Hi all

I have marked the make/model above as irrelevant purely because I am considering legal action and wouldnt want to jeopardise my case by going into print at an early stage.

The story though is this, I traded my last vehicle in for £12000 and added £13000 for its replacement, a 20 month old vehicle with 11500 miles on the clock. The vehicle is of course still under manufacturers warranty amd I also have a full extended warranty for a further two years. This vehicle was one of the Manufacturers Approved vehicles.

The vehicle has an excellent reversing camera on which reference guides should appear. As my old vehicle was an identical model I am of course familiar with the system. I was told by the dealership that these lines had been removed for safety which is of course pure B/S. Speaking to the Manufacturers customer services, they confirmed that the information was incorrect and the reference lines should be visible. All this is contained in a large unit that also holds SatNav, Bluetooth, the music system and much much more including service information.

Armed with the knoweldge that I was correct I began to investigate via the hidden/service menu of this unit. I found that the vehicle type had been set incorrectly and there was a choice of nine types, each via a four or five digit code. Selecting different codes either brought on or removed the reference lines, but of course these types are vehicles of different size and width and it is imperative to have the correct code. These codes are for vehicles unable to supply information to the unit via the CAN and enables the unit to be set manually. Amusingly too, the setup employed was for a LHD vehicle, which makes you wonder where it came from. This is an expensive unit, I believe in the region of £1300 for a replacement.

Contacting customer services again for the code, they didnt have access to it, but did confirm this unit had been exchanged under warranty. Reverting back to the unit I found also a cumulative mileage register which was almost double the actual mileage done by the car, which explains the incorrect setup. The faulty part had been replaced under Manufacturers Warranty with a used part, and at that not supplying all the facilities it is designed to give.

Surely, under a manufacturers warranty, a faulty item should be replaced with new. Even if one were to accept the possibility of a reconditioned unit, it would have needed to be factory reset and then setup correctly when fitted. None of this of course has been done.

It also begs the question as to whether this is a company policy to employ used or recycled parts and what is the legality of them doing so.

I also tried to contact four separate main dealers to get the type code.

One had a go at me for accessing the menu, although there is no printed information in the book that says I shouldnt, it isnt even mentioned in the book. Two had no idea there was a hidden menu let alone know the codes or what they were for. The fourth sent a technical request to the technical department who have failed to respond to his request.

I have spoken briefly with Motorcodes and they are adamant something iffy is going on and of course I will be contacting Trading Standards, but wht do you guys think?

I have the option to return the vehicle under their approved scheme but

1) They have already sold my old vehicle

2) I have spent money already on the new vehicle, namely £600 for a tow bar and having a dash cam hard wired with a voltage sensor.

Edited by Ian T on 11/08/2016 at 00:34