Reflections on too much technology

As Frankfurt Motor Show opened, a car-industry buff was enthusing about the masses of new technology in the latest cars, writes Peter Rhodes.

But is it really worth celebrating?

Take the car wing mirror, for example. In ye olden days, it was a piece of glass in a metal holder. If it got broken you bought a new one for five bob at Halfords.

Then someone decided it would be brilliant to be able to adjust the mirror without opening the window. Control wires were installed.

Then someone thought it would be really cool to have little motors to adjust the mirror up, down and sideways.

And finally someone thought the mirror could be greatly improved by adding a repeater indicator light on the outside edge.

The end result of this great technological leap is that if a wing mirror gets broken nowadays, the cost of replacing it is about twice what I paid for my first car.

Vorsprung durch Cobblers.