Engine diagnostics are one thing, but when your heater controls look like this....
what happens when that goes wrong? A couple of years ago this sort of thing was reserved for supercars and if it were to fail, the repair or replacement costs are a relatively low percentage of the cars value so it would be done without hesitation, but now you can find them on middle of the range family cars....When that car is twelve years old and worth under fifteen hundred pounds then paying out for it to be repaired will be out of the question to most people.
Yeah, people want gadgets and comfort but this sort of thing is completely, utterly stupid. Driving down a busy motorway in the rain, the windscreen starts fogging up. Normally you would reach down, put your hand straight on the heater knob and turn it to the right to demist the screen - no need to take your eyes off the road. But with this sort of pish you are FORCED to look down at it and fiddle through a menu system to achieve the same effect. Progress? No. No, its not.
Yeah, there are workarounds for things like the d3 turbo change just like specialists came up with ways to change fiat coupe timing belts without removing the engine, but something like a touch screen that is such an integral part of so many cars systems will be another story, especially as this sort of tech filters down from luxury marques to the cheaper cars.
My other car is a C2 VTR. Its has a Sensodrive gearbox....or a "flappy paddle" box as they would call it on Top Gear. That sort of thing is fine on an Aston Martin or a Ferrari with a well designed system, twin plate clutch etc, but the low budget version made by Citroen for their warmed over shopping-trolley model is a load of cheap, unreliable pish that is actually unpleasant to use. The day mine dies is the day it gets ripped out and replaced with a manual gearbox - I have the skills to do this, and fortunately its pre canbus so its control system is not too enmeshed with the rest of the cars systems so can be removed, but you just need to look at how many of these are on ebay being broken up due to gearbox failure on an otherwise reliable, rust-free wee car to realise the folly of the whole principle.
Anyway, this is going way, waaay off topic, so I will quit my moaning!