First let me say I’m not the type to bash anyone online and this is not going to be a bash session. I have some good and some bad to say. I just want to put this out there so that others don’t experience the same thing I did because no one warned them.
This saga started with a friend of mine posting a thread on golfmk6 in regards to the rev hang issues I have been having with my 2012 Stage 2 Beetle. I had been troubleshooting and researching the problem for about 6 months prior to the thread being posted. Received the usual internet responses, it’s normal, ignore it, etc, then suddenly Driver Motorsport posts up saying that their software can eliminate it. Then I pm’d them with some questions, and they asked if I would be interested in doing a review for them as well on golfmk6 since they hadn’t had much exposure there. So I thought my prayers had been answered. I did some research about them online, found a bunch of satisfied customers, so I figured I’d give them a shot. They even said that “all their other beetle customers have been satisfied.” Little did I know this was a typical sales pitch as they hadn’t tuned any 2012+ beetles yet.
Forgive me if the timeline doesn’t add up perfectly, this has been an ongoing saga for 6 months so I don’t have all the dates spot on so I’ll be general about it.
On January 31st 2014 I made my payment to Driver Motorsport. Since they weren’t close to me I had to ship my ecu to them. Since it is my only car, I had to rent a vehicle while my ecu was in transit back and forth. No big deal I thought, I’ll ship it overnight, they’ll flash it, and ship it back to me overnight. Here’s the first sign something was wrong. They practically beg me to ship via UPS instead of any other carriers because they’ve had problems with them. Again it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, so I spent $105.00 for packaging and shipping overnight to them. They received it, and started working on it. Apparently they ran into some issues because it was an ECU (MED17.5.2) that they hadn’t tuned before. So it took them an extra day. Again, I figured nothing to be worried about, it is fairly new and APR went through the same thing when I first got my car to get it tuned. After the extra day they said it was all ready to go and they shipped it out. BUT, they shipped in a padded envelope via USPS priority mail. Since they didn’t ship it overnight, even though they said they would, I ended up having to pay for a rental car for an additional 2 days. Again, I shrug it off, no big deal, the ecu was in one piece and the car started right up.
So I go for a test drive, and everything seems normal except almost immediately I notice I still have rev hang. I shrug it off and continue with my test drive. First thing I notice that I like is the linear throttle. I have to admit that it is a nice feature and definitely makes you feel a bit more connected to exactly how the motor is running. The power seems a little off from my APR stage 2 tune, but I knew it would feel different. I try to ignore the occasionally rev hang for now since I’m assuming the ECU needs more time to adapt anyway.
I drive 100 miles a day ROUND TRIP just for work, but I did give it a while before I went back to DM (Driver Motorsport, I’ll use the acronym for the rest of this lol) to say that the rev hang delete didn’t work. In any case, I email DM (because they wouldn’t give me a phone number, which should have been a clue) and explain that the rev hang is still present. Here’s where I start to notice something isn’t right, I don’t get a response for a couple of days. I know people are busy, but when I wanted to buy his tune they were responding immediately, but when I have problems suddenly they are too busy? But I shrug that off anyway. They ask me to run a couple of logs, so I do, but the logs they asked me to run were at WOT only. I was a bit confused, but again figured they know what they’re doing so I’ll just do it. After sending the logs they respond saying that everything looks good and they were just checking to make sure the software got flashed properly. I ignore it, and they mention that once I get the programmer they will try a couple of things with some new files. So I wait.
I honestly can’t remember how much time went by, probably a couple of weeks, but I finally received the programmer. I was very disappointed when I first got it. It looked like a portable toy gaming system, no instructions, no nothing with it. I email DM to let them know I got it, and they send me the software for it. I load it up, it won’t connect to my car. Now, I have been in IT for over 10 years. I manage a service desk for a large energy company. I also support several small businesses on the side and I’m basically one of the biggest geeks you’ll meet lol. Hell my screenname is DrTechy lol! Anyway, back on topic, DM asks me to try a couple of things, nothing works. At this point I think we’re about a month into this saga. And yet again, I shrug off the issues and wait for DM to get back to me. They ask me to export a log from the programmer software to help them figure out why the programmer wouldn’t connect. I send it to them, and then I don’t hear from them. Shrugged it off again figuring they’re just researching the issue.
