You tube video 'What is the most reliable 4WD for Australian touring?'. Usual support for old Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and one or two lone LRover enthusiasts.

Found one thread reply to the video very interesting, on the question of electronics in modern vehicles. Sorry if this has been highlighted elsewhere on AULRO.

Lifted this from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYLwh6_W6Hw

I am an electronic engineers. 40 years experience now retired mostly military & aerospace tech. Electronic reliability is dependant on design, materials and manufacturing. Reliability comes at cost. It's a sweeping and false statement to say because it has electronics it's unreliable. MOst electronics systems are far more reliable then mechanical system. It all depends on application and how they are used. Buying the cheapest electronic upgrade, I'll guarantee it will fail. The more complexity (functions) to the electronics the more likely it will have issues. In the end KISS. But to blame electronics for reliability is not directly true. It's how it's built, it's how it's wired, it's the connectors (e.g are they water ingress proof). The other issue re electronics reliability is temperature. Sitcking electronics in the enginee compartment on a 50 degree days means it will operate over 70 degrees plus. Most average commercial electronics design in Europe (ECU from Bosch for example) may not be designed for those temperature. The clue is the manufacturer ambient operating temperature specs for the vehicle. Operate outside these and the lifetime of electronics degrades rapidly. It's cummulative too. Land Rovers are 50 degree and -20 degrees ambient and they test them to that extensively. Most others do not. But Amazon electronic upgrades in the bonnet most likely use Commercial rated electronic components that are speced to max 70 deg & 0 deg min.. These will have short live times in the engine bay of your vehicle. Electronics should be made using at least industrial grade components that are -40 to +85 degrees they cost 2 to 10 times more. Then we have the next level of automotive grade components -40 to 110 degrees which if you think about are for the Aussie outback in a engine compartment still not enough. Military grade is next at -55 to 125 degrees and their designed for significant vibration enviroments you'd expect in the outback. cost of these is 10 to 100 times and some have export license restrictions. The next secret to reliabiity is to use the components in a derated design setting. Basically safety factor of 2. So you'd only want components that are rated to 125 degrees, i.e. actually running to a max of 62.5 degrees ambient. This then requires specialised methods of cooling the chips in the engine comparment through fans or conduction to the metal external body not heated by the sun. In the tropics, humidity will induce fungus to grow on electronics components. To prevent that all the electronics boards should be conformally coated with a special type of laquer. No automotive manufacturer does that. That's only done for military. However to use such compnents that give the needed reliabiity in the Aussie outback, automative grade may not good enough. It's the military grade you need. But those come with high cost, paperwork and traceability requirements, impractical for outbackl vehicles. More likely is that you get at best automotive grade. But derate by 2 in an enginee compartment and their still not good enough. The killer of electronics systems: 1/ Temperature 2/ Brine conductive water (clean fresh water may not be a problem) 3/ Vibration (breaks wires unless specifically deisgned for this) 4/ Dust (mixed with moisture) 5/ Humidity re fungal growth 6/ Salt fog (beach atmosphere) creates corrsosion in connections. E.g. Military grade Bushmaster or Hawkei have extensive electronics you smear that includes active electronic suspension control. They are tested to be reliable for our operating environment using military grade components in real battle conditions (ukraine). Electronics is the least of their reliability problems. These vehicle cost are near the millions each. Thats why and that's how you get reliable electronics. Hence mechanical system are cheaper and more reliable in an automotive setting.