[Asmith]

I'll bet that Toyota is thankful for the Democrats and their health care. The Toyota issue hasn't been in the news at all.

[DezertTim]

i am an audi tech. 60 minutes killed us back in the day. ever since then the euro manufacturs have been real shy on bringing technology here (lexus has the car that parks itself and there are tons of claims of crashes, audi and benz have one but they arent releasing it till its perfected). the modern euro car has so many fail safes built in its rediculous. our cars only get stuck throttles from floor mats when they come loose from the retainers, and guess who had floor mat retainers first.

just to target the gas pedal, the modern bosch FI program for an audi/vw/porsche/bentley/lambo uses 2 potentiomneters on the pedal and 2 on the throttle as well. on the older cars one sensor reads the inverse of the other so at idle one reads 8% and the other 98%, at full open one reads 98% and the other 8%. on the newer cars its half, so at idle one is 8% and the other is 4% and at wide open one is 98% and the other at 49%. if at any time one of the 4 dosent read proporly, power is reduced. also if the brake lights are on (slight pedal pressure only) and the gas pedal is also on it will cut power as well.

[[email protected]]

i am an audi tech

Hey, you work on some seriously underrated cars.
I've had a 100LS, a 4000S and a 5000S I loved, an S4 now and they were all stone dependable, tons of fun to drive cars that I kept until at least 150,000 miles were on them, 225,000 on that 5000 which still wasn't burning any oil when I sold the old girl.
I wish they made a minivan .
Speaking of underrated todays techs have so much to know it's mind boggling, I mean look at all those sensors you mentioned just in reference to one function of the car.Wow.
Plus you get to deal with the public. For everyone complaining about some negative experience there are a hundred drones going off about "ever since you replaced my waterpump my power window intermittently makes a chirping noise, usually only at night between 76-83 mph."
A couple of my buds are tech sat a Benz/Volvo/Mazda shop and some of the stories are unbelievable. A favorite ? A flake takes her mini dog with her a lot and says while she cant tell what it is something is wrong, because her dog is acting "funny" he's hearing something people can't hear. Alright. What to do ?
It's sure looking like that old BS flag is stiff in the breeze too. More and more stories of the marauding Toyotas lunging about are being proven as fabrications and /or hallucinations.
I couldn't be less suprised. Doug
p.s.-While sure Mercedes is a heck of a car from a company with a long, proud and earned tradition of excellence, they can also be very ...German. My aforementioned buds are where I first heard in reference to the Benz"engineered like no other car" ad campaign to "overengineered like no other car".

[DezertTim]

its odd, the new cars are so over engineered and with so much crap on them and i know them like the back of my hand. yet the old cars like the 5k's, 90/80, 100 ls and so on are simple cars with little computers yet i dont know crap about them, mostly becuase those cars are older than me lol.

right now we have an 84 5k in the shop, also a 94 cabriolet, 92 100ls, 93 s4, and a 85 gt quattro coupe....i was born in 85 lol. its insane how much money these guys spend on keeping these cars on the road (the also have current models as well) but audi owners love their cars which is great for me.

which model s4 did you own?

[[email protected]]

A 2000 S4 quattro.
That is the last car I would take out just to drive because it was fun, that's a shame. Doug

[slomotobug]

A 2000 S4 quattro.
That is the last car I would take out just to drive because it was fun, that's a shame. Doug

that's what the motorcycles are for! cars are transportation, bike are recreation, even when transporting on them.

[DezertTim]

A 2000 S4 quattro.
That is the last car I would take out just to drive because it was fun, that's a shame. Doug

those were the 2.7L Bi Turbo, real fun cars. i helped a friend build one that was pushing 500hp. it was super fast, and an avant...total sleeper. you can buy those cars in the $10k price range and put another $10k into it and for $20k have a 500hp car that does 18mpg and faster than pretty much anything on the road.

the one i have is a n/a 4.2L V8. the new ones for 2010 are supercharged 3.0 V6 with a 7 speed direct shift gearbox. you can electronically change the center differential to go from 50/50 power distribution to as much as a 40/60% power split from front to rear to make it slide arround turns faster. depending on how agressive you tune the diffs, you also adjust engine timing and suspension settings.

if you're ever in so cal you are more than welcome to take my car for a spin lol.