GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

Downpipe What's the best brand ?

Subliminal

Autocross Champion
Location
Vegas
Car(s)
Slow FWD VW Hatch
Just write your vlog about how you want him to prove it, and how you’re gonna snitch on him to CNN,Meta,Ronald macdonald,etc for the “unsubstantiated claim” of - cost more in the long run- and leave it off our forum about dirt bikes and Covid.



Can you imagine if a person got 86ed from an establishment for violating their POSTED rules (while mind you being warned prior…regardless of the reality that they are an adult which translates to me that they are not entitled to a slew of warning) and then came back with this 👇👇 on and the establishment just went with it
View attachment 259339

yeah that’s golfmk7.com…lol
I saw an old homeless guy get kicked out of a dive bar in Humboldt and 5 minutes later he was back sitting at the same patio table wearing a trench coat and sunglasses eating a bag of breadsticks
 

GTI_Owner

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
Car(s)
2016 GTI
Yes, if you installed one you should have it too. The $30 catalytic converter would have put a nice big CEL on your dash.

Also, when it's time to sell, you arent going to want to list "$250 Allison racing downpipe" on the listing, you would likely go back to stock since the inferior product significantly lowers the value of the vehicle.

I on the other hand, would be happy to list "custom made full stainless downpipe with GESI racing 400 cel catalytic converter" either with the car, or in a separate listing after.
What information led you to conclude these companies use $30 catalytic converters in their sub-$1,000 downpipes?
  • Integrated Engineering
  • 034Motorsports
  • Unitronic
  • HPA
You're considering selling the aftermarket downpipe as part of the long-term cost? If you're selling it, I'm skeptical that the resale value will approach the $1,800 acquisition cost. There's a $900 Baun FMIC being sold for $500 in the classifieds. Assuming the downpipe has a similar depreciation when you sell it you've lost $900. If you bought an IE downpipe for $850, and it had greater depreciation, say 66% of its value, you'd be down $570. So you come out $330 ahead with IE. Also, while you may be happy to list the custom-made DP when you sell the car, you aren't likely to get an extra $1,800 for the vehicle because it has that downpipe on it.

You say that if I had a cheap downpipe I would have information on why it leads to a higher long-term cost, but I have to sell the DP, or my GTI, to find this information out?
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
This sounds personal. Jake, what did you do to him?

No clue, someone would have to fill me in.

Anyway, for the 1.3 millionth time I recommend ANY AFTERMARKET INTERCOOLER UPGRADE & suggest it’ll be a massive improvement over stock & absolutely the better of upgrades when compared to a downpipe. Its also a bit humbling that a competitor thought so highly of my products that they ride my coat tail and sell a replica of it (including a poor quality replica Vibrant core). What’s the saying? Fake it till you make it?


With that said, I’ve been a broke 20 year old kid and bought cheap poor quality parts & even received them for free a few times. The hardships faced from those life experiences along with my eleven years in aviation and prior six years working in high end machine shops has given be far more exposure to seeing how parts fail and why everything that ought to be isn’t necessarily so in real world environments.
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
For transparency here’s my pricing on that core, that I’d still need to pay $40+ to ship in and $80+ plus to ship out.

50663794-D8CF-437A-8490-717235E58FA9.png


I’m a Vibrant authorized distributor and reposted on their social media accounts regularly. Just because some idiot from a major distributor who gets far better pricing than I do is selling below MAP behind their back, doesn’t mean I do.

@acadia helped install one of my intercoolers and had they had the correct bits would’ve had no trouble. Flash forward a few days and he’s doing his own intercooler installation start to finish twice because poor QC / Chinese e commerce let him down. Idk what he values his time at, but the gap in sales price is slammed shut if you value your time/labor at much at all and that’s just round one. How long do Zhong Zhone silicone and t bolt clamps last in daily driving environments long term?
 
Last edited:

the

Autocross Champion
Location
Alabama
Car(s)
GTI
What information led you to conclude these companies use $30 catalytic converters in their sub-$1,000 downpipes?
  • Integrated Engineering
  • 034Motorsports
  • Unitronic
  • HPA
The lack of transparency on their product page leads me to believe you're getting a sub $100 200 cell CEL cat. $30 was hyperbole.

In regard to the rest of your reply, good math I guess. We should probably recast the discussion though, because I've never realistically bought a car part thinking "oh boy, I can't wait to sell this and recuperate X% of my original purchase price". Admittedly, I did take the conversation there so it's my fault.

If you're willing to spend upwards of $1000 on a dp it will probably be fine.
 

Chogokin

Autocross Champion
Location
So Cal
Car(s)
GTI Sport | Audi A3
What information led you to conclude these companies use $30 catalytic converters in their sub-$1,000 downpipes?
  • Integrated Engineering
  • 034Motorsports
  • Unitronic
  • HPA
You're considering selling the aftermarket downpipe as part of the long-term cost? If you're selling it, I'm skeptical that the resale value will approach the $1,800 acquisition cost. There's a $900 Baun FMIC being sold for $500 in the classifieds. Assuming the downpipe has a similar depreciation when you sell it you've lost $900. If you bought an IE downpipe for $850, and it had greater depreciation, say 66% of its value, you'd be down $570. So you come out $330 ahead with IE. Also, while you may be happy to list the custom-made DP when you sell the car, you aren't likely to get an extra $1,800 for the vehicle because it has that downpipe on it.

You say that if I had a cheap downpipe I would have information on why it leads to a higher long-term cost, but I have to sell the DP, or my GTI, to find this information out?
Three of them have the cat in the stock location…don’t know if that makes any difference. I read somewhere that the stock location cats get hot enough for them to actually work.
 

