On the higher models of the Scorpio, Climate Control is installed. Instead of the on or off nature of air conditioning, CC is designed to take into account internal and ambient temperatures, sunlight and vehicle speed and maintain a passenger-selected temperature.

This is amazingly accurate. On more than one occasion I have left Northumberland on a bright but cool day and arrived in London where the temperature has soared – and been unaware of it until I opened the car door. Travelling recently on the M62 the external temperature soared ten degrees in a few miles when we drove out of mist into clear weather, but inside the car the CC silently stabilised the temperature. On muggy, rainy days the interior is always dry and the windows never mist up; the humidity scrubbed from the air by the refrigeration element.

But the system runs by computer, and like all computers, the CC may need a reset from time to time. Recently I had become aware that we no longer had cool air directed at the front footwells. The face vents worked properly but our feet remained in muggy air. This appears to be a common problem, since I have heard from two other Ultima owners,

Ford suggest that the positions of the various valves, flaps and controls have to be learnt by the AC control system by setting them all at their lowest position and using that as the reference point - the following procedure is used by Dealers to reset the system.

You could book the car in to a Ford dealer and he will charge you for the reset – but he will do exactly the same as this.

1. First, run the engine and turn both the air conditioning dials to the furthest position to the left. (Note, in the picture the left dial is still in the Auto position.)

2. Next, press the Recirculate and the A/C buttons simultaneously for about 10 seconds, until the number 00 appears in the passenger side temperature display.

3. Using the passenger side temperature switch select Code 50 in the passenger side display - note that some 1995 Ultimas don't complete this step which may indicate that they might have a fault somewhere.

4. Now press the Recirculate button until Code 00 appears. You should hear some buzzes and clicks – this is normal.

5. Now press both the Recirculated Air and the A/C buttons together for about 10 seconds until the code 00 flashing on and off appears on the passenger side display. The reset is finished.

6. Turn the engine off, then start it up again. Both temperature displays will be back to normal.