault?  Wolf 
> guarding the chickenhouse, don't you think?
> 
> Further- I'm getting really tired of "the car accelerated out of 
> control!" claims which are again popping up on a frequent basis.
> 
> a)switch off the ignition(now there's a shocker)
> b)put the car in neutral or park(yet again, what a foreign concept)
> c)hit the damn brakes(in almost any car, the brakes are far more 
> 'powerful' than the engine)
> d)hmm, drive over people or crash into a wall/telephone pole.  Now 
> there's a tough choice in what to steer for
> 
> Why the driver isn't sitting in a jail cell at the moment is beyond 
> comprehension, even if the vehicle is found to have a stuck throttle.
> 
> Brett
> -- 
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> quattro at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro


=====
Sean Ford
1999 A6 2.8q tip | 1992 100CS non-q 5-spd
http://registry.audiworld.com/audiworld/registry/details.asp?car=9728

Winter wheels and tires for sale:
5x112, 196/65HR/15, 6.5x15
http://www.audifans.com/marketplace/show.php?table=pm_audifans_Parts&id=
242

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