aero blades more fragile?

[Brett Dikeman]

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Huw Powell <audi at humanspeakers.com> wrote:

> What happens to the cars with the new-fangled automatic wipers?  Do they try
> to commit ice-icide?

On the 'brick, auto-wipe turns off with the ignition and must be
re-enabled via the button on the stalk.  Kinda annoying when it's a
rainy week, but not as annoying as on the folk's A6 (there's some Audi
content) which randomly decides to wipe with not a drop in the sky
even on some of the less-sensitive settings.  In general I find
auto-wipe on every car I've used it on to require frequent adjusting,
so if you're in the market, I frankly vote a strong "don't bother."

As for leaving the car running to warm up, it's not recommended by
most car companies.  Accelerates engine wear quite a bit to have the
engine idle so long (driving generates much more heat and the engine
warms up faster.)  Dunno about Audi, but Volvo sells auxiliary heaters
that crank out a large amount of heat to warm up the engine and
coolant.  I don't think they are available in the US, though :(

  In MA, though it is almost never enforced, there's also an
anti-idling law that was mostly aimed at diesel trucks, but applies to
all vehicles.  I know NYC has a similar rule...a number of states
probably have similar laws.

-B