Ok so the idea has been mentioned before...but now Subaru say they are actively considering it. Sure to be not-so-happy news for car "tinkerers"...
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Box cleverer
By Bob Jennings
The Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday March 30 2004
Tired of customers tampering with vehicles and then making expensive warranty claims, Subaru is considering fitting "black boxes" to its cars in the UK -- and the concept is being examined here.
Data recorders, similar to those used to record aircraft flight information, will be fitted to performance Subaru models to identify owners who modify their cars, then remove the "hot" bits when taking the car in for warranty work.
The recorders also will pick up those who put the standard components back in when it's time to sell the car to an unsuspecting buyer.
Fitting non-standard equipment can invalidate a warranty.
A black box, recording engine functions and performance, would give evidence of such tampering to the electronic analysis equipment in a dealer's service department.
Within two years, it is reported, every Subaru performance model sold in the UK will have a black box fitted.
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Would you like to change your name to Homer Junior? People can call you Hoju.
Thats very interesting and there could be quite a few ramifications if this system came here,imagine a business like for eg. Herrods where would they stand afterall their business is in the mods and after markets.
Cheers John
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I really don't think its much of a concern. I think most of us accept that if we make a mod, our warranty relating to those bits is gone. It would only worry you if you were really bodge and strapped on a huge turbo, ran at 25psi, and melted your motor, then tried to claim it . . . In that case, it sux to be them, and they deserve it anyway.
Afaik, Herrods offer warranty on all their gear, and would also fix any probs arising from their products. I don't think they have anything to worry about at all . . .
Warranty? Whats that? I'll never take any vehicle I own to any kind of service EVER unless its compulsory, and even then, supervise the work, after what City Ford did to my AUIII. They didn't put oil in last time we took it to them. Car was driven for two days with nearly no oil in the engine. I can do what they do there myself thankyou very much, and for alot less money (ie: for free).
Why is it then that when they had to take the motor out to work on the car and put it back in the tech 2 computer diagonesed that there had been an error and the motor had been taken out. Its no motec system on simple data aquisition
A lot of new cars in Australia have date recorders, but at present they are not used to gather information(privacy laws?)- potentially they can be used to prosecute drivers, as happened in the US where I guy was going 90mph before he killed a kid on the street- they found out be accessing the date recorder.
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