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A Car With A Mind Of Its Own
mindriot writes "When Hicham Dequiedt, driving on a highway between Vierzon and Riom in central France in his Renault Vel Satis this Sunday, was overtaking a truck, his car began accelerating to 120 mph on its own, apparently due to a defect in the cruise control system. Stomping on the brakes proved pointless and, having a magnetic card for a car key, he could not cut the ignition. After calling the police from his cell phone who then attempted to clear the streets of any danger to him, in what he described as the most fearful event of his life, he raced down the highway for another hour before finally managing to stop the car. Read about the incident here or, in more detail, in this article by the German 'Spiegel' (translation). The case is still under investigation. Are we putting too much trust in the increasing number of electronic systems that our lives depend upon?"
The car in question was a Renault Vel Satis.
As the Tom and Ray Magliozzi from Car Talk say about car design, "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but nobody imitates the French".
I know Audi had similar problems in the mid 1980's. I guess the French are imitating 20 year old German design flaw.
"I'm The Bounty Bear. I will find him anywhere. I'm searching."
Elevators CAN fall, if enough damage is incurred. Something on the order of a 767 fusilage slamming into a building at 500 knots might do the trick.
Fortunately, that never happens!
This has nothing even resembling meter, and any rhymes you added in the right places are purely accidental.
I'm pretty sure European cars don't have rev limiters. Thats part of American safety requirements that most other countries don't follow.
in bed.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Bullshit.
Every car I've owned for the last 10 years at least has been a manual, and my daily commute is ~ 30 miles each way in DETROIT.
My current commuter is also the tow vehicle for the race car - a Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins Turbo Diesel, a 6-speed manual, and 4.10 rear gears - meaning I shift three times to cross an intersection. It also has the Mother of All Heavy Clutches.
My clutch leg is just fine. In fact, the exercise does me good.
AND I get better gas milage AND the truck is lighter and less complex - meaning "more reliable".
AND it's a whole lot more fun to drive. There's little else you can do solo in a vehicle that matches the staisfaction of a perfectly rev-matched downshift.
With the majority of economy cars, the clutch effort is so light that you can activate the clutch with your ankle, not your whole leg. My wife's Neon (also a manual) has a clutch that requires about the same effort as the gas pedal.
Manuals are just FAR superior to automatics in every way possible.
DG
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