GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

Turns out I bought a tuned CPO car

mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
If you didn’t know it had been tuned might of been better. Have the car for a few years and when ready to get rid of it bring it to their attention. Might have had the possibility of full buyback after owning a few years if you lawyered up.
There are so many reasons why this wasn't feasible. I mean... hindsight is 20/20, and after you know the outcome it's really easy to say I should have just pretended I didn't know about the tune so that if a warranty denial ever came up, I could plead ignorance and sue over the damages. Pretending for a moment that all of these forum posts and my emails with APR couldn't be found in discovery proving I knew about the tune...

Regardless, I wanted to be honest and proactive. My anxiety and my conscience was not friendly with letting it hang out there unresolved. Even if I ultimately didn't get the dealership to guarantee anything, I'm glad I tried it that way, and I learned a lot about the processes. Now I'm free to move forward with complete honesty and understanding of the situation. Plus, I wanted to update the tune anyways, so it would have been pretty impossible for me to ultimately claim in court that I didn't know it was tuned. I'd rather have the freedom to enjoy the car how I want 👍
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
That's exactly what it's for. Wheel spin on a fwd car is just what it is - physics...the f. end unweights under power/acceleration. Tires probably make the single biggest difference. ASR off (traction control) and ECS off (stability control... also includes ASR off) are about the best you can do and easy to change using VCDS/OBDEleven. Folks swear up and down about some of the other ones like starting vibration reduction and rough road optimization but I've messed around with all of these settings a bunch in the end and find zero difference in any situation with both including a ton of Dragy launches looking at my 60'. I currently have my XDS set to weak. Disclaimer is I have the DSG and I have 4Motion and my wagon isn't a power monster (IS38 so about 300+ to the wheels) so traction isn't an issue for me. Certainly can play with them and see for youself. I have a bunch of this stuff outlined in my master lists here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ouid=103181982851565181741&rtpof=true&sd=true

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wMSDN_RHhzDwcaolOdMHIKRAEwKLTO5l/view?usp=sharing

My understanding is that it also works under acceleration, braking the wheel that's spinning.

The real solution is more traction.
 

Golfer883

Go Kart Newbie
Location
IL
Car(s)
19 GTI rabbit
There are so many reasons why this wasn't feasible. I mean... hindsight is 20/20, and after you know the outcome it's really easy to say I should have just pretended I didn't know about the tune so that if a warranty denial ever came up, I could plead ignorance and sue over the damages. Pretending for a moment that all of these forum posts and my emails with APR couldn't be found in discovery proving I knew about the tune...

Regardless, I wanted to be honest and proactive. My anxiety and my conscience was not friendly with letting it hang out there unresolved. Even if I ultimately didn't get the dealership to guarantee anything, I'm glad I tried it that way, and I learned a lot about the processes. Now I'm free to move forward with complete honesty and understanding of the situation. Plus, I wanted to update the tune anyways, so it would have been pretty impossible for me to ultimately claim in court that I didn't know it was tuned. I'd rather have the freedom to enjoy the car how I want 👍


Well I didn't say to pretend you didn't know. I said it would of probably been better had you didn't know until was close to time of getting rid of it. Then you might of got some help from lawyer.
 

DabzDiggler

New member
Location
Palm desert,CA
Car(s)
2019 golf R
So I’m in the same boat as the OP. I bought a 19R from a Chevy dealer in AZ I live in Cali so it was an online buy site unseen, but car looked stock unmodified and had 7300 miles I even called VW to check for TD1 and was told it was not so I was happy a stock R with warranty . So a week after getting the car I felt it was faster than normal did some research online. Next I called APR and sure enough it was tuned with a stage 1 ecu and tcu hi torque 93 file, well living in Cali we don’t have 93 octane so I didn’t drive the car until I talked to the dealer I explain they sold me modified car and I no longer have warranty, and I have proof of the date it was tuned. Well after calling and emailing for over a week and being ignored and I mean ignored the entire dealer would continue to transfer me around or direct me to the sales managers voicemail for week straight. So I finally contacted a lawyer I explained the situation and this is what he told me. You can take the dealer to court and try to sue for deprecation of value because no longer having factory warranty but said it will be really hard to prove the dealer knew or didn’t know it was tuned prior to selling the car and there for not knowing the outcome. I still have the car had it reflashed to a 91 octane file , but yea I still worry I don’t drive the car hard and feel I don’t drive it the way I wanted I think about trading sometimes but nothing compares to the value of this car. So I’m just riding it out
 

Wastegate13

Autocross Champion
Location
SoFla
So I’m in the same boat as the OP. I bought a 19R from a Chevy dealer in AZ I live in Cali so it was an online buy site unseen, but car looked stock unmodified and had 7300 miles I even called VW to check for TD1 and was told it was not so I was happy a stock R with warranty . So a week after getting the car I felt it was faster than normal did some research online. Next I called APR and sure enough it was tuned with a stage 1 ecu and tcu hi torque 93 file, well living in Cali we don’t have 93 octane so I didn’t drive the car until I talked to the dealer I explain they sold me modified car and I no longer have warranty, and I have proof of the date it was tuned. Well after calling and emailing for over a week and being ignored and I mean ignored the entire dealer would continue to transfer me around or direct me to the sales managers voicemail for week straight. So I finally contacted a lawyer I explained the situation and this is what he told me. You can take the dealer to court and try to sue for deprecation of value because no longer having factory warranty but said it will be really hard to prove the dealer knew or didn’t know it was tuned prior to selling the car and there for not knowing the outcome. I still have the car had it reflashed to a 91 octane file , but yea I still worry I don’t drive the car hard and feel I don’t drive it the way I wanted I think about trading sometimes but nothing compares to the value of this car. So I’m just riding it out
You’ll be fine. Enjoy the car. Sometimes I wish I never went beyond stage 1. I could have been in an rs3 or a trrs for what I have in my R.
 

