On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:20:56 +0000, Glenn Richards
wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

If I brake with my left foot the ECU kills the engine revs. Apparently
it's a safety feature in case the throttle sticks open - just hit the
brakes.
You must have a weird car.

No, it's an Audi A4 Quattro.

Apparently it was a feature that VAG introduced after a rigged test on
60 Minutes in the US where the Audi 5000 (sold in Europe as the Audi
100) suffered from "sudden acceleration" - what was actually happening
was that US drivers, not used to the close placement of brake/throttle
pedals, were hitting the gas as well as the brake.

Additionally, some cars containing kids and/or dogs had problems where
the owner left the car with the engine running, and the kid/dog
managed to move the gearshift from P or N into R or D.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_100

So now if you can't tell the difference between middle and right pedals
(or left/right if you're driving a toy with a slushbox) you won't have
that problem.

Bloody Americans...

Indeed, and theother result of that (for which I'll never forgive
them) was the introduction of a bloody irritating interlock, so that
to get the gearshift out of P or N, you have to hit the footbrake as
well as pushing in the button on the shift lever.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering