MY CX-5 has had a total ECU shutdown 5 times now, leaving me stranded in various parts of the UK. Mazda have given me a different excuse each time and I have now refused to take the vehicle unless I get a written assurance that this particular fault will never happen again.
The total lack of communication, the lack of respect for customers and lack of confidence in any anything they say has ensured that I will never be getting another Mazda ever!

 

Cars are getting so high tech and all the systems so integrated I wonder if we'll be seeing more issues like this with all of them.

A recent write-up on a Volvo S60 in Car and Driver really pointed out how hard it is to diagnose intermittent problems:
"It came on with a warning light reporting blockage of the windshield wipers’ rain sensors. As our driver slowed to investigate, the entire cluster went Vegas and the engine shut down. Following a nervous traffic-clotting pause and a full reboot, our S60 fired back up with its check-engine lamp glowing.

The car was diagnosed as having a faulty steering-pump module due to moisture that was causing a CAN disruption. (CAN stands for Controller Area Network, the party line linking all of  the car’s computer modules.) Following the warranty replacement of its power-steering fluid, pump, and electronic control module, our Volvo resumed its long-term test.

Five weeks later, the gremlin returned. After suffering several more surprise shutdowns, we revisited the dealer. Two weeks of testing with the aid of a factory technician failed to pinpoint the problem, so our test car was summoned to Volvo’s North American headquarters in Rockleigh, New Jersey. After a month of consultations with engineers in Sweden, the service experts finally aborted their search for the electrical fault, which could have been a microscopic flaw inside a module. The automotive equivalent of radical surgery was prescribed: replacement of  five modules and most of the wiring harness. Several hundred miles of  test driving confirmed that this procedure was successful."
2012 Volvo S60 T6 AWD Long-Term Test – Review – Car and Driver

Not that any of that will make you feel better about the issue with your car.

There isn't any sort of lemon law in the UK for cars?