Remember its not the stage 1 that gives you the APR warranty. Its APR + which is a less powerful tune than regular stage 1. And its still flashing the ECU so if things did go up in smoke, which really wouldn't be as a result of the tune, but due to a manufacturing defect. VW would still likely deny your claim for a new engine, and you'd have to go with APR's 'warranty' which basically means take it into an APR dealer and they'll do whatever means necessary to 'repair' your engine. I wasn't comfortable with that, so i went with a JB4, and low and behold, had an engine issue. Whipped that JB4 out, took it in, and got what i needed taken care of, and everything was with genuine OEM VW brand new parts.