APR tune costs

[rgvlee]

This is sort of a retorical question... but

goapr.com price for the ecu upgrade, 499 USD
goapr.com.au price and local dealer price, 1250 AUD (-15% as they are have a sale on at the moment, so 1062 AUD)

Hard to swallow such a difference when the currency is in our favour.

I'm not suggesting I am getting the APR ecu upgrade, I'm getting the 60k service done at the local APR dealer and was thinking about having a go at the 6 hour trial whilst it was in.

In a semi related note are there any good threads or can someone point me in the right direction regarding the different tunes out there?

[vwthunder]

Not even going to go there.

There have been many threads on prices/goods in the US compared to here.

With tunes you have a few different options, APR, Giac, Viezu, DNA, custom code, do you plan on upgrading the turbo at a later stage, need a tune you can build on.

I had a APR tune on the car when i got it, also had a APR Downpipe and DV. Well i got rid of all the APR parts, and have nothing on my car which is APR and i am a happy camper

[Bflat]

Inb4threadClosed

[tigger73]

Only thing I can say is get a full scan done of your ECU before putting any tune in.

If you get a "demo" APR tune it will over-write your stock file. It will replace it with "APR stock" file after the demo expires which will likely not be the same.

Changing tunes can be problematic because most tuners will want to go from a "clean" slate.

If you have an APR demo put in be prepared to have to get your VW dealer to "wipe" it if you want to put something else in - either that or get the APR service guys to put your stock file that they saved back in over the APR tune.

This will cost $ but probably cheaper than going to a VW dealer and will take you back to a completely clean "stock" ECU.

Sorry no free lunch and writing different tune files in over the top of each other can result in a mess - seriously want to avoid doing this.

So my suggestion is to work out your end game and then choose the tuner that is going to be able to take you there. Be aware that each tuner will charge different amounts for upgrades - stage 2/3 files.

Also from my own personal experience there are some big advantages going with a local tuner/workshop. The ability to troubleshoot any issues that may arise and when things don't go exactly to plan it's a lot simpler when the workshop is local.

Plus if you're using your worshop for servicing in some respects it makes sense to keep things all under the same roof. That way they know exactly what has been done to the car and if anythig goes wrong (touch wood) there's no finger pointing.

[noone]

I'll bite...

its a smaller market, so the tuners have fewer clients with the same or similar running costs. if every VW on the road were chipped, there would be a lot more demand and the tuners would be more likely to be able to offer lower pricing. If you keep your eyes open you will see differences, dyno results, benefits, issues, etc with tunes. IMO, there is a reason that Polo's are mainly APR, Giac and CC. If I had my time again, I'd go CC, but then again, I'm less interested in 'peace of mind' and more in squeezing all the power out without being silly. Not sure what your local options are in WA.

FYI I think i paid $1700 3 years ago for my APR tune, by contrast CC is now $650 for a stage 1 and while he's not local to you, is an active forum member who is doing more interesting things with his Polo than i have managed to get to.

[tigger73]

APR is good but you're paying for a full service option and a reasonable marketing budget.

I did start to go down CC path, however became problematic when tune file for my car was not straight forward and file needed to get written from "scratch". Car and tuner were no longer in same place and it all got too hard (really not prepared to put an untested flash file in my ECU without a back-up plan).

So in the end I went with Viezu - partly because of hardware (they are the only ones that do DP for Tiguan).

Pluses and minuses for each option. Comes down to personal preference and what your priorities are on performance/$/service/upgrade path/etc.

[h100vw]

It's been done to death on every forum and it crops up every couple of months.

APR would have to have the biggest overheads in the market, a $100k Golf R wouldn't buy itself. Neither would 2 page adverts in Motor.

Examine that against my pratically non-existent overhead situation, no premises to fund. I could make more money by jacking up my prices but while I can keep them down I will.

Tuning your car in WA isn't necessarily a big deal. I have a spare ECU that has no immobiliser in it. This can be swapped into any Polo. It currently has a Phase 1 tune loaded and I am running it in my Polo.

