Normally German engineers are really meticulous. They think things through, and don’t engage in the decidedly North American practice of identifying and working to maximum/minimum profit/loss curves.
These engineers do not decide that ninety-five percent of the cars Volkswagen make will never go more than 300,000km and so therefore limit the odometer display to 300,000km in order to save 0.32¢ (US) on dashboard costs. Instead, they look at it differently: fully five percent of their cars will exceed 300,000km over the vehicle’s lifetime, and therefore they ensure that the odometer can display six glorious digits worth of nines. It’s the details that really matter.
Which is why I was absolutely stunned – not to mention disappointed – when the odometer on my trusty (and slightly rusty) 1996 VW Golf clicked over from 299,999 to…
…a single 0.
Ouch!
Just reading it hurts bad; so I can only imagine how you might feel!