AS seems to have quite a few new people who register just to tell everyone about how their 5100 "blew up", while a surprising number of members say that they don't want to buy one because "there must be something to all these problems.
I don't have a dog in this 5100 fight (I do have one Dolmar, but it's a pedestrian 341), but I'm reminded of something that happened back in the 1980s.
Anyone remember the Audi 5000? Back in the early '80s news reports were filled with stories about the Audi 5000 "suddenly" accelerating and crashing into things - there were even some fatalities. It seemed every other day that some Audi owner came forward and claimed that his/her car, too, "suddenly" accelerated and it was only the grace of {insert your favorite deity here} that kept them from destroying their car and wiping out whole endangered species.
No mechanical fault could ever be found, but that didn't stop the reports nor did it convince potential buyers that a problem didn't exist. After a while, each news story had to feature a "prospective Audi customer" who would claim to never consider an Audi again, because "there must be something to all these stories."
It came out, much later, that the unintended acceleration issues were all driver error, caused by the brake and accelerator pedals being slightly closer together than Americans were accustomed to seeing. The damage was done, though, and Audi's sales took many years to recover.
Is the 5100 a bad design? Is there an assembly fault? Are all the problems attributable to stupid dealers? I don't know, but I'm waiting until there is some solid evidence one way or another.
Just an opinion from the sidelines...
opcorn:
-=[ Grant ]=-