Our Mazda6 made an unscheduled visit to local dealer Donalds recently after two warning messages flashed up on the dashboard.

One stated that the engine needed an urgent inspection while the other was more specific; it alerted me to an issue with the smart city brake support (SCBS).

Given that this system warns drivers if they are approaching a line of slow or stationary traffic too quickly, before activating the brakes if it thinks a crash is likely, I wasn’t too concerned. It was just like driving most cars without this latest technology – a case of paying attention to other road users.

Nevertheless, the car needed checking over.

It’s not the first time we’ve experienced issues with Mazda’s SCBS; our sister publication AM suffered a similar problem with its CX-5 a few months ago.

The CX-5 required a simple re-set of the diagnostics; this time a faulty sensor was to blame.

While the Mazda6 is packed with safety technology – rear vehicle monitoring and lane departure warning are also options on our test car – it is missing one much-loved piece of technology: digital radio.

With Japanese manufacturers so often in the vanguard of technological innovation, it’s surprising that this company has decided to hold back on making DAB an option.

Given that I recently switched to the Mazda 6 from the Volkswagen Passat, and the Vauxhall Insignia before that, both with DAB as standard, this oversight was glaringly obvious and left me forced to change my listening preferences, ironically from ‘6’ Music to Radio 2/5 Live.