Car scandals of the past - Audi 5000
10/18/2015
The current diesel scandal is not the only one to affect the Volkswagen Group's success in the USA; there have been incidents in the past that have generated a lot of negative publicity.
During the production period of the Audi100 of the C3 series, which was sold in the USA as the Audi 5000, a huge drop in sales had to be overcome when repeated incidents were recorded that became known as "sudden unintended acceleration". According to reports at the time, the cars suddenly began to accelerate on their own, leading to accidents. In the 1980s, 700 such accidents and six deaths, as well as several serious injuries, were recorded in the USA alone as a result of such accidents involving the Audi 5000.
In 1986, CBS broadcast a report on this subject and it was possible to see how the Audi itself accelerated. However, it later became known that the car had been rigged for the effect. Audi had to react and launched several recall campaigns.
In fact, there was room for improvement in the cars, for example in the idle stabilization, the design of the foot pedals and the prevention of gear engagement in the automatic transmission without stepping on the brake.
Later investigations also confirmed a certain degree of contributory negligence on the part of Audi, but concluded that the driver's reactions had led to the serious accidents in the first place (e.g. accelerating further instead of braking, confusing the pedals, etc.).
However, it took Audi years to recover from the substantial drop in sales and this scandal is also likely to have cost them a lot in terms of marketing.
The issue of unintended, independent acceleration is still the basis of countless lawsuits and investigations today, because Audi was not the only company affected.
