There was a program on the tv yesterday about people who were pissed off with their new cars. Quite a bit was dedicated to the electronic faults (especially Citroen C3 stalling) that stealerships had failed to fix time and time again. This made me think of three things:

1. The average dealer technician seems to know 3/5 of sod all about electrical or electronic stuff beyond swapping bits. Do they get trained by the manufacturer?

2.Electronics can be glitchy, especially in cars. Add software and a CPU and you are asking for it.

3. People always blame the electronics, and don’t check the basics. We once had an old-shape Mini (the proper one) with electronic managment. It broke down (surprising, for a British car :-^) and the breakdown guy came out, started it, and followed my other half home- saying it needed to go on the diagnostic rig. I got home and did the age-old wiggle test and found a loose cable on the ignition coil after about 10 min. Oddly enough, I remember that happening on my Mom’s 1980 points-and-carb Mini too.