Some People Really SHOULD Drive Hondas

[William Elliott <wcelliot@concentric.net>]

Attached is an entry from the British Cars mailing list; the car owner
mentioned appears to be one of those "Comsumer Report" types who will
doubtlessly decry Audi's as unreliable and expensive to repair...


<<<From: "Craig & Karen Bentley" <mmbent@email.msn.com>
Subject: I thought I'd seen it all  Non LBC


Well folks I know that I haven't seen it all but this one takes the cake
so
far in my book. A customer came in the other day on the back of a
rollback
with no brakes. I went out to the car are sure enough the car had NO
brakes.
The little red brake warning and the low brake pad warning lights were
on
(1990 Audi 100). The left front wheel is covered with black and orange
dust.
Strange I says to me self. I ask the guy how long the brake warning
lights
have been on, "Oh about six months or so" he replies. "Six months!!!!" I
said to myself again. Well I figured we'll just have to have a lookie
see.
I pull the suspect wheel  and lo and behold the car has NO brakes. Not
just
no more pads but NO more brakes. It appears that six months ago the
little
yellow pad warning light comes on (VERY HARD to miss if you've ever seen
the
dash of a late model Audi you'll know what I mean) and the guy figures
heck
the car still seems to stop okay. I guess another 4-5 months go by and
then
the guy starts hearing that awful grinding sound that tells you that you
have gotten all the money out of that brake pad set and that you have
just
tripled the cost of repair but no this guy figures heck the car still
seems
to stop okay. Finally what happens is after the metal portion of the
brake
pad has turned into ferretic (SP?) dust the brake caliper  starts  in on
the
rotor. Still the car stops okay and the guy continues driving. Then one
day
he hits the brake pedal and pluie the pedal goes to the floor. He
managed to
eat through the floating half of the brake caliper and since there was
nothing holding the caliper on poof out came the brake piston. This guy
not
tripled his repair cost try multiplying  by six!! If you think the parts
for
our cars are expensive you haven't seen nothing unless you've owned an
Audi.
After I was able to stand again ( I was laughing so hard) I give the guy
the
news. He thinks its a design or engineering problem and this just
shouldn't
have happened. Holding back the irresistible urge to laugh and tell this
guy
that he is one of the most mechanically impaired people I've ever met I
find
the will power to calmly explain that the warning lights are put there
for a
reason and that when he first heard that grinding sound he should have
brought the car in. I really don't know about you folks but as I said
before
this dude takes the cake in my book and the really unfortunate thing
about
it is he out there on the roads with us and the really really
unfortunate
thing is that he is probably NOT the most mechanically disinclined
person
out there. Enough wasted bandwidth for tonight I just couldn't resist
telling this story.  Regards Craig Bentley>>>>

Bill Elliott
Lake Mills, WI
85 UrQ and 71 Little British Car (LBC) TR6