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Best Tune for my new 2016 GTI PP

worldacgti

Go Kart Champion
It's harder now more than ever to make a decision on tunes......so many new options. For the money, I would say ED is probably the best bet
 

jcruz

Ready to race!
Location
tri-state
Car(s)
mk8 Golf R
Cobb should be out soon, I would wait it out so you have all options infront of you. I went from ED to cobb and couldn't be happier. ED was great, but Cobb suits my needs better. If I wasn't so impatient months ago, I would have just waited for Cobb...O well lol.
 

scrapin240

Drag Racing Champion
Location
IzzaGolf
Car(s)
Golf
I have a JB1 on the F30 335xi and it's been great, so I got the JB4 for the GTI, even though I purchased a APR downpipe with the expectation of going stage 2. I'll hold off on that flash, and keep the ECM factory fresh for now.
 

themyst

Ready to race!
Location
NYC
I personally would not get APR-anything. It's all snake oil marketing in my honest opinion and you can do better are trying to use fear-mongering and doubt to get the sale. Tell that APR dealer to put it into writing that they will honor your full warranty if your APR tune blows the engine. They won't. :)
 

Venumous

Ready to race!
Location
NE
JB4 is a great option as well.
 

0bLiViOuS

Go Kart Champion
Location
Orange County
I personally would not get APR-anything. It's all snake oil marketing in my honest opinion and you can do better are trying to use fear-mongering and doubt to get the sale. Tell that APR dealer to put it into writing that they will honor your full warranty if your APR tune blows the engine. They won't. :)

I'm no APR fan boy, but no tuner would do this. They do make good parts, but I have no say on their tunes. They use high boost for the kick of your pants low down, which is not my style. The poster wants reliability first and foremost so I'd go Uni or JB1/4 personally. ED is good but support sucks. I think Cobb is a safe bet as well and can mature if he decides to do more.
 

geebob

Ready to race!
I'm no APR fan boy, but no tuner would do this. They do make good parts, but I have no say on their tunes. They use high boost for the kick of your pants low down, which is not my style. The poster wants reliability first and foremost so I'd go Uni or JB1/4 personally. ED is good but support sucks. I think Cobb is a safe bet as well and can mature if he decides to do more.
Just mindless chatter here, but if I had to guess, I'd say the factory (s) tune out the characteristic load peak at low rpm common to small turbos (the natural load peak would always be somewhere, but on your basic 2L factory turbo it's always in the low rpm range) with throttle mapping. Basically just putting in a reverse curve to counter the load peak. Even if that's not how they achieve it, it's obvious looking at stock dynos vs. ecu tuned, that something is up - like the torque curve at low rpm :)

I hope I can find an etuner I can work with ...
 

PouncingPanzer1

Go Kart Champion
Cobb should be out soon, I would wait it out so you have all options infront of you. I went from ED to cobb and couldn't be happier. ED was great, but Cobb suits my needs better. If I wasn't so impatient months ago, I would have just waited for Cobb...O well lol.
I personally plan to see what Cobb ends up offering for my 2017 PP.
 

ATR

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Baltimore
Car(s)
'17 Golf R 6mt
Thought I would chime in and share my thoughts on tunes... Ive been quietly researching tunes since I picked up my car.

I've summed it up here. But note this is all things I've heard. I have no personal experience with these.

On warranties...
Keep the warranty? Get a jb1/4 or neuspeed power module. Remove it before dealer service visits and no one but you knows.

Bit of a gray area for tunes & warranty can be found with APR. Some vw dealers offer this tune.

Pretty much any other tune is a TD1 flag if you keep the tune on the car when you take it into the dealership.

I've heard some tunes you can flash back to stock and sometimes the dealership can tell, other times they can't. Bit of a crap shoot.

Want to get the most out of a tune?
-DSG: Guess what, you need a TCU tune. Yes NEED. With as much torque as the ea888 is capable of you need a tune to enable the transmission to put a bit more pressure on the clutches.

-Manual Transmission: you might luck out and be okay with the stock clutch for a time. But you will eventually need to replace it. So keep this bookmarked. You WILL need it sooner rather than later.

On the tunes themselves...
-APR: that fright train of torque. Hits you in the face then pushes you into the seat. Great fun, but a bit of a one trick pony and tends to feel too aggressive when you're just putting around town.

-Unitronic: from all I've heard about these guys I'm sold... Very linear feeling power and gas peddle. Stock feeling when daily driving, but down a couple gears and go WOT and the car transforms. Sounds like a better all around tune. The thing that I really like is uniconnect+.

-Eurodyne: has a similar obd2 dongle to install the tune at home. I've heard the tune is very smooth. Not as many reviews. I haven't heard of as many direct comparisons of the ED tune comparing to the other tunes.

-GIAC: Really interesting tune. Able to swap on the fly between modes. GIAC's Flashloader handheld switcher is available for this application, complete with the following switching options: 100-octane performance, "Stock" performance, Valet mode, and Privacy Firewall. I've heard that it is a good smooth tune that's not as aggressive as some of the others here.



I haven't heard enough about other tuners out there to make a comment on them.

I'd certainly be interested to hear more about revo, giac, and the others I've listed here.
 
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iNeedMorePSI

Ready to race!
Thank you - Luigi

Luigi - There is no debate here. You're in CT.. go to United Motorsport in Milford, CT. You're welcome.
 
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ExcelerateRep1

Go Kart Champion
Location
Branford, CT
This is probably one of the largest if not THE largest debate on the forums. Everyone wants to tune their car to high horsepower and retain their warranty. It just isn't going to happen. If anything, things are getting worse for the consumer because the dealer doesn't feel obligated to fix something they didn't do. And they shouldn't.

But, we see both side of this because we know that 9 times out of 10 the failure is caused by factory defect or something of the like (like early turbochargers) it was a known fact and software will just accelerate the problem. But VW still denied claims because of software, still somewhat understandable considering some cars may have never had an issue.

With this all being said, we flash a lot of local cars. This is actually the hottest platform for us right now and pretty much all of these cars are in warranty still. Some have had to report back to the dealer for minor warranty stuff and never had an issue when they brought the car back to us to flash back to stock. We did hear of one car that was denied coverage at some point for engine replacement but we're not really sure on the whole back story.

I always recommend picking what serves your needs most. If you are close to an APR, UM, Revo, UM dealer but like the flash from home option, you're going to have a tough time choosing! Service is a big portion of of the buying process so stick to those who are going to be there for you if something happens. Flash from home is very hit or miss with support, consider you're flashing a tune on the weekend and no one is open to help walk you through something to recover. Not good. What if you live 4 hours away from the dealer of the software company you chose? Similar situation. A lot of things to think about away from the overall power figures itself. Any of the competent tuners are going to be in similar peak horsepower range from one another, how they get there with safety in mind is the difference which is why we flash APR and support their product through and through. Product support, attention to detail and quality of the product itself is second to none.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,


Greg
 
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