Corolla Verso 2006 Automatic Gearbox Intermittent Failure

[Giraffe813]

I own a Corolla Verso 1.6 Automatic and experience a very intermittent (once each 3 - 6 months) failure in the automatic gearbox.

When idling or starting the engine, the automatic gearbox will simply fail to engage. If I move the stick out of neutral into Drive then the N will start flashing (instead of turning to a solid 1) and the car remains in neutral. The same thing happens if I try Reverse. At some point, 10 minutes to an hour, the electrics seem to reset themselves and drive will be engaged successfully. A short cut to success is to disconnect and re-connect the Battery! Has anyone else experienced this and is there a cheap fix - I don't want to spend several hundred pounds fixing a (very) occasional fault.

I'm convinced the root cause is an electrical failure as I've noticed some strange behavior from time to time with the blower / air conditioning. I also feel it's starting to happen a little more frequently, hence my plea.