SMART CAR?

We recently updated our 20-year-old Vauxhall Astra for one with a 63-plate. What a difference! But there is a problem: the new car has a ‘brain’ which is too clever by half.

I changed the oil and filter soon after buying it – in spite of assurances by the dealer that it had been done – because the colour of the oil was literally black. Some time after that, a warning lamp illuminated telling us the car was due an oil change! Eventually I found out that you needed to use the footbrake to reset this pointless advice.

Then we got another warning that the engine had a fault. Our very helpful local garage investigated and told us that we had let the fuel level drop too low, even though we hadn’t. Once again, the system was reset and all was well. Soon after that a ‘Code 85’ was indicated. There was no explanation of this in the handbook, so I ignored it and it has never been seen since.

Is there any way of neutralising these pointless warnings, so I can be trusted to look after the car on my own? Or is that too much to hope for? Dr H Anderson Martyn Knowles responds: The motor vehicle does like to consider itself smart and does have a brain that can react in milliseconds, but is it faster than a human brain?