The situation gets worse! This morning the car started with no stalling and the lights worked as advertised. It is the owner's and the technician's worst nightmare - intermitent faults. It is in for an MOT and check-over later this month so we shall see if faults are found

she likes the Auto function to work properly and doesn't care to use her own judgement to turn them on and off!

I'm sure she'll change her mind when she gets hit in a low-lying, heavy morning mist.

When all around is opaque, but the sky's bright, auto lights stay off! The number of people I see emerging unexpectly from the murk lightless in such conditions is, in my opinion, a very good reason to ban the things. Too many treat them as a substitute for common sense.

I have to say though that my favourite piece of auto-lighting lunacy came at the expense of a mate. He was waiting to pull out of a side turning adjacent to a railway bridge and an oncoming vehicle "flashed" him........oops. It's terribly difficult to act all sympathetic over a mate's misfortune when inside you're actually thinking he's been a bit of an idiot!

In that case, the poor SOB with his light switch set to auto got a serious unwanted front-end modification. Not his fault, but why tempt fate into giving you all the hassle of an accident?