does a remap lower the life of the engine

[northeast_gti-t]

As above poor maintenance and cold thrashing is more harmful than any remap.

I tend to find the type of people who are interested in tuning are also interested in looking after their cars so in general an enthusiast driven remapped car will last longer than one owned by someone who doesn't know how to check the oil level.

exactly and tbh if someone who drives a car doesn't know where the dipstick is or check the oil level and say's i just let the garage do it!! well they deserve to have engine problems 

[Micky 32]

Remap and don't worry. In 2003 i bought a brand new VW Golf PD130. At 900 miles on the clock i mapped it. When it reached 80k i fitted a hybrid turbo which made the car make 220bhp.. I sold it a 200k. The engine had absolutely no signs of wear at that mileage. I had no failures whatsoever due to the modifying. The only weakness was a slipping clutch which was rectified with a sachs uprated one.