In the midst of all the railing at the result of the American presidential election, may I endorse the refreshing letter from J Ryan (November 5) about unnecessarily complicated technology?

I am very pleased with my 52-registered car except for one thing - having to refer to the impenetrable instruction manual every time I want to set the clock and trip-mileage.

Do we really need to have trip computers? Can't we go back to the old-fashioned "barrel" analogue odometers and trip-mileage recorders that you reset simply by pressing a button, and analogue clocks set by turning a knob in the centre?

Dr MG Barley,

-Hove