I read an article yesterday about how a simple nail puncture besides affecting tire sensor light, throws off traction control, abs, and all sorts of computing. what would be a 15 minutes patch and go job turns into an hour job of resetting computers and sensors.
I recently had to replace a traction control sensor on my BMW -- it was a pain (and would've been expensive if I had a pro do it), so I can relate.
But it's worth noting that modern traction-control makes life wildly safer for the average driver up north. I was driving an icy Vermont ski road with winter tires, but (because I hadn't yet fixed the sensor) no traction control. There were 2 pretty terrifying moments and I'm an experienced driver. Your average American can't even drive manual, there's no way they're compensating for low-traction winter mountain roads properly in all cases. I'd rank it more critical than any of the backup camera, TPMS or FCW features, and maybe on par with ABS for those of us in cold areas.
Now if I lived in LA, I'd just hold down the "DTC" button to disable traction control on bootup and forget about it.
