VW recalls 2011 Jettas because honking the horn turns them off

Remember that whole silly thing with Toyota where they forgot to put working brakes in their cars? Yeah, that was stupid of them. But Volkswagon might have done Toyota one better with their latest gaffe.

Horns on 2011 Jettas are actually causing the cars to turn off.

And, as such, VW has recalled almost 71,000 Jettas, per Chicago Breaking Biz.

Under certain rare circumstances using the horn could cause a short circuit that would, in turn, cause an electronic part called a converter box to disconnect from the car’s power supply, a VW spokeswoman said.

Sure, brakes that don’t work are bad, but you at least know when you get in a Toyota, there’s a good chance that you end up as a flaming ball of fire. With a Jetta, you expect great mileage, quality German engineering, and random thumbs-ups from hippies walking down the street.

Instead, if you get cut off by some jerkstore in an SUV (that was me, by the way), you’ll honk angrily and end up stalled out in the middle of the street, likely getting rear-ended or, even worse, pulling your car to the side of the road and walking five miles to get gas only to return to your car and realize that you’re not actually out of gas.

So, yes, it’s pretty much the most horrible thing ever, except for the fact that if you own a Jetta, you probably believe that horns should only be used in the event of an absolute emergency.

So perhaps this is actually a safety thing.

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