The 10 Most Infamous Automobile Scandals

The Audi Acceleration Scandal and the TV Crew Manipulation

In 1986 the television show 60 Minutes aired a story stating baldly that the Audi 5000s were prone to accelerating when they should have been braking. Since 1982, the Audi 5000 had been making inroads into the American luxury car market. That all came crashing down when the 60 Minutes piece aired.

The 60 Minutes story claimed that cars were accelerating without warning, that sometimes they would just accelerate with no driver even in the car. They aired film footage showing an empty car accelerating. Audi retaliated, brushing off the accusations.

A subsequent investigation uncovered the culprit – the pedals of the brake and gas were narrow and close together, and drivers were hitting the gas instead of the brake. The 60 Minutes story was false because the empty car shown accelerating had been modified with an air compressor by the TV crew. Despite that, Audi lost sales for years.