Beta Pressed into Christmas Service Again

[neil-yaj396]

For the second Christmas in a row the Beta has had to come to the rescue (last years travails were covered in my article in VL). To avoid just such a situation the dodgy Citroen C4 was replaced with a brand new VW Polo which promptly conked out yesterday on the way back from my sister in law's. The RAC have just been to hook up their laptop an announce that it will have to be recovered to the main dealer - on Wednesday of course!
As I said to my son yesterday, at the end of the day the Lancia runs on the petrol that fuels it, not on a mixture of the fuel and two computers telling it that everything is OK. Modern cars are so determined to use no fuel that they fly entirely by wire and are becoming so unreliable and un-repairable.
The next person that tells me that (old) Italian cars are rubbish will certainly get a piece of my mind!

[HF_Dave]

There's no doubt that the older Italian cars are better, My family and I would have had a christmas on our own only for the Integrale. 

[neil-yaj396]

On the upside a VW technician came out yesterday and fixed the car. It still needs to go to the main agent however for a 'software upgrade'! That's the trouble these days, you buy a set of computers as much as a car. Anyway, good old Lancia once again.

[chugga boom]

this was exactly my arguement about the should i sell my skoda and buy a dedra turbo, our astra tdi has been the most unreliable and expensive car to run all because of the electronics on it, why make them so complex 

[neil-yaj396]

Yes, the last generaton of diesels that we have used at work (Skoda, Honda, Toyota) have been no trouble at all, but the manufacturers seem to have crossed a line now into total reliance on electronics (as above for fuel consumption/emission considerations). The main dealer can't upgrade the software until they have spoken to VW next week. Mine was apparantly the 3rd car like this over the holidays. The dealer is blaming the RAC for clearing off all the faults! Like that's not their job?
The thing is no-one in their right mind is going to use these cars once they are out of warranty. I would be tempted to buy a 2nd hand Chrysler/Lancia (assuming Chrysler retain their fine reputation for catastrophic depreciation) but have Lancia also joined the crap software age? As it happens I don't think the handful of UK New Delta owners have had any complaints so far?