APR vs EQT

[YamR1rider]

There are reasons to go APR+ if you want a "set and forget" Stg 1 OEM+ Tune, plan to keep the car for a while to amortize the cost, and are never wanting to do more tuning. I know a lot of people here don't fall into that category but I do... having wasted way too much money on tuning Subies and a Mk 6 in the past. I'm done with that. And when you sell, the warranty is transferable, and a buyer at least knows what he is getting into, not some unknown set of mods.
APR+ is CARB approved in CA, and the warranty is a big "plus". 290hp is plenty enough ( few more hp???) and overwhelms the front tires anyway. The power is super smooth and I don't have any complaints.

Pretty much my thoughts. With a decent set of tires I think it's pretty well matched to the car and the dragy figures show its well worth the bump over stock even with 87 gas.

I've not yet seen any definitive cases of APR blowing off the warranty either, which to me says either they are taking care of people or more probably the tune is conservative enough there have been very few needs to claim.

As far as the wider Cobb/EQT Vs APR argument goes.... If you aren't wanting a warranty I do think that nowadays getting an access port is the way to go. It's some very stiff competition which APR might not be able to ignore.... who knows, it may inspire them to finally come out with a flash from home tool at least, as has been a big request from a lot of people for a long time.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

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APR+ is CARB approved in CA, and the warranty is a big "plus". 290hp is plenty enough ( few more hp???) and overwhelms the front tires anyway. The power is super smooth and I don't have any complaints.

290 overwhelms your tires?? You on stock rubber? I’m on full bolt on, WMI and hybrid, (still not enough,lol) and Sure I can make it spin if my careless and mash the pedal but even then I wouldn’t use the term overwhelm when that happens. Now stock tires... those would spin with ease even at stage 2 level power.

 

[GTIfan99]

There are reasons to go APR+ if you want a "set and forget" Stg 1 OEM+ Tune, plan to keep the car for a while to amortize the cost, and are never wanting to do more tuning. I know a lot of people here don't fall into that category but I do... having wasted way too much money on tuning Subies and a Mk 6 in the past. I'm done with that. And when you sell, the warranty is transferable, and a buyer at least knows what he is getting into, not some unknown set of mods.
APR+ is CARB approved in CA, and the warranty is a big "plus". 290hp is plenty enough ( few more hp???) and overwhelms the front tires anyway. The power is super smooth and I don't have any complaints.

Agreed, except I'd really like to see real dyno sheets from that 87 Oct Stg1 tune making 290hp. I probably sitting around the same power levels with 225mm Falken FK510 and WOT doesn't overwhelm the tires unless I was to rev it up and dump the clutch, but that would be stupid.

 

[sterkrazzy]

There are reasons to go APR+ if you want a "set and forget" Stg 1 OEM+ Tune

That's exactly what a stage 1 and 2 EQT tune is too. There's no logging or dynos required. You get the tune and plug it in and you're done. If you want more than that the option is there though. Maybe you knew that, but too many people assume that cobb/eqt isn't that simple. They see people talking about pro tunes and assume the base tunes are like the pro tunes.

 

[GTIfan99]

That's exactly what a stage 1 and 2 EQT tune is too. There's no logging or dynos required. You get the tune and plug it in and you're done. If you want more than that the option is there though. Maybe you knew that, but too many people assume that cobb/eqt isn't that simple. They see people talking about pro tunes and assume the base tunes are like the pro tunes.

APR does offer a warranty and got it CARB approved though.

No one else has done that to my knowledge.

So it is a good option if you have to worry about smog or warranty.

 

[sterkrazzy]

APR does offer a warranty and got it CARB approved though.

No one else has done that to my knowledge.

So it is a good option if you have to worry about smog or warranty.

But you can easily put the stock tune back on with the cobb and pass it that way.

 

[GTIfan99]

But you can easily put the stock tune back on with the cobb and pass it that way.

Yeah, but you can't hide it's been tuned from VW.

 

[joneze93tsi]

EQT, But allow me to quantify why...

I've had a ton of VAG cars over the years and I was APR Tuned on 99% of them and never had any major issues.
I also bore the brunt of testing some "early files" for them and was confronted with the "it's not us, it's your car" until a magic revision came out that fixed everything.

I like transparency, and you don't really get that with a big company like APR.
You aren't every really allowed to have an Ill opinion of any business practice/decision without having Arin/others hunt you down and tell you that they are bigger/smarter than everyone else.

Value is another big difference.
Your APR tune is worth diddly squat when you want to sell your car/return to stock.
Your AP (& Tune if next owner has same bin) have resale value.
Easy Updates/Tune adjustments with features (not really possible on APR with this platform)
Unlimited expansion (EQT will tune you for any turbo/fuel setup)

 

[sterkrazzy]

I've always seen APR as the big corporation that doesn't give a shit about their customers. I had APR on my mk6 gti for a while and it was embarrassing how bad that tune was. I wasn't the only one with issues either. There were plenty of posts over a couple of years that complained of the same issues I saw. When cobb came out and stratified started posting on the forums I went out on a limb and ordered one hoping it'd be the fix to my problems. It was amazing. I could tell the difference before I even left my driveway and when all I had done was just barely tap the gas. Eventually apr released an updated tune that people said fixed the issues, but it had been a couple years since their last revision before they even took a look at it again. I've been pretty strongly against apr since then. The stratified tune served me well on my mk6 so I knew I'd go cobb with my mk7 too, but I didn't know about Ed/EQT until after a couple months of owning the car. I've seen some complaints against stratified on the mk7 platform, but I swear Ed must have like a 100% satisfied rate. Cobb is the way to go and with the overwhelmingly positive reviews for Ed it seemed pretty obvious he was the best choice.

 

[swcrow]

EQT flat out, no question. I've run Uni, GIAC, APR and Revo....nothing comes close to how dialed in EQT is

 

[BlackDog68]

All, thank you for the feedback. That's one of the great things about being on a forum like this! It sounds as though the EQT is the overwhelming favorite for various reasons.



Not particularly, just have considered these two, but that also bares consideration as well.



How would you compare the APR Stage 1 to the EQT Stage 1 in terms of power (feel/butt dyno)?

There’s no difference in the numbers, slight tilt to EQT in butt dyno, It’s all about future expansion with AP, and it costs less with resale.

 

[GTI_Owner]

As far as the wider Cobb/EQT Vs APR argument goes.... If you aren't wanting a warranty I do think that nowadays getting an access port is the way to go. It's some very stiff competition which APR might not be able to ignore.... who knows, it may inspire them to finally come out with a flash from home tool at least, as has been a big request from a lot of people for a long time.

APR has done flashing tools in the past and I doubt it's a technical reason they haven't on the Mk7. Evidently doing so is not in the best interest of their business.

 

[jimlloyd40]

Can you link those posts?

No I don't keep track of them.

 

[jimlloyd40]

Yeah, but you can't hide it's been tuned from VW.

You can't hide the APR tune from VW either. The ECU flash counter counts every time it's been flashed regardless of tuner.

 

[jimlloyd40]

APR has done flashing tools in the past and I doubt it's a technical reason they haven't on the Mk7. Evidently doing so is not in the best interest of their business.

They just don't want to screw over their dealer network.