Cars with good bodywork+ working engines & gearbox written off as the electronics cannot be repaired economically.

Yes they can. Places called breakers and LOTS of electronic specialsist can work wonders...

Of course if it's a 2003-08 Renault, then they were useless elctronics when built and went downhill after that..:-)

Edited by madf on 09/11/2016 at 14:10

Why should vehicle manufacturers design anything into their vehicles to make life easier for motorists? The cash cow is the service point when locked into a warranty. The other is parts and replacements services. Why make life difficult, when with a bit of effort you can make it impossible. That I fear is the mantra for a lot of manufacturers of most items from vehicles to washing machines etc etc. Pity, but there we are. Unless we stop buying them, they will continue to do just the same.

Cheers Concrete

Perhaps we should try getting full mobile phone coverage first. That would be a start.

With increasing problems in accessing components in cars, I'm surprised that robot type tools are not appearing in workshops. It would also be good if the diagnostics were improved on cars.
I don't see fully autonomous cars being commonplace in my lifetime (but I am old), we seem to have enough problems with automatic transmissions.

I doubt it would be worth spending millions on robots to repair cars, its cheaper to replace a complete unit, another problem is size of components now or should I say microchips.

I think self diagnostics has arrived, as cars are now computerised its really down to developers in software to make the finer programing

I think autonomous cars are way off even though they are about testing, not so sure many will buy them due to most drivers prefer to drive themselves rather than be driven-unless they are lazy lol