In the midst of all this, I’m running smoke tests on the intake and exhaust side of the motor and continuing to try and troubleshoot the issue from a hardware standpoint. Fixed a few tiny, and I mean tiny, leaks but they made no difference which was verified by the logs.
I’m not sure of the timeline, but I hear back from DM finally and they say the programmer is not compatible with my version of the ECU, so they offer a refund or if I want to wait for a new programmer they are going to work with that will definitely work with my ecu. Being the patient person I am, and since I’ve been hunting the issue down for so long and spent thousands doing so at this point, I say no worries on the refund, I rather get this fixed. So I wait…again!
I don’t even know how much time goes by, but probably 2-3 more months of not hearing anything and waiting. I was going to post all my emails back and forth so everyone can see exactly how much time and how many times I was ignored, but that’s a lot of work to put all that together. I figure it’s not really necessary at this point. However, If someone starts to doubt me, then I’ll publish them.
I finally hear back from DM, they say they are ordering a new version of the programmer from Italy for these new ECU’s and as soon as they receive them they’ll be able to get new files to me to test with. I think great, my patience is paying off and I’ll finally get something going here!. More time goes by and...... nothing. I remained patient, not once did I get nasty towards DM or anything. I even had a friend going through the same thing in NYC with DM, and I was trying to make excuses for them so he wouldn’t give up.
Several weeks go by and still no new programmer. I just keep getting ignored. At this point I have only a 93 octane file on my ecu, and I have to start traveling west for work where there is no 93 octane fuel, only 91. I explain this to DM several times in an email but I simply get ignored. One of my friends mentions that the knock sensor will pull timing if the fuel isn’t up to 93 octane and it will be fine. While I did know this, I didn’t want to take the chance. But since I had no word from DM, I figured I’d email one more time and ask them about the knock sensor or even using octane boost. They respond almost immediately to tell me that the octane boost or even letting the knock sensor detect it will be fine. Now I’m pissed, because I finally realize it’s not that they’re busy, they’re just ignoring me.
So time passes yet again, and they email me to say they finally have 2 of the new programmers in hand to test so it should only be about a week before they ship one to me. Time passes and no word. My great amount of patience is wearing thin, but trying to be the better person I even wait another week past the original week he told me before emailing again. Yup still email because they ignore my emails asking for a phone number of some sort. I’m ignored YET again. Now I email them to let them know I’ll be at SoWo and if they’ll be there they can work on the car there. At this point we’re 5 months into this saga. Again, almost an immediate response, oh yea we’ll be at sowo. We’ll take care of you there, this way we’ll have all of our equipment, blah blah blah. Ok fine, my great patience kicks in again and I figure no issue, I’ll meet them at SoWo and they’ll work on the car in person. Great!
During all this time I never really pushed the car that hard, but I had organized a dyno day for our local VW club. So I of course dyno’d the car. GREAT results! 258whp and 305wtq. At this point I’m feeling great, the rev hang issue and lack of programmer will be handled at SoWo and all will be good…Until I ask them to do a pull in 4th gear. They hit 120mph and no further, the dam governor was still on the tune. I email them and they say they’ll take care of it at SoWo, again I figure just be patient and all will be taken care of at SoWo!
So I get to SoWo! 3rd year in a row for me so I’m pumped! Start talking to some people and actually find another person with a big turbo TSI who is supposed to meet with DM at SoWo too to fix his tune. We start talking, along with a couple of other people who used DM, and they didn’t have very good things to say! I was in shock, I started asking them why they didn’t post up any of this info to warn others. They said they didn’t really want to bash anyone, and I understand that. But it would be nice if some people would have spoken up about their issues with DM, it may have prevented me from going through all this.
