I know nothing about their experience with the 997TT, or Porsches in general. All I know is how carefully they develop and TEST their maps on multiple vehicles, including a lot of dyno and street tuning, but also track time and other things. On a related note, I've spoken at length with several people in their headquarters, and their Subaru expert (Chris) in particular, and his knowledge of the vehicles, mods, maps, and possible problems is exhaustive. Along the same lines, their customer service is as good as it gets, and IMHO they have the BEST customer service I've ever run into in the car parts/tuning/modding world.

With regards to problems with any 997TT customers, you're always going to hear about the problems much much more than the satisfied customers, so I take that with a grain of salt. The good news with the one person you cited is their car cut out and didn't end up "crispy" or otherwise damaged, which to me again points to the safety of their maps.

As you said, they satisfy a demographic, and again IMHO do it better than anybody else out there. They primarily appeal to the non-expert modder who wants to safely and easily add a tune to his/her car, pull/erase codes, and get other basic info. But they also appeal to guys like me who are experts, but still sometimes just want something simple and easy.

 

Not to start any personal attacks but I wanted to find out why you determined that you are an "expert"....you sent your Turbo to Vivid for upgrades and you couldnt figure out why your truck was overheating....expert???

Somehow I doubt that the EXPERTS like Protomotive, Switzer, Champion etc will be moving to this device especially at that price point because it will SIGNIFICANTLY increase the cost of their tunes to customers.

 

Today some of the above mentioned tuners uses the Durametric cable, I'm sure the software used to create the roms are under some commercial license. I dont see the difference with Cobb, its a different tuning platform, where you pay for the Device and then get OTS maps for free, the only way for tuners to make real money is e-tuning/custom tunes.

The Cobb "eco-system" works fine for other brands like the GT-R, so why not porsches?

 

Xbox, the difference is the durametric costs $287 and liscencing is about $175 to tune vs the $2500 for the Cobb

 

Yes, $2.5k is way overpriced even in Porsche world. But hey, the fool is not the one who asks but the one who pays...
OTH, if the price would be like $1k and they'd sell 20 units vs 5 for $2.5k that'd be win-win for all.

 

Sure, but a $287 cable + $175 fee + $1500-$2500 tune isnt less and the AP gives you logging without a laptop and can be used to monitor live data while driving.

Of course if it was $1k I prefer it, but I cant agree that the current price is any worse then other offerings.

And we just got a big player entering this scene, I think thats great!

 

This is simply not true previously, especially not in the early years of the Subaru's and Mitsubishi's. That said I haven't had a car tuned for years so I wouldn't know how they are now, maybe they are everything and more now, but I don't think the price tag is reasonable. Aren't there some "open" tuners available for the porsche ECU?

 

I paid 1495.00 for my tune by ECU Tuning Group.
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They are vendor sponsor on 6speedonline.

 

Lol........ I know, SO DUMB

 

Yes but 287+175+2000 for a pro tune is still significantly cheaper than 2500 for the AP and then 2000 for a pro tune.

If you are going to tune yourself like some on here have discussed then it is $450 vs $2500.

The small size for datalogging is the only advantage I see and that could be offset by a small tablet pc.

 

So if I get a standard softronic map its 287+175+1500 and if I choose the AP its 2500, so yes its some $600 more if you dont get a better deal on the AP. So $600 still gives me access to maps supporting future mods at no extra cost and adds logging and a boost/timing gauge, everyone chooses for himself but imo its a decent package.

 

Yes I sent my Turbo to someone else to do a lot of work for me. It was a major job that involved dropping the engine and tranny, as well as the entire rear end. I don't have a lift, nor enough friends with the knowledge and free time to help with the multi-person job. I've pulled and installed engines, drivetrains, trannies, etc on several cars in my driveway in the last few years, and a lot of other things in the last 25 years. Many "expert" car guys including many on this forum don't do all of the work themselves, especially on the really big jobs, as well as when they get to the point of having expendable income to pay someone else to do it. And I got a great deal too so it was a no brainer for me, especially since I was only in the country about 40% of the time, and when I was I'm a single dad with two little kids and spent all of my free time with them.

Not a single expert I was referred to at specialist shops, parts sellers, customizing/modifying shops, or anywhere else could tell me how to fix the overheating problem in my truck. I came up with a solution entirely on my own that worked perfectly.

Thank you for your comments, and I welcome any other questions.

 

I see you getting tired of inhaling fumes

 

I have a hard time understanding why people are complaining about the price - is it expensive? yes - is it MORE expensive than other options? no... Something you have to realize is there is significant R&D involved in understanding the ECU, and programming for it - does it use the same HARDWARE as the other accessports, yes - but there is a much much smaller market, which means it's much harder to spread the cost of R&D out over unit costs.

The argument that it should be the same price would be fine if there are just as many 997.1 turbo cars that will buy accessports as GTRs, the argument that it should be the same cost as a 335 accessport is absurd, there are more cars with x35 accessports than there are actual turbo 997.1 cars.

I don't want to spend any more money than necessary either, but consider the exclusivity of the 997.1 turbo car club (by all accounts far less than GTRs) and then estimate how many of those club members will choose to tune their cars, and that is your Total Addressable Market... It's a pretty small set of folks.

-Z

 

What he said ^^^

Also is it just me or is there all of a sudden (like this week) a bunch of new tuning options for us ,did someone crack the 997 tt Davinci code recently or what ? & is that why several of the existing tuners FVD & Softronic to name a few coincidentally all put there tunes on massive markdowns (2 weeks ago )did they know what was coming down the pipe,or am i over thinking this .Either way it's all good for us.