"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
The electronics in modern vehicles are extremely reliable,
despite the anecdotal tales that people always seem to
have about their friend's brother-in-law's aunty's cousin who
had to fork out 1000 quid for a new ECU because the headlights
wouldn't come on.

I don't know how modern is modern, but my 1987 Chevy Beretta twice
required
computer replacement at 400 bucks a pop.




But that was 25 years ago. I'm calling 'modern' up to say 10 years ago. If
you buy a car older than that, then I would have thought that its
electronics were going to be the least of your problems. Auto electronics
have evolved hugely since the time of your Chevy, and given the myriad of
real-time tasks that the ECU is constantly performing, including looking
after the injection, ignition timing, airflow monitoring, exhaust gas
monitoring, temperature monitoring, environmental control, ABS and ETC
computer monitoring, warning systems, even the radio, and further given the
extremely hostile and unforgiving circumstances that it does it in, I think
that auto electronics are a shining example of what can be achieved in terms
of elegance of design, and staggering reliability levels in a mass produced
item.

Of course, there are going to be exceptions, and your Chevy would appear to
be one, but when you consider how many millions of cars are tooling around
on our roads, I really don't think that the occasional failures anything
like outweigh the multitude of advantages. And actually, I don't think that
$400 is too bad for an ECU replacement. You could easily shell out that
amount on a full brake service or new clutch ??

Arfa