Bought car from a dealer but discovered it has been Remapped - Where do I stand legally?

kteara

Hi all,

I wanted to find out what my consumer rights and where I stand legally.

I purchased a 2013 Golf GTI in November 2018 (8 months ago) and have recently taken it into VW for some warranty work for the gearbox; I originally purchased extended warranty the same day I bought the car.

The report from VW shows the remap was recorded on the car at a mileage just before I purchased the car. They will not uphold my warranty because of this. I purchased the car from a private dealer (not VW) so what should I do in this situation? VW will refund the money I paid for the extended warranty but I do not want to keep car that has had a remap done to it and therefore not covered under warranty.

I have called the private dealer I bought the car off but I can imagine they will just try to shrug me off.

Thanks

DUTR

What were the T&Cs when purchasing the warranty, what is a private dealer, did you ask if it was remapped when purchasing it? Did you inform the insurance it was a modified vehicle?

debtdebt

Unless you asked the dealer whether it was remapped and they lied, there's nothing you can do.

loskie

not necessarily they are not allowed to withhold info however they may well not have known about it.

The "remap" doesn't happen to be a removal of the emissions fix does it?

kteara

The remap is labelled "TD1" which I believe is performance related.

So basically there's nothing I can do here?

tasticz

Now that you have found out, don't forget to declare it to your insurers!

Ectophile

tasticz wrote: »

Now that you have found out, don't forget to declare it to your insurers!

Or get someone to reverse the remapping and put it back to normal.

jaybeetoo

Have you got legal cover with your house insurance? If so, see if you can get some legal advice.

It sounds like the car was not described properly. You won’t get all of your money back as you’ve had 8 months of use.

motorguy

kteara wrote: »

The remap is labelled "TD1" which I believe is performance related.

So basically there's nothing I can do here?

The remap has generated a "TD1" code when they've interrogated the ECU.

https://www.vwroc.com/forums/topic/24414-definate-answer-on-td1-code-logged-by-modding/

Technically, they dont know its been performance enhanced, just that its had a remap. Arguably it could have been an eco remap, but incredibly unlikely on a GTI.

If the code was generated just before you bought the car, chances are somebody has had it remapped, then put it back to standard before trading it in / selling it on. Unlikely somebody would remap it then sell it.

You could take it up with the selling dealer. You've evidence it was done before you bought the car, the car has a gearbox fault that wont be covered under warranty because of the remap.

As a dealer he is deemed to be the "expert", therefore the law would expect him to know it was remapped and the implications of it.

I would have thought there would be an avenue to get the dealer to pay for the gearbox warranty work, either voluntarily or "the hard way" - dealer wont play ball, LBA, small claims court for repair.

No guarantee of success but i would have thought it would be well worth pursuing.

debtdebt

Don't forget to declare to subsequent buyers too.

debtdebt

Dealer being expert or not, if there is no paperwork to confirm a remap has been done, how were they meant to know? Are they expected to interrogate each car's ECU when it comes in for sale?