i was told an interesting story the other day by someone in the motor trade whom i hold in high regards.He said that in the near future your car will be checked for re-mapping/chipping at MOT time and if the mapping causes an emission rise into the next tax bracket you will be billed for the back-dated tax from when you took ownership of the car and your insurance co will be informed!this could also hurt company car drivers whos payments are directly linked to the co2 output of the car.Wouldnt put it past the government to give this a go!.

They could never up hold it though, especially if you had a Revo/Bluefin/STS or similar units and you removed the map pre MOT.

what would happen then if you had a car that was remapped in the past but standard now. could they void your insurance? does your ecu save date and time etc of any mods? if not someone with an STS/BLUEFIN etc could easily change car back to standard post crash and deny all knowledge

I'm sure somebody will confirm however as far as I know the ECU will note ANY modifcation made to it.

So although the original map could be put back post crash (assuming all the electrics are working to allow you to).

However the ECU would still have logged the fact a map was installed and then removed.

But whats to say that the car hadn't been remapped by the previous owner then put back to standard before selling?

it would come up as being logged but it wont know who by

But whats to say that the car hadn't been remapped by the previous owner then put back to standard before selling?

it would come up as being logged but it wont know who by

exactly! unless dates/times are logged its a very grey area and one insurers would find hard to prove

i was told an interesting story the other day by someone in the motor trade whom i hold in high regards.He said that in the near future your car will be checked for re-mapping/chipping at MOT time and if the mapping causes an emission rise into the next tax bracket you will be billed for the back-dated tax from when you took ownership of the car and your insurance co will be informed!this could also hurt company car drivers whos payments are directly linked to the co2 output of the car.Wouldnt put it past the government to give this a go!.

This won't happen. Unless they're going to take every car for a NEDC emissions test, which would cost thousands.

what would happen then if you had a car that was remapped in the past but standard now. could they void your insurance?

All this stuff comes down to contract law. Specifically, a principle of "Utmost Good Faith" which applies to contracts with Insurance companies.

Normally, buyer beware applies: "If you had only asked before you bought the horse I would have told you it only had three legs - so no I won't refund your money!"

The client in an Insurance contract is is a very special position at law in that he is much more knowledgeable about his actual risk profile than the Insurance company. Consequently, the law modifies the presumption of "buyer beware" so that the contract is more fair to the insurance company: they don't have to ask every possible question when underwriting or risk falling victim to the buyer beware maxim which assumes both parties to a contract are competent to look after their interests.

So "No, I didn't tell you my car had a new jet engine off an F15 - but you didn't ask. Ha Ha!" isn't going to work.

The principle of "utmost good faith" allows an insurance company to contract assuming the utmost good faith on the part of the client. If it is shown later the client did not contract on utmost good faith the insurance company can void the contract. In some cases they may even keep the money even though the contract is void.

it is a matter for a court to decide if they can get away with that.

So you have to tell insurance companies stuff YOU KNOW will affect their quote even if they don't ask. There may even be criminal law consequences if you don't.

I don't see how one would be expected to know if a previous owner modified a software program on a car and then altered it back. So it should be possible for one to deal with an Insurance company in utmost good faith and not tell them something, one doesn't know, could not be expected to know, and have no way of knowing.

That said, Insurance companies themselves frequently deal in bad faith and will attempt to void a contract after the fact on the basis you didn't tell them something they later say you should.

In the event of a dispute I would say it would depend on what the courts find on the day on the basis of the evidence.

It seems to me there must be a common sense limit to stuff disclosed on a proposal. A remap might affect a premium and should therefore be disclosed so that an Insurance company can properly evaluate the risk and quote accordingly.

Comes down in the end to utmost good faith! Tell 'em what you know or find a good lawyer!

[Disclaimer: I 'ain't a lawyer so all this is just an opinion - no need to quote me]

i wonder how much good faith an insurer would show an owner of an unknowingly re-mapped car when it came to canceling their insurance claim.there must be thousands of people driving around in their previous owner mapped cars oblivious with great big smiles thinking this cars quicker than i ever could have hoped lol seriously though if indeed insurers do check ecu's then i bet someone somewhere has lost out

It occurs to me that checking a used car for evidence of re-mapping will some be something that the AA or the RAC will do in the future as part of their used car checking service.

Admiral are willing to cover mine for £108. You could save that with the extra economy in a year, and let's face it having more power is way more fun so that's my key driver.

This won't happen. Unless they're going to take every car for a NEDC emissions test, which would cost thousands.

Absolutely, testing for total CO2 emitted over a given distance is way beyond what could be realistically covered in an MOT test. Simply sticking a probe up the exhaust of a stationary car proves nothing as far as CO2 g/km is concerned.

I would appear to be wrong, I called them again on your advice, and lo and behold the bloke today said they do cover remaps, they put it down as being "chipped" but then they make a note that it is remapped, and they confirmed this with the underwriters. Clearly the first person I spoke to at admiral knew nothing !

Edited for spelling.

+1 here too (on the off-chance anyone looks for TDI remap insurance). Admiral have insured my 2.0 TDI with 11-25% increase for the last two years. Chris Knott never returned my calls and Adrian Flux (the "specialist" insurers) couldn't find an insurer - utter rubbish given that it's just a Stage 1 remap + air filter and everything else is standard.

Not looking forward to my next renewal given the price increases :(

Sky insurance for me, wanted £46 for the 3 months remaining or renewal is £370. Hard to judge as the Fabia VRS was £300 last year and the Octavia made the premium go up by a few quid in Jan so not a huge increase which is good

Once again there is a Shark Group buy on the cards, and once again I shop around in the vain and futile hope that I'll be able to get insurance without having to sell most of my internal organs in order to fund it.

Just tried Admiral....they wanted well over £1,100! :(

Not sure I'm even going to bother trying anywhere else...it's just too depressing

Once again there is a Shark Group buy on the cards, and once again I shop around in the vain and futile hope that I'll be able to get insurance without having to sell most of my internal organs in order to fund it.

Just tried Admiral....they wanted well over £1,100! :(

Not sure I'm even going to bother trying anywhere else...it's just too depressing

Esure gave me a lower quote for my upcoming Scout than I am currently paying for the 10 y.o. Elegance with Highway. A Shark stage 1 would increase the premium by £70 for the Scout so I was well pleased. Though I do suspect Esure favour us more mature folk with long NCDs etc. So if you fit that description give them a try (or even if you don't!)