Accessories

[Pete Kraus <Pete_Kraus@Emory.Org>]

Steve Frattini and Andrew Duane exchanged the following excerpts:

>Why in the world does Audi (and VW for that matter) wire the radios
>so that they can be turned on without the ignition.  Is there a reason
>behind this.  Please enlighten me.

>Yes.

>They don't think the entire car needs to be powered up just to listen to
>the radio. It makes sense.

>My new A6QW has a slightly different arrangement. When the car is
>turned off, the radio stays on as long as the key is in the ignition.
>When I remove the key, the radio goes off, then I have to turn the car
>on again to make it play.

>Don't really care for it....

Why not, Andrew?  Sounds reasonably convenient to me.  I've never
had a problem with radios wired to bypass the ignition system (as on
my current 4KSQ plus past cars, all German come to think of it, such
as VW GTI and Beetle, Porsche 914, Opel Kadett), though I might not
like it if I had small kids.  My favorite arrangement is the good old
American practice of an accessory setting on the ignition switch.  Here
you enjoy the advantages of being able to run accessories with the
engine shut off while retaining control via a key, and can continue to do
so without restarting the engine however many times the key is
removed and reinserted.  

Pete
Pete_Kraus@emory.org