I love you, the check is in the mail and where does the “trail” lead?

for a big liability issue you can get a contingent fee lawyer, not for a crappy little warranty claim. You will be paying that out of your pocket win or lose. It will cost $10K before you ever sniff a court room.

Are you a lawyer? Most of these guys drum up a class rep who doesn’t pay a dime. Individual cases may involve huge potential punitive damages, and go forward on a contingency fee basis. In nearly 40 years, with plenary discovery, I don’t recall anyone, ever, at any time paying a fee out of pocket or a retainer.

in the early Magnusson years, manufacturers quickly understood a causal connection required expensive experts, and the costs were only rational in class actions to defend a product and trial lawyers quickly discovered even small claims meant HUGE attorneys fees under the lodestar formula.

I appreciate your input, but we are talking about a one off event not a defect in a car that would result in some sort of class action. The person in question modified the car which probably either caused or contributed to the failure. This is not some manufacturer trying to duck their responsibility. It is in fact the consumer trying to be reimbursed for the consequences of their own decision. Again if it is unrelated to the tune, that is different but the working assumption here is that you have a Powertrain failure. This is likely going to be a you against MB lawsuit, if it comes to that.

This act was set up to keep manufacturers from using BS excuses to avoid their warranty obligations, not to allow consumers to modify products potentially causing them to fail and still be under warranty. Again you can try, but I do not think it is good advice in general to rely on this Act in someone’s decision process on getting a tune or not.

Again, just my opinion.

well, my opinion is based on a JD and, an Ll M, an A rating and forty years of practice. As for causation, it can and will be apportioned among the at fault parties by a trier of fact under well settled principles. Magnusson is supplementary of state law unless it preempt such, and NOT limited to one transaction or occurrence per its LEGISLATIVE history. More than anything it is a strong deterrent.

i neither stated nor implied what you wrongly impute to me, and simply sought to explain the remedy to those who might listen to poor future advice.

nor, as you imply, would anyone confuse a warranty claim, subject to the federal economic loss doctrine, with a products liability claim, assuming no damage to other property, personal injury or death.

what part of “I advocate nothing.” Did you not understand?

addendum: the false issue you raise goes to typicality, not commonality, which, were a class certified, would apply to the global deceptive or unfair trade practice of denying any warranty claim without regard to the existence of a causal connection....punitive damages would predominate and be of such a common quantum as likely to outweigh typicality objections.

ok, but the original question was can MB identify if you have a piggyback tune? Assuming they can determine that what happens when MB says it will not cover a warranty claim.

Since you are a lawyer it would be easy and not costly for you to litigate. What about the consumer who is facing a $5k for a blown turbo that MB says the warranty will not cover because you modified the car with a Tune (which they did do). What would be your recommendation and what do you think the cost of litigating this would be for the consumer against the chance of winning? From a practical perspective it would seem to me not a good place to be and assuming I could be successful in this, would not be part of my decision process to go forward or not with a tune.

My advice, stated and implied, was find a trial lawyer with experience in the field who realizes small claims can result in HUGE lodestar fees fixed by the COURT. Manufacturers seldom win. As for what to do in the interim, you are in no different position than an abuse/misuse claim. False premises lead to false conclusions. If you can’t survive a warranty claim, you should not buy an expensive car. The world is not free from risk.

Christ, when did you stop beating your wife, a classic misleading question, containing an inference not intended by the witness. Are most of you people children? How did design defects get into this? A properly instructed jury must decide if the condition is causally connected with the device or not, and nothing more. Magnusson makes all inconsistent warranties, limitations or disclaimers void ab Initio. Jesus H. Freakin Christ.

before you ask, juries always decide the weight and credibility of the evidence.

Rose McGowan is keeping an eye on you...

Even worse on you.

I do not think I am missing the point. The point I was trying to make is the one in your side note. If you go forward with a tune and MB discovers this you are likely going to impact your warranty . I agree that if you change your exhaust and and you have a problem with your suspension, MB would likely go forward and do the work but if you blow a turbo or sufffer an engine problem, you would be facing a big problem. At this point I am not sure what point CFG was trying to make exactly, but I would not want to be relying on relief from a court under the scenario I just mentioned. If maintaining your warranty is a show stopper for you, then you should not get a tune piggyback or otherwise as you are assuming risk. That is all.

This thread started with some people saying that piggyback tunes are not detectable and from everything I have read they are more difficult to detect than a flash, but it still can be done. Certainly you have legal recourse if MB voids your warranty, but for most people that would be a huge pain in the *** and potentially expensive proposition which may or may not lead to success so I would not let that possibility enter into my decision to get tune or not. If you cannot afford or do not acceot that you may be putting yourself on the hook for a potential repair, no matter how unlikely, you should not listen to people that say they cannot be detected or even if they do you can bring MB to court and likely win. In my opinion, that is not good advice, but everyone can make a decision in their own.

Thi

You missed the global issue: there are remedies, so folks can make informed decisions and balance the risks.

I’m gonna wire 2 piggy backs together on top of my already tuned ESC.. it’s gonna do donuts faster than my mother in laws dirty underwear in her stinky dryer !!!

OMG, what an image.