Hacking the car computer?
 

My wife asked me an interesting question while we were talking about the booming used hybrid market: Since the dash is virtually all controlled by the car computer, what's to prevent a less than honest dealer from using the Honda diagnostic tools they have to "tweak" the mileage?

Re: Hacking the car computer?
 

If I recall correctly, there is no such feature in the HDS product made available to the dealers. Also there are other safeguards built into the system to prevent and discourage that kind of tampering.

Besides as all dealers know, there's always a risk (however small) that a bad VIN to mileage correlation may exist with regards to the mileage recorded at each maintenance and different shops. Typically when this occurs, law enforcement becomes very interested and dealers know all too well what that means since they often provide assistance in resolving fraud and theft cases.

The other thing too, is that not everyone can become a Honda dealer overnight so the likelihood of finding dealers with a decidedly criminal backbone is very unlikely.
With that said, it is too bad that this likelihood does not extend to some dealers regarding technical competence and pricing honesty. :(

Cheers;

MSantos