My Ford Focus Titanium is one of those possessed cars Stephen King wrote about....

Never thought I'd believe in demonic forces, in my case, a malevolent creature who has control of my car, but I do now.

Whisper, whisper kids cover your ears. It's called an ECU - an electronic control unit - and it's in my almost new Ford Focus Titanium. And it tried to kill me and the grandkids, two weeks ago, on the M7 motorway by-passing Newbridge, Ireland.

This motorway has three lanes, on the inside large multi-wheeled trucks, speed along. In the middle lane normal cars going about their business at speeds of perhaps 120k an hour travel. But sometimes a gent or lady ambles along in the middle lane at a slower, sometimes very slow speed, and for safety you need to overtake these.

So myself and two of the new generation of the family are in my car when I decide on an overtaking manoeuvre.

OK, here we go, increase speed a little using the cruise control. Click, click button click, speed is increasing. Move into outside lane, increase speed again for overtaking- click - click.

Holy cow this car is stopping, speed is decreasing, I'm not in control any more. We are all going to get killed!!!!

As my very polite grandson, told his mother later, "A lady in a car behind gave Daideo the finger sign" as we were diving for the hard shoulder, hazards flashing ( I'm good at reacting) through a line of trucks.

We had an amber (warning not red) light to indicate we had an engine problem, and that the car had entered "limp home" mode. Second grandson 15 years old was reading the manual as I was trying to get the car to give me some power, without success, at first.

We limped to a safer location, on country roads, and called Ford Roadside Assistance. The AA man came and ran a diagnostics and did not find any fault. He took the car for a spin while we sought out refreshments. He returned and said he was able to re-create the fault: twice.

After discussions about towing me, on the end of a short pole, twenty miles or so to a Ford Dealership, with the kids in the car. I asked for another solution. So the battery was disconnected and the ECU reset itself, and I was able to drive back to Dublin.

Now I'm scared that the ECU is out to try and kill me again each time I drive the car.

The other day when the electronic key was taken outside with the car running - the lady's voice in the climate and phone control system told me that the phone was not connected.

When I shouted that she was going back to the factory - she told me that track 42 was not available.

And this blog has not mentioned that this car that I have driven for an average of twenty miles a day, has had the oil pump unit and drive shafts seals replace a year age, and is now in for the drive shaft to be replace and a new clutch installed. Ford say they will not pay the full cost of these repairs. 

They are turning a deaf ear when I tell them that this car is dangerous to drive - while it has an ECU with a mind of it's own in charge.