I wish COBB and APR would enter into a joint agreement and be done with it. I wanted an APR tune but living in a small town makes it difficult to do. The nearest tune shop is 1.5hrs away from me. If I go have an APR tune done I can't go back to stock without going back to the tune shop. If I take my VW in for service with a APR tune on it and the dealership technician flashes my VW back to stock, which would happen if VW orders updates to the ECU, then back to the tune shop I go.
Having a COBB AP allows me to keep the OTS map (which isn't bad and actually has better AFR's and KR's than stock) as well as keeping my custom stage 1 e-tune. If I need to flash back to stock so that I can take it in for service, I can. Mind you, the dealership will know that the ECU has been reflashed and they may try to give me a hard time about warranty repairs, but without knowing what tune I had on the car they'd have difficulty blaming the tune. As I said, they would try and make the argument that warranty doesn't cover repairs on a modified car but they'd have to prove the tune was the issue. Without the tune actually being visible to them, it just makes it that much harder for them to prove.
It would be great if COBB and APR could get together and sell the COBB with OTS maps, then for an additional price be able to load the APR map on the COBB. Having the ability to flash to a different tune is important not just from a dealership service point of view but from a longevity point of view as well. When it snows a lot I flash back to stock, I simply don't want 365wtq on the ground with 4" of snow. On days when I just commute to work I sometimes flash to stock or use an intermediate COBB OTS tune. Why? Less stress on the components because I'm not going to use that much power anyway. If the temperatures soar into the 90's with 80% humidity here in Minnesota, I'll be driving on the stock tune on those days, again for the same reasons, to not put additional stress on components.
A joint agreement between COBB and APR would be the magic bullet that many people would benefit from. It's a win-win for both COBB and APR. APR would end up selling more maps and COBB would end up selling more AP's. The end user would have two really great products that would allow the owner to dial it back when needed or remove it outright when necessary without the trip to the tune shop which charges you every time you go.