Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Junkyard Find: 1984 Audi 5000 S, With Voodoo Incantantion To Ward Off Unintended Acceleration

The Audi "Unintended Acceleration" debacle of 1986, which whacked American Audi sales by about 75% within a few years, makes the 1982-86 Audi 5000 an historically significant Junkyard Find. The 60 Minutes piece about the 5000′s allegedly malevolent behavior turned the car's image from masterpiece of aerodynamic science to bloody-clawed multiple murderer, with predictable effects on resale value for existing cars. This means that the 5000 of the Unintended Acceleration era that managed to stay on the good side of The Crusher until 2012 is a survivor of astonishing tenacity.
Plenty of cars had smooth lines like this by the early 1990s, so the '84 5000 doesn't really stand out from the crowd these days. Back in the early 1980s, however, this car looked double-take-inducing futuristic.
Everybody has flush glass now, but noisy and drag-inducing inset windows were the norm in the early 1980s. Here's the car that introduced the flush-glass idea to the marketplace.
So, yeah, this car got a bum rap thanks to panic-mongering journalism. Ford managed to emerge comparatively unscathed from the infamous "Park-To-Reverse" controversy of a few years earlier, even though thousands of 1966-80 Fords really did suffer from a dangerous mechanical flaw.
Not that the 5000 was without its real-life weaknesses, of course; high complexity levels and glitchy electrical components kept cost-of-ownership fairly high for these things.
Note the recall-mandated decal applied to the shifter console. It's too bad that Audi didn't add a dash decal identifying the difference between the throttle and brake pedals.
I was impressed by how clean this car looked. Here's why: 62,837 miles on the clock. Original owner who only drove to church on Sundays?

21 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 01 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 02 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 03 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 04 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 05 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 06 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 07 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 08 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 09 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 10 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 11 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 12 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 13 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 14 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 15 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 16 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 17 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 18 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 19 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin 20 - 1984 Audi 5000 S Down On The Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee 'Unintended Acceleration' Martin

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com




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