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1. Recently I came across allegations that used car sellers disabling warning lights to cheat potential buyers. 2. Apparently if the seller refreshes the ecu, the warning lights will temporarily go into 'sleep mode' and not indicate any existing fault for a few hours, or a day or so, during test drives!!! 3. The warning lights will only show up a few days after the unsuspecting buyer buys the car. Sometimes the faults are costly to repair! By then, the buyer can only suck thumb. 4. Some mechanics told me such 'hidden' faults can actually be diagnosed with the plug-in diagnostic instrument during the vehicle evaluation before the purchase. I am not sure how many sellers will allow the potential buyer to do the diagnosis, or which evaluation centre eg AA, VICOM, provides such a service in their evaluation? Do feel free to share your experience / knowledge on the above here. Thank you. PS -- Seasoned, discerning buyers of used expensive, sophisticated cars may know better ways to avoid being cheated by such sellers.