Strange Mud

Autocross Champion
Location
Small Town CT
Car(s)
Assorted
So I’m in the same boat as the OP. I bought a 19R from a Chevy dealer in AZ I live in Cali so it was an online buy site unseen, but car looked stock unmodified and had 7300 miles I even called VW to check for TD1 and was told it was not so I was happy a stock R with warranty . So a week after getting the car I felt it was faster than normal did some research online. Next I called APR and sure enough it was tuned with a stage 1 ecu and tcu hi torque 93 file, well living in Cali we don’t have 93 octane so I didn’t drive the car until I talked to the dealer I explain they sold me modified car and I no longer have warranty, and I have proof of the date it was tuned. Well after calling and emailing for over a week and being ignored and I mean ignored the entire dealer would continue to transfer me around or direct me to the sales managers voicemail for week straight. So I finally contacted a lawyer I explained the situation and this is what he told me. You can take the dealer to court and try to sue for deprecation of value because no longer having factory warranty but said it will be really hard to prove the dealer knew or didn’t know it was tuned prior to selling the car and there for not knowing the outcome. I still have the car had it reflashed to a 91 octane file , but yea I still worry I don’t drive the car hard and feel I don’t drive it the way I wanted I think about trading sometimes but nothing compares to the value of this car. So I’m just riding it out
not a lawyer...

was the car sold as "CPO" or with any type of VW wtty? that would be your chance. Ignorance of the law is NOT an excuse and they sold you something that was no longer wttd because of tune. (lets NOT go down the "it still has a wtty" road).

I agree with @Wastegate13 (mostly)
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
not a lawyer...

was the car sold as "CPO" or with any type of VW wtty? that would be your chance. Ignorance of the law is NOT an excuse and they sold you something that was no longer wttd because of tune. (lets NOT go down the "it still has a wtty" road).

I agree with @Wastegate13 (mostly)
If this is from a Chevy dealer that is no on CPO - only VW dealers can do that. The buyer really has zero recourse on this b/c the factory warranty is still there....the details/argument to ensue about TD1, tunes, etc. w/r to the warranty are irrelevent as much as folks don't want them to be. There is just no reasonable way for third-party/non-VW dealers to be able to ensure that a car sold used is not tuned, TD1, etc.

Over and over on this....buyer beware and do your homework when buying cars that are popular for being modified IF warranties are a big thing for you.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
So I’m in the same boat as the OP. I bought a 19R from a Chevy dealer in AZ I live in Cali so it was an online buy site unseen, but car looked stock unmodified and had 7300 miles I even called VW to check for TD1 and was told it was not so I was happy a stock R with warranty . So a week after getting the car I felt it was faster than normal did some research online. Next I called APR and sure enough it was tuned with a stage 1 ecu and tcu hi torque 93 file, well living in Cali we don’t have 93 octane so I didn’t drive the car until I talked to the dealer I explain they sold me modified car and I no longer have warranty, and I have proof of the date it was tuned. Well after calling and emailing for over a week and being ignored and I mean ignored the entire dealer would continue to transfer me around or direct me to the sales managers voicemail for week straight. So I finally contacted a lawyer I explained the situation and this is what he told me. You can take the dealer to court and try to sue for deprecation of value because no longer having factory warranty but said it will be really hard to prove the dealer knew or didn’t know it was tuned prior to selling the car and there for not knowing the outcome. I still have the car had it reflashed to a 91 octane file , but yea I still worry I don’t drive the car hard and feel I don’t drive it the way I wanted I think about trading sometimes but nothing compares to the value of this car. So I’m just riding it out
Stop worrying about warranties and drive the car - an APR 91 tune is going to give you zero issues (the data overwhelmingly support that). You can also just flash back to stock.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
This is also why I think it's an asshole move to trade in modded cars with no info included etc. - I read it all the time online..."just trade it in bro" - it can really screw over the next buyer.
 
Last edited:

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
I may or may not have traded in an 08 STI with forged pistons, tune and DP.

You could hear it was modded and the dealer a traded to did the tune on their dyno.
 

oddspyke

Autocross Champion
Location
Delaware
Car(s)
2016 GTI, 2018 ZL1
This is also why I think it's an asshole move to trade in modded cars with no info included etc. - I read it all the time online..."just trade it in bro" - it can really screw over the next buyer.
This is why I don't buy used cars. I'm sure a used Camry would be fine, but the cars I like are known for being modified and abused.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
This is why I don't buy used cars. I'm sure a used Camry would be fine, but the cars I like are known for being modified and abused.
Nothing wrong with buying used cars like this - just need to put in the time to look at it to determine what is going on/tunes/mods/part outs etc.
 

CaptainRatty

Autocross Champion
Location
Winston-Salem, NC
Car(s)
MK7 GTI
This is why I don't buy used cars. I'm sure a used Camry would be fine, but the cars I like are known for being modified and abused.
Same. I keep my cars for 10+ years so saving a couple grand and buying something off a lease or otherwise is not worth it for me.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
Same. I keep my cars for 10+ years so saving a couple grand and buying something off a lease or otherwise is not worth it for me.
Well there's that too.....I'm a keep it forever guy too so buying new isn't as much of a hit.
 
Top