This saga started with a friend of mine posting a thread on golfmk6 in regards to the rev hang issues I have been having with my 2012 Stage 2 Beetle. I had been troubleshooting and researching the problem for about 6 months prior to the thread being posted. Received the usual internet responses, it’s normal, ignore it, etc, then suddenly Driver Motorsport posts up saying that their software can eliminate it. Then I pm’d them with some questions, and they asked if I would be interested in doing a review for them as well on golfmk6 since they hadn’t had much exposure there. So I thought my prayers had been answered. I did some research about them online, found a bunch of satisfied customers, so I figured I’d give them a shot. They even said that “all their other beetle customers have been satisfied.” Little did I know this was a typical sales pitch as they hadn’t tuned any 2012+ beetles yet.
Forgive me if the timeline doesn’t add up perfectly, this has been an ongoing saga for 6 months so I don’t have all the dates spot on so I’ll be general about it.
On January 31st 2014 I made my payment to Driver Motorsport. Since they weren’t close to me I had to ship my ecu to them. Since it is my only car, I had to rent a vehicle while my ecu was in transit back and forth. No big deal I thought, I’ll ship it overnight, they’ll flash it, and ship it back to me overnight. Here’s the first sign something was wrong. They practically beg me to ship via UPS instead of any other carriers because they’ve had problems with them. Again it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, so I spent $105.00 for packaging and shipping overnight to them. They received it, and started working on it. Apparently they ran into some issues because it was an ECU (MED17.5.2) that they hadn’t tuned before. So it took them an extra day. Again, I figured nothing to be worried about, it is fairly new and APR went through the same thing when I first got my car to get it tuned. After the extra day they said it was all ready to go and they shipped it out. BUT, they shipped in a padded envelope via USPS priority mail. Since they didn’t ship it overnight, even though they said they would, I ended up having to pay for a rental car for an additional 2 days. Again, I shrug it off, no big deal, the ecu was in one piece and the car started right up.
So I go for a test drive, and everything seems normal except almost immediately I notice I still have rev hang. I shrug it off and continue with my test drive. First thing I notice that I like is the linear throttle. I have to admit that it is a nice feature and definitely makes you feel a bit more connected to exactly how the motor is running. The power seems a little off from my APR stage 2 tune, but I knew it would feel different. I try to ignore the occasionally rev hang for now since I’m assuming the ECU needs more time to adapt anyway.
I drive 100 miles a day ROUND TRIP just for work, but I did give it a while before I went back to DM (Driver Motorsport, I’ll use the acronym for the rest of this lol) to say that the rev hang delete didn’t work. In any case, I email DM (because they wouldn’t give me a phone number, which should have been a clue) and explain that the rev hang is still present. Here’s where I start to notice something isn’t right, I don’t get a response for a couple of days. I know people are busy, but when I wanted to buy his tune they were responding immediately, but when I have problems suddenly they are too busy? But I shrug that off anyway. They ask me to run a couple of logs, so I do, but the logs they asked me to run were at WOT only. I was a bit confused, but again figured they know what they’re doing so I’ll just do it. After sending the logs they respond saying that everything looks good and they were just checking to make sure the software got flashed properly. I ignore it, and they mention that once I get the programmer they will try a couple of things with some new files. So I wait.
I honestly can’t remember how much time went by, probably a couple of weeks, but I finally received the programmer. I was very disappointed when I first got it. It looked like a portable toy gaming system, no instructions, no nothing with it. I email DM to let them know I got it, and they send me the software for it. I load it up, it won’t connect to my car. Now, I have been in IT for over 10 years. I manage a service desk for a large energy company. I also support several small businesses on the side and I’m basically one of the biggest geeks you’ll meet lol. Hell my screenname is DrTechy lol! Anyway, back on topic, DM asks me to try a couple of things, nothing works. At this point I think we’re about a month into this saga. And yet again, I shrug off the issues and wait for DM to get back to me. They ask me to export a log from the programmer software to help them figure out why the programmer wouldn’t connect. I send it to them, and then I don’t hear from them. Shrugged it off again figuring they’re just researching the issue.
