It was Audi. It absolutely ruined them in the USA. And the problem just like this, was Driver Error -- hitting the accelerator instead of the brake(1). From that point in the 80's the next Audi I saw and was in wasn't until 2002.
(1) There was huge accident in Chicago with a woman driving her Audi. She ran through a Street Fair, the 'Old Town Art Fair' iirc. Hundreds of paintings and people were in the street. I can't recall how many were killed but a lot were injured and countless Paintings destroyed.
Not exactly ... I owned a 1980 Audi 5000 diesel and had several unstoppable acceleration issues. It was mechanical. There was a push rod linked to the accelerator pedal attached to the vacuum drum that controlled the throttle. On occasion the end would become disconnected and drop downward and jam on the intake manifold ... holding it wide open. And no, a diesel won't stop by merely turning off the ignition ... I was damn near cooked a couiple of times.