Tuned cars cautionary tale

[stevo55]

Not Audi related but affects all brands.
Very recently the missus traded in her BMW M2 for a low mileage top spec BMW X5M at a BMW main dealer. Took it for a test drive (felt solid and aggressive etc) and the numbers matched up. Previous first owner traded it in for a newer X5.
Due to pick it up this weekend after going through all the car prep and checks. Today she gets a phone call from the BMW guy-diagnostics check reveal it was tuned.
Now I’m not sure what the previous owner was thinking of by handing in a tuned car (without returning it to stock at least) but the current upshoot is:
1. They can’t sell her the car as it’s been altered. The cost of a new engine is many tens of thousands and they aren’t willing to take the risk warranty wise (it’s currently gone all the way to BMW UK for a final decision). If it’s a ‘no’ then deposit returned and we start again.
2. The previous owner not only has to take his old car back (and return the new one) but then his car (barely 2 years old) will have the warranty void! The car may well be ‘black flagged’

As I said the final decision is yet to be made on whether BMW are willing to take the risk (we have no way of telling what the tune was and how much extra power it’s putting out) selling it on with the warranty intact.
I’m gobsmacked that the previous owner would just chop it in still tuned and not expect a main dealer to find out. Potentially could bite him on the ar5e big time.


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[noidea]

I think people still believe tuning boxes or maps are undetectable by main dealers.
I am pleased BMW are taking the action they are. There has to be a consequence to tuning by the original owner.

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[535dboy]

I think people still believe tuning boxes or maps are undetectable by main dealers.
I am pleased BMW are taking the action they are. There has to be a consequence to tuning by the original owner.

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I agree - my 2010 X5 was remapped and when it went in for its first service With bmw it was Flagged up as a tuned car straight away. They were relatively relaxed as long as there were no driveline issues. I did have a suspension fault post map and they still fixed that under warranty for example.

Same for people that tune their cars and don’t tell the insurers - I’m sure an insurance company would happily do a bit of research to get out of paying out on a claim

Interesting that they made him take it back etc because to be fair they could have done their research on the car of their own brand before they took it in as part ex

[Covkiller]

I don't see the problem. Just buy another X5. The dealer is at fault here as they should have checked the car before they bought it.

[stevo55]

I think people still believe tuning boxes or maps are undetectable by main dealers.
I am pleased BMW are taking the action they are. There has to be a consequence to tuning by the original owner.

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I agree - my 2010 X5 was remapped and when it went in for its first service With bmw it was Flagged up as a tuned car straight away. They were relatively relaxed as long as there were no driveline issues. I did have a suspension fault post map and they still fixed that under warranty for example.

Same for people that tune their cars and don’t tell the insurers - I’m sure an insurance company would happily do a bit of research to get out of paying out on a claim

Interesting that they made him take it back etc because to be fair they could have done their research on the car of their own brand before they took it in as part ex

On an M3/4 forum recently someone was reporting their shock that the loss adjuster turned up to inspect their written off M4 (plenty of them around it seems) and found the (undeclared) tune as soon as they plugged into the OBD port-it was the first thing the guy did apparently. People know which vehicles get tuned so they will check. The upshoot of that one was the fact that they voided his insurance due to undeclared mods and left him with a massive bill!
As stated insurers will look for any excuse NOT to pay out plus there is an insane amount of fraud out there.


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[noidea]

I have no problem with tuning, if that's your thing, but just beware of any consequences. Not telling the insurance company is just daft.
If you cannot afford the extra premium or a blown engine don't do it.

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[535dboy]

Agreed.

[max_b]

This is going to be more prevalent going forwards.

The manufacturers are no longer turning a blind eye to mapped cars. You’ve got the YT generation who think it’s okay to have a leased car, which doesn’t belong to them and then map the life out of them. BMW came down hard on YTber Ricky from LLF who was running a very heavily modified M4 and posting all about it, whilst the car ultimately still belonged to BMW - they made him settle his finance and buy the car outright!

My understanding is that even if, in this example the person trading the X5M had reflashed the original map back on, the BMW systems will now actively/automatically flash up to say the car has been mapped - no more deep digging required

Good luck with the purchase of another X5M, they are phenomenal cars