Ah.... but better to be moving slowly than to not be moving at all cos some stupidly expensive pre-ordained and pre-programmed to fail black box or similar has you sat in a workshop waiting room weeping quietly while you part with the National Debt of Greece to get your engine working again eh?
Once you realise how easy it is to build in a 'time-bomb' in electronics to corrupt the memory or blow a component or circuit and render it useless BY DESIGN to force the consumer to spend on repair or better yet a replacement after a certain time/hours run combination or similar, then you develop a healthy cynicism and distrust of anything managed by and utterly dependent upon electronics.
We all wander about believing that electronic devices fail randomly and through natural causes - where really well-designed solid-state stuff should be robust as hell and very long-lived... yet they fail with monotonous regularity. Yes some of this will be bad quality control and making it on the cheap (even if it costs YOU a mint), but I think its just too good a trick to miss (and untraceable) for global Mfrs to overlook the revenue opportunity for giving aftermarket sales and new sales a 'helping hand'.
Mfrs LOVE Electronics - they give them opportunities to ring-fence the product to be supported by their own after-sales network for added revenue through its product life. They can (and do) code their ECU's etc. to prevent access by independents etc. and code parts like injectors so you can't buy one and chage it without the Dealer encoding it and so forth.
Our Govt COULD easily insist that all electronics on consumer goods were 'open protocol' to eliminate skullduggery - but they don't. No doubt the powerful Mfr Lobby and Money sees to that, so Joe Public gets to pick up a bigger tab than he needs to.
Cynical? Moi? Too right.
Right... Where's me Tinfoil Hat?
