Used Ferrari Dealers Accused of Resetting Odometers

Authorized used Ferrari dealerships across the country have been accused of resetting odometers on used Ferrari vehicles.

Ferrari has been linked with car dealerships that roll back odometers on used Ferrari vehicles and other used sports cars.

According to an internal memo dated March 2, 2017, Ferrari headquarters told dealers to stop resetting odometers using the “DEIS Tester.” The memo says that “as of today, Ferrari SpA will no longer supply the DEIS access codes for the NQS ECU reset cycle to Ferrari Technical Service Departments”.

The memo also states that the “reset to zero” functionality will be removed from the device and any instruction about the function will be removed from the Ferrari workshop manual.

The memo was filed in court early last month as part of a Ferrari lawsuit filed by a former showroom salesman, plaintiff Bud R. Bud argues that he was fired from his sales position after discovering the usage of the DEIS tester and questioning the legitimacy and legality of the practice.

Bud first filed his whistleblower lawsuit in February 2017, according to the Daily Mail. The timing of the lawsuit in relation memo has led to the belief that the memo was sent in response to Bud’s lawsuit.

The DEIS tool was designed to reset odometers in the case of vehicle repair where pre-repair mileage was unknown. Although this DEIS tool use is consistent with federal odometer law, the functions of the tool open up the possibility for odometer fraud.

Odometer fraud occurs when the odometer is set to zero to make a car seem more valuable when in reality the mileage is far higher. In Bud’s lawsuit, he states that one of his clients once added $1 million to the value of his used Ferrari by having the odometer illegally reset to zero.

Although this internal memo was sent to stop odometer resets throughout the company, it raises serious questions about Ferrari’s business practices. In his lawsuit, Bud argues that Ferrari technicians could not have changed the odometers on a used Ferrari without confirmation from Ferrari headquarters via a wifi connection.

Despite accusations made by lawsuits and the media, Ferrari headquarters has denied any involvement in illegal actions. Officials have claimed that the timing of the memo was due to a software update, not legal action. By ceasing the use of the DEIS tool, Ferrari prioritizes federal law over the convenience of the tool, the company claims.

As published in the Daily Mail, an emailed statement by Krista Florin, the Ferrari North America Director of Communications, reads: “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”.

Bud’s lawsuit pushes Ferrari to release VIN numbers of every vehicle involved with the odometer rollback process in the past eight years. According to the Daily Mail, the lawsuit says that “Ferrari has a duty and obligation to its loyal customer base, the consuming public and its own shareholders to ensure that this information is released forthwith.”

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