Most of the US tuners have not been around as long as Ruf, so it is tough to show you a US tuner with that type of history, but keep an open mind. Ruf is not the end all of Porsche tuning. As far as mildly tuned 996TT's, like the mainsteam Ruf versions, the US tuners have basically copied what Ruf is doing and are selling it for a lot less. The 996tt cars are very robust, I have 80,000 miles on my 996TT, 75,000 of those miles are significantly modded miles and my car is as reliable as when it was new. It doesn't break down and leave me stranded, blow off hoses or anything else and I drive it 50-100+ miles almost daily, except during winter. Also, the ruf warranty everyone mentions is only on Ruf parts, it does not warranty the engine or transmission, etc. - I know because I asked this question when I was seriously considering a Ruf conversion a few years ago. Take the Ruf exhaust for instance, what does it cost now? something like $7,000.00 and it made the least power of any aftermarket exhaust in the exhaust shootout. IMO, you are paying a lot for the Ruf name and that is fine if you want to, but I feel you can get equal or better performance with equal reliability for less money with a number of US based tuners.

 

They will actually stand by the engine or anything if you can show them their kit somehow damaged it. The RUF exhaust they tested was the 520 exhaust, not the 550 or even fully reworked 590 like I have.

As you said it's not fair to judge US tuners because they haven't been around long enough, which is correct, it's also not fair to put the minute amount of test's done with their kits on the car and say that's all it can do!'

 

I have only one experience with another tuner. It sucked. I am certain that is not a fair assessment of all the tuners. Most mod's actually take away value from a car. Ruf is one that actually adds value. So, if you do 10k in mod's and it is worth 5k less when you sell it, is it worth it?