In the midst of all this, I’m running smoke tests on the intake and exhaust side of the motor and continuing to try and troubleshoot the issue from a hardware standpoint. Fixed a few tiny, and I mean tiny, leaks but they made no difference which was verified by the logs.
I’m not sure of the timeline, but I hear back from DM finally and they say the programmer is not compatible with my version of the ECU, so they offer a refund or if I want to wait for a new programmer they are going to work with that will definitely work with my ecu. Being the patient person I am, and since I’ve been hunting the issue down for so long and spent thousands doing so at this point, I say no worries on the refund, I rather get this fixed. So I wait…again!
I don’t even know how much time goes by, but probably 2-3 more months of not hearing anything and waiting. I was going to post all my emails back and forth so everyone can see exactly how much time and how many times I was ignored, but that’s a lot of work to put all that together. I figure it’s not really necessary at this point. However, If someone starts to doubt me, then I’ll publish them.
I finally hear back from DM, they say they are ordering a new version of the programmer from Italy for these new ECU’s and as soon as they receive them they’ll be able to get new files to me to test with. I think great, my patience is paying off and I’ll finally get something going here!. More time goes by and...... nothing. I remained patient, not once did I get nasty towards DM or anything. I even had a friend going through the same thing in NYC with DM, and I was trying to make excuses for them so he wouldn’t give up.
Several weeks go by and still no new programmer. I just keep getting ignored. At this point I have only a 93 octane file on my ecu, and I have to start traveling west for work where there is no 93 octane fuel, only 91. I explain this to DM several times in an email but I simply get ignored. One of my friends mentions that the knock sensor will pull timing if the fuel isn’t up to 93 octane and it will be fine. While I did know this, I didn’t want to take the chance. But since I had no word from DM, I figured I’d email one more time and ask them about the knock sensor or even using octane boost. They respond almost immediately to tell me that the octane boost or even letting the knock sensor detect it will be fine. Now I’m pissed, because I finally realize it’s not that they’re busy, they’re just ignoring me.
So time passes yet again, and they email me to say they finally have 2 of the new programmers in hand to test so it should only be about a week before they ship one to me. Time passes and no word. My great amount of patience is wearing thin, but trying to be the better person I even wait another week past the original week he told me before emailing again. Yup still email because they ignore my emails asking for a phone number of some sort. I’m ignored YET again. Now I email them to let them know I’ll be at SoWo and if they’ll be there they can work on the car there. At this point we’re 5 months into this saga. Again, almost an immediate response, oh yea we’ll be at sowo. We’ll take care of you there, this way we’ll have all of our equipment, blah blah blah. Ok fine, my great patience kicks in again and I figure no issue, I’ll meet them at SoWo and they’ll work on the car in person. Great!
During all this time I never really pushed the car that hard, but I had organized a dyno day for our local VW club. So I of course dyno’d the car. GREAT results! 258whp and 305wtq. At this point I’m feeling great, the rev hang issue and lack of programmer will be handled at SoWo and all will be good…Until I ask them to do a pull in 4th gear. They hit 120mph and no further, the dam governor was still on the tune. I email them and they say they’ll take care of it at SoWo, again I figure just be patient and all will be taken care of at SoWo!
So I get to SoWo! 3rd year in a row for me so I’m pumped! Start talking to some people and actually find another person with a big turbo TSI who is supposed to meet with DM at SoWo too to fix his tune. We start talking, along with a couple of other people who used DM, and they didn’t have very good things to say! I was in shock, I started asking them why they didn’t post up any of this info to warn others. They said they didn’t really want to bash anyone, and I understand that. But it would be nice if some people would have spoken up about their issues with DM, it may have prevented me from going through all this.