Jonnyr6

Ready to race!
Location
Toronto
Car(s)
2017 golf R
I have a Chinese made iPhone in my hand as I type this, but like Vibrant Performance Apple’s QC, fit & finish, quality ect is second to none.



If you can only afford a $300 downpipe (which can be had for $80 btw) you should NOT be modding the car period from a financial standpoint.
Lol
 

GTI_Owner

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
Car(s)
2016 GTI
No clue, someone would have to fill me in.

Anyway, for the 1.3 millionth time I recommend ANY AFTERMARKET INTERCOOLER UPGRADE & suggest it’ll be a massive improvement over stock & absolutely the better of upgrades when compared to a downpipe. Its also a bit humbling that a competitor thought so highly of my products that they ride my coat tail and sell a replica of it (including a poor quality replica Vibrant core). What’s the saying? Fake it till you make it?


With that said, I’ve been a broke 20 year old kid and bought cheap poor quality parts & even received them for free a few times. The hardships faced from those life experiences along with my eleven years in aviation and prior six years working in high end machine shops has given be far more exposure to seeing how parts fail and why everything that ought to be isn’t necessarily so in real world environments.
The messaging about "any" IC upgrade is not consistent. Also, since you sell an aftermarket intercooler, the more people you can encourage to buy an intercooler will improve the chance you'll make more sales.

Don't read too much into the ARM FMIC, their Mk6 IC is the spitting image of Neuspeeds. They may have gone with a vibrant clone since the vibrant IC is made in China and it might have been easier to copy that way.

When I brought up the subject of the intercooler it was in reference to the price you charge, compared to other products that are available, and that your perspective may be biased towards higher-cost parts that don't necessarily provide the consumer with performance gains that are commensurate with the cost premium.

This advice about the downpipe was the subject I was addressing:

"So while I agree budgets vary, I would never recommend anyone buy or install a sub $1,000 downpipe in todays world…just leave it stock because modding for the sake of modding without meeting or exceeding OEM quality will always cost more in the long run."

I asked about these products,
  • Integrated Engineering
  • 034Motorsports
  • Unitronic
  • HPA
all of which are under $1,000, and you went right past that and started talking about iPhones being made in China. Why should people avoid these products? How is the cost going to be more in the long run?

My opinion is that you aren't looking at the things you are saying as a business influencing how consumers view your products and those of your competitors. You said the cost to own products like the ones I've mentioned will be greater in the long run. Businesses need to back up that type of claim. If you were just GTI Jake, VW enthusiast you could say that type of thing all day long without any accountability, but you represent Baun Performance, a business that potentially will profit from the decisions consumers make, and you are trying to influence them. A different standard applies to a business.
 

Acadia18

Autocross Champion
Location
The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
Car(s)
2019 Golf R
@acadia helped install one of my intercoolers and had they had the correct bits would’ve had no trouble. Flash forward a few days and he’s doing his own intercooler installation start to finish twice because poor QC / Chinese e commerce let him down. Idk what he values his time at, but the gap in sales price is slammed shut if you value your time/labor at much at all and that’s just round one. How long do Zhong Zhone silicone and t bolt clamps last in daily driving environments long term?

For what it's worth, I also helped install an ARM FMIC which was even easier than yours, since there's zero drilling required at all. Their mouning brackets attach to already existing spots, and also include an actual spot for the ambient air sensor to be attached, no zip ties required. But, is it really a modified car if there's no zip ties somewhere? 🤣
 

IanCH

Autocross Champion
Location
MA
Car(s)
'20 GTI
I have evidence that buying a shitty downpipe gives you shitty results.

On my 2015 golf R in 2015 I bought a Billyboat downpipe for ~$700 (? cant remember) and it fit like such utter shit that it have 2 exhaust leaks even though it was installed by a good shop.

I got a refund for that but I didn't get my install money back and the 2 trips I had to take to the shop to have it installed and then removed and replaced with a replacement part that would supposedly fix the issue and didnt. One of the worst modding experiences I ever had.

Then I bought a unitronic DP that I liked but it still couldnt pass readiness and get a sticker. So that one I had to sell, got about 50% of my money back. multiple hours on installs lost.

Finally I said fk this im doing it right. Bought an APR downpipe, no more CEL, could get a sticker with the tune on.

All in all I probably spent $1k and 30+ hours of my time to arrive at the good solution. Buy the good stuff the first time unless you fancy playing make believe mechanic in your garage constantly.
 

Subliminal

Autocross Champion
Location
Vegas
Car(s)
Slow FWD VW Hatch
I have evidence that buying a shitty downpipe gives you shitty results.

On my 2015 golf R in 2015 I bought a Billyboat downpipe for ~$700 (? cant remember) and it fit like such utter shit that it have 2 exhaust leaks even though it was installed by a good shop.

I got a refund for that but I didn't get my install money back and the 2 trips I had to take to the shop to have it installed and then removed and replaced with a replacement part that would supposedly fix the issue and didnt. One of the worst modding experiences I ever had.

Then I bought a unitronic DP that I liked but it still couldnt pass readiness and get a sticker. So that one I had to sell, got about 50% of my money back. multiple hours on installs lost.

Finally I said fk this im doing it right. Bought an APR downpipe, no more CEL, could get a sticker with the tune on.

All in all I probably spent $1k and 30+ hours of my time to arrive at the good solution. Buy the good stuff the first time unless you fancy playing make believe mechanic in your garage constantly.
Why not just use a spacer on the uni dp?
 
Top