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Hesitation towards getting a stage 1 tune

Scumby

Scumby

Passed Driver's Ed
If you drive 100 miles a day (like me), your warranty will be up before you know it. Be sure to get in writing that you don't have to pay everytime you get reflashed. I've had to go back a few times, and the tuner shop guys try to give me b.s. everytime and say I should pay them $50.00 to reflash what I've already paid for.
 
FL_GTI

FL_GTI

Ready to race!
Scumby said:
If you drive 100 miles a day (like me), your warranty will be up before you know it. Be sure to get in writing that you don't have to pay everytime you get reflashed. I've had to go back a few times, and the tuner shop guys try to give me b.s. everytime and say I should pay them $50.00 to reflash what I've already paid for.
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What shop did you go with?? USP
 
iwannagofast

iwannagofast

Not a Newbie
I'm married and have a mortgage and i'm going to go against what most people are saying. If you don't have the spare cash, then stay stock. 99% of the people on here that have a tune probably haven't had a problem including myself. I was stage 1 and stage 2 for over 50k miles before I went K04. When I bought the K04 kit, I made sure I had leftover money for a new clutch "just in case" my stock one went bad, which it did after 4k miles.

Now the 99% of the people that had nothing go wrong is fine, but that 1% that has had problems had to pay to get whatever fixed that broke. A great saying when it comes to VW's is "you gotta pay to play" and if you are worried about shelling out another $1,700 for a new clutch and install just in case you belong to that 1% then just stay stock. When you get more cash flow, then get tuned and have peace of mind. But for now, with limited cash flow, have peace of mind and stay stock.
 
veedoubleme

veedoubleme

Go Kart Champion
ssjneko1 said:
I'm married and have a mortgage and i'm going to go against what most people are saying. If you don't have the spare cash, then stay stock. 99% of the people on here that have a tune probably haven't had a problem including myself. I was stage 1 and stage 2 for over 50k miles before I went K04. When I bought the K04 kit, I made sure I had leftover money for a new clutch "just in case" my stock one went bad, which it did after 4k miles.

Now the 99% of the people that had nothing go wrong is fine, but that 1% that has had problems had to pay to get whatever fixed that broke. A great saying when it comes to VW's is "you gotta pay to play" and if you are worried about shelling out another $1,700 for a new clutch and install just in case you belong to that 1% then just stay stock. When you get more cash flow, then get tuned and have peace of mind. But for now, with limited cash flow, have peace of mind and stay stock.
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From a responsibility perspective, this is very good advice. :thumbsup:
 
99bajakid

99bajakid

Ready to race!
Tim S said:
OP: Let me make this easier for you by asking a couple of questions:

1) What does your gut tell you to do? (Buy or Not Buy?)
2) Judging from your past, should you trust your gut decisions? Or have your gut decisions in the past been bad choices?

Given that, your decsion on whether or not to go Stage 1 should be pretty easy.

It's easy to over-think things.
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:mad0259:

my wants do not match what my gut tells me.. :(


Cryptic1911 said:
Quit being a sally and get it done. Nothing is going to blow up, the motor will be fine, and the dealer can't really do anything about it

I've been programmed since the car was at 1100 miles. I'd have gone straight from the dealer to get it done, but the TSI software wasn't out yet. I went and got it literally the morning it was available
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let me reiterate, i'm not worried about the actual tune at all, i have full confidence in APR.
 
xytbyk

xytbyk

Go Kart Champion
240 times around the earth. Assuming those were mostly highway miles, the 2 extra mpg they say you get with a tune saved him 14,000 gallons of gas!
 
99bajakid

99bajakid

Ready to race!
He must really love his GTI, i've heard its a "drivers car" but that's ridiculous.
 
Rotaryknight

Rotaryknight

Go Kart Champion
Do your research about the tuning shops near you. Obviously it's not the tune you seem to be worried about but the person or shop doing the labor. I'm not sure what shops you have in AZ but if you email APR I'm sure they will give you a shop that they recommend.

Problems always happen and we mostly hear when there are problems on the forum. It's like an airline crash. When it happens it's terrible but no one talks about all the flights per day that have gone on and on.

Find a good shop and feel comfortable with them and you will be good.

I personally had and issue with my ECU when I had it flashed. But I never really talk about it because the shop that did the flash went what I consider above and beyond to make things work.

This was also 1000 miles after I bought my car. I haven't stopped since. I'm now at about 22k miles under a year old and already K04. The tune is great the car can handle more. Just find that shop where you feel comfortable at.
 
99bajakid

99bajakid

Ready to race!
:( damn, i guess i cant communicate correctly. lol doing this at work and not being able to put the time into my words is creating confusion. I'm not worried about the tune, nor the shop removing the ECU, i'm just worried about the possibility of a warranty issue arising and the dealer refusing to grant the work under warranty due to the tune.

I know they "have" to prove that the tune caused the problem, but from my experience dealers will find any way out of providing warranty work... my apprehension comes from there being a easy scapegoat for the dealer to blame the problem on.
 
GTIMKV20

GTIMKV20

APR Stage I
If you are this worried, just drive it stock until you hit the warranty expiration then you'll have nothing holding you back.

As many others have stated though, the engine can handle much more than the stock power output and the majority of warranty claims are other random things like A/C, bushings, radios, etc. that are still covered.

If you are still undecided... I vote don't get it.
 
McQueen77

McQueen77

Banned
its a just a basic gamble with pretty low odds that something big will go wrong while under warranty and having the tune. things happen to people with tune all the time that have a TSB out on them and dealer replaces for free. Something major though, like HPFP or something and they may screw you.
 
99bajakid

99bajakid

Ready to race!
DSGVW said:
If you are this worried, just drive it stock until you hit the warranty expiration then you'll have nothing holding you back.

As many others have stated though, the engine can handle much more than the stock power output and the majority of warranty claims are other random things like A/C, bushings, radios, etc. that are still covered.

If you are still undecided... I vote don't get it.
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I probably will, once i can afford both the tune and a more efficient intercooler (need one out here)
 
Rotaryknight

Rotaryknight

Go Kart Champion
Ooops sorry about that.

At stage 1 and even K04 I've taken my car back for TSB with no hitch. I haven't needed any serious warranty work yet. But I'm up front with my service rep. It's sorta hard for me to hide my mods now.

He's even told me as long as it's not something I replaced warranty work is not an issue.
 
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