Driver advice system for a vehicle

A system for a vehicle having at least one vehicle subsystem, the system comprising:

• one or more of a vehicle detection system and a vehicle sensor system for generating a signal from which at least one terrain condition indicator is derived;
• a subsystem controller for controlling at least one vehicle subsystem in a plurality of subsystem control modes, each of which corresponds to one or more different terrain types for the vehicle;
• and
• a processor configured to evaluate the at least one terrain condition indicator to determine the extent to which each of the subsystem control modes is appropriate and for providing an output indicative of the subsystem control mode which is most appropriate,
• wherein the subsystem controller is operable in an automatic response mode to select a subsystem control mode in dependence on the output;
• the system further comprising:
• a switching device for enabling switching between the automatic response mode in which the controller controls the vehicle subsystems in dependence on the output automatically, and a manual response mode in which the appropriate subsystem control mode is selected by the driver manually;
• and
• an indication device for providing an indication to a driver;
• wherein the system is operable to provide an indication to the driver, by the indication device, to switch to the automatic response mode if a subsystem control mode has been selected by the driver in the manual response mode which is not consistent with the subsystem control mode selected in dependence on the output.