The emission fix ruined my car - are Volkswagen liable for not checking if it was modified?
I bought a Volkswagen Scirocco from a private seller in October 2016. The car was fully serviced and appeared to be in good condition. The other day Volkswagen did the emissions update and it completely ruined the car, with thick white smoke coming out the exhaust. Turns out the car had been remapped by a previous owner, which I was unaware of and the update has destroyed my ECU. Volkswagen now want to charge me £4500 to get it fixed. At no point was I asked if the vehicle had been modified, they just did the update. Do I have a leg to stand on or am I going to have to suck it up and pay the price?
That's interesting. Superchips has been involved in one or two such cases. But to my mind, the garage that did the update is liable because the problem you now have would not have occurred if they had "showed due diligence" in checking your car before they carried out the update. Pertinently, your insurer could have voided your insurance if you had a crash without disclosing the remap whether you knew of it or not.
Answered by Honest John on
