BenM@University Audi

Would you mind elaborating, or would you rather not? If you don't want to post it publicly could you email me about it? I met Ned at the rose city le mans race...and a few of his friends that use his stuff on older audis, seemed like a cool guy. What happened?

Cameron

... Audi's top line car, the Audi 5000S (equivalent to today's A8) was discussed on the American evening television program "Sixty Minutes" including an interview with and story about a person whose Audi 5000S apparently "inexplicably jumped forward through the wall of her garage and into the swimming pool, killing her son". The story threatened to forever tarnish Audi's reputation, bringing with it rumors throughout the industry that Audi would be pulled as a VW brand in the United States. The Audi brand was later revived with the Audi Avus showcar and the introduction of the new A8.

It was later revealed that the problem was not with the Audi 5000S but instead with the drivers, who had started the car in "drive" with their feet on the accelerator instead of the brake. In 1988, Audi introduced the most comprehensive and advanced Park-only automatic transmissin lockout system on the market in partnership with ZF.

But the damage had already been done, and the brand was crippled for five years because of one inaccurate news story about misguided soccer moms who could not operate their cars responsibly.

Cameron

eharleq

It was just a bit more than sheer stupidity. As sad as the half-dozen deaths were, they were all fundamentally due to the driver not holding the brake down when starting.

The Audi part of the issue was due to the relative proximity of the pedals to each other and the cold idle rpm. Both of these items were changed by Audi. I have big feet and have problems with the pedals in the old Audis.

Sharon

The fiasco has otherwise nothing to do with his business.

BenM@University Audi

audis! I have heard tons of people say this, "Man, the older audis are just peices of crap, you have them in the shop more then you drive em." And thats their reason for not liking the new audis. Then I even have friends who think the older audis are garbage too..Is it really that bad or is it just a bad repuatation? I like the older audis, and I think most people just talk smack about them because of the bad reputation, not because they're bad cars. The reason I ask this is because I don't really have anything to say in rebuttal when someone talks smack about my audi or older ones. Thanks for the history lesson by the way for all us younger audi owners!

GRocky

... like 300k ... and he says it's been completely trouble-free!

Cameron

Audi 100
Audi 5000S
Audi A4 2.8Q
Audi A4 1.8TQ
Audi A4 1.8TQ
Audi TT 180CQ
Audi A6 2.8Q Avant
Audi TT 225CQ

We've had a trouble-free experience, unlike certain Lotus and Porsche products I won't mention...

JayP

5 years? They've just recently passed the 1986 sales records. The early 90's were pretty hard.

Gop-Dogg

I remember watching that broadcast. There were mumblings about Mercedes as well.

BaysideRS4

Now they drive SUVs and minivans