I am happy to send it over to you to trial. Alternatively, I just did a GTI for a forum member, he ran the spare ECU for a couple of days while he shipped his to me to be flashed. I have a few customers over there and I am sure that they'd take you for a test ride.

Jonny has a Phase 1 and Brad has a Phase 2.

I'd also advise that you have a good think about whether you might want to do any upgrades in the future, in particular the downpipe.

While I prefer not to to flash over other tuners software. I have done several ECUs that have had APR trials on them without incident.

$649 for Phase 1 and $749 for Phase 2. also noteworthy, I have been told that I can get the SAI flow code deleted. I had been holding off announcing that until I had the chance to test a tune out on my own car but with my engine being toast, it might be a few weeks off.

Cheers

Gavin

This is sort of a retorical question... but

goapr.com price for the ecu upgrade, 499 USD
goapr.com.au price and local dealer price, 1250 AUD (-15% as they are have a sale on at the moment, so 1062 AUD)

Hard to swallow such a difference when the currency is in our favour.

I'm not suggesting I am getting the APR ecu upgrade, I'm getting the 60k service done at the local APR dealer and was thinking about having a go at the 6 hour trial whilst it was in.

In a semi related note are there any good threads or can someone point me in the right direction regarding the different tunes out there?

[noone]

News to me Gav, how easily can you send it my way for a go? Is it just plug n play easy aside from the usual battery disconnect type symptoms?

Would love to try out a CC tune, especially now the SAI codes can be worked out. Is the Exhaust senor coded out for Cat / DP changes?

[tigger73]

That's one up on the 6 hour trial

[Smead]

APR tune costs

Inb4threadClosed

Ha ha Ryan All I'll add is check the sponsor section. Most if not all tuners are in there

[Redliner]

What's involved in returning an ECU to stock.
My Frankenturbo build is coming up shortly, finally, and I have been told by John at DNA that I have to return my APR flashed chip back to stock. Just wondering what's involved and the cost of doing so.
Alternatively can I buy a stock ECU, install that and then in turn sell my APR flashed ECU?

[h100vw]

News to me Gav, how easily can you send it my way for a go? Is it just plug n play easy aside from the usual battery disconnect type symptoms?

Would love to try out a CC tune, especially now the SAI codes can be worked out. Is the Exhaust sensor coded out for Cat / DP changes?

It has Phase 1 loaded at the moment. It just plugs in. This Phase 1 hasn't got the SAI coded out and only the Phase 2 has the cat efficiency coded deleted.

What's involved in returning an ECU to stock.
My Frankenturbo build is coming up shortly, finally, and I have been told by John at DNA that I have to return my APR flashed chip back to stock. Just wondering what's involved and the cost of doing so.
Alternatively can I buy a stock ECU, install that and then in turn sell my APR flashed ECU?

I have flashed over APR Trials, like I said above, using my bench lead. If you can't get anyone else to do it, send it to me. Buying another ECU would be prohibitively expensive IMO, unless you got one secondhand and then had the immobiliser defeated. A new VW one would have to be coded to the car. so you would need someone to do that for you. Seb?

If you sold your APR ECU it would still have to be coded into the new car.

Gavin

[rgvlee]

Thanks for the input. I'm sure it does get asked from time to time, I did search but nothing jumped out at me, maybe I was using the wrong search terms.

As I said my question was rhetorical, APR charge it because they can. You'd want to hope you got some regional difference in the ecu upgrade to justify it, i.e., to suit our climate, although I have my doubts.

Almost makes you want to get another ecu secondhand to butcher, I'm guessing the immobiliser is not easy/cheap to circumvent.

I'm not sure on the engine performance end game yet but will look into the names mentioned and see what is on offer. It is highly likely I will replace the downpipe/exhaust with something else, I have plans to pull it out so I can fit up my innovate wideband sensor. A tune that can handle the SAI delete is something that appeals to me as that is something else I will be doing.

There are things I'd like to do then there is reality, it will end up somewhere in the middle I am sure.