Ferrari Dealers Accused of Rolling Back Odometers on Used Ferraris

Ferrari dealers have recently been accused of knowingly rolling back odometers on used Ferraris, according to recent reports.

According to a report by the Daily Mail, there is proof that Ferrari dealers were aware that they were rolling back the odometers of used Ferraris thereby illegally increasing the values of their vehicles.

Additionally, a lawsuit was filed last year by a Ferrari salesperson blowing the whistle on the alleged odometer fraud. Evidence is now showing that this could have been willful.

The lawsuit, filed by a man in Palm Beach, Fla. by the name of Robert “Bud” R., now includes a memo about the company’s diagnostic tool, termed the DEIS Tester, being used to reset the odometer. In some cases, the odometer would be set all the way down to zero. The nature of the DEIS tool is a legitimate tool that could be used for a variety of other functions. It can, however, also be used to reset the odometer.

Moreover, changes using the DEIS tool could not have been made without the authorization of Ferrari corporate, according to the lawsuit. The memo, dated from April 2017, describes specifically how the device works with the “instrument panel node,” the source explains. It also, “mentions that a software update on May 15, 2017 would remove the ability for the tester to perform an ‘NQS ECU reset cycle.’”

The memo also says that “[a]s a result of these two actions, the odometer ‘reset to zero’ functionality is being removed.”

The lawsuit alleges that Ferrari dealers were aware that DEIS tools were used to rest odometers of used vehicles and even that editing was being done to Ferrari Workshop Manuals to delete paragraphs indicating how odometer reset could be done, the memo says.

Under the law, according to the lawsuit, it is illegal to reset odometers. Resetting the odometer could significantly impact the value of the car and increase its worth by reducing the apparent mileage. Some Ferrari vehicles could sell for as much as a million dollars more after a false odometer rollback.

With Ferrari admitting to the reset of odometers, it could question the value of every used Ferrari sold which used the DEIS tester.

In a statement emailed to the Daily Mail by Ferrari’s Director of Communications, however, they fought back.

“Resetting an odometer to zero in case of a malfunction of the odometer when the pre-repair mileage is unknown is consistent with the federal odometer law,” said the statement. “Ferrari determined that the risks of odometer fraud in the United States from unauthorized use of the DEIS tool outweighed the convenience of this functionality of the tool, and thus, Ferrari has informed its network with a technical bulletin that a software update to eliminate the odometer reset functionality of the DEIS tool was necessary and disabled this functionality.”

Although the email mentioned that the tool could also not work in vehicles with over 311 miles, according to the lawsuit, “the secret reset of an odometer [by] even a few hundred miles on a LaFerrari could enhance its value over $1 million.”

A Ferrari lawsuit investigation has been launched to identify victims who may have overpaid hundreds of thousands of dollars in this alleged rollback scheme.

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If you purchased or leased a used Ferrari, and still have the car, you may be owed significant compensation.

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