I think you have to consider your potential upgrade paths before committing to a tuner. You dont want to be in a place where you catch yourself thinking you might need to switch tuners and dish out another 2,000$ just because you want to go a different route with your car.

I have been using EPL for 2 years and they have supported 4 different power setups for me from 580whp to 800whp for an overall positive experience.

 

I ultimately chose EPL (but it was a very hard decision since there are a lot of happy UMW customers). Customer service has been excellent from EPL. They have even offered to update my tune for free when I inquired about a cat-less exhaust upgrade since the O2 sensor would trigger a CEL without cats. With UMW, if you didn't buy the data logger or flash loader, you would have to rent the flash loader or upgrade to a data logger in order to update your flash or revert back to stock file.

Overall, costs was a big factor for me. On the other hand, if I didn't already have Durametric and I was willing to spend the extra few hundred dollars for the data logger, I would have gone with UMW.

Moving up in price, GIAC or APR would've been nice since they offer options to switch from stock, flashed, race and valet modes on the fly. I know most of us would never allow valet to touch our cars, but imagine being able to turn boost to 0 (without a laptop) when you have to hand over the keys to a stranger.

FWIW, my car was bone stock when I flashed and recently, I found an used Agency Power exhaust system with 200 cell cats. I have no further plans for power upgrades. My car will probably never see the track and I put on at most 3K miles a year.

 

+1 also of great importance to me is customer service. Who will respond in a timely manner to your needs. Even though we tend to think we'll never have a problem, it'll be the other guy, we all know better.

 

This was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

I will also say that in theory, flashing it would be the only upgrade I'm going to do to the turbos, but potential for future upgrades is a really good point. Thanks everyone for the opinions here!

 

I went from EPL to PROTOMOTIVE on my k24/18 set up..Even though I had to pay for a new tune it was worth it because I got better throttle response,better mileage and a little more power especially in the higher RPMS.

 

A couple people who had "other' tunes test drove my car and changed to EPL...and are very happy. My 18g car ran VERY well for the mods it had.
I think it has a LOT to do with your car and driving habits...AND service.

 

I have Evomsit. I haven't driven any other cars with different tuning but for me it came down to the fact that Sharkwerks is local to me which is huge if anything goes wrong (nothing has yet knock on wood) and Sharkwerks has an excellent reputation and staff. Price was more than some of the other tunes out there but i also get 100% credit for my previous tune when upgrading to a new tune. Took advantage of that when i got my europipe exhaust and got a little tune upgrade for free. Those kind of factors are more important to me than who has the better basic k16 tune. They are all pretty close I'm sure.

 

I have had FVD, Protomotive (softronic) and EPL. My EPL tune is the best I have had...the throttle response and turbo spool up is stunning!

 

Hey John, Are you saying Protomotive and Softronics are the same??
Protomotive gets his flash cords/data plugs from Softronics only..
Arent you an EPL Dealer??
I know my car ran better on the road and the dyno with less boost from the Protomotive tune Todd did for my car...

 

Hi John,

In answer to your questions:

When I had my Protomotive tune, I had to deal with Todd and then Scott from Softronic. The tune was supplied by Softronic to me. I was told at the time that they worked together to provide tunes, that's all...so no, I am not saying they are the same company, I think everybody knows they are separate entities.

Yes, I sell EPL tunes on occasion, but that has nothing to do with why I changed from Protomotive to EPL and it was well prior to selling EPL tunes. Nor do I have an "agenda" as you seem to be hinting. I changed because I had drivability problems with my Protomotive tune and did not care for the nature of the Ford MAF (I am not the only one to feel this way). Tony at EPL did a great job dialing in my car and that is valuable information for the community as a whole. I have a great deal of respect for Tony's tuning talents...he brought many "firsts" to 996TT tuning, which demonstrates his tuning prowess.

I am glad you are happy with your current tune, as am I with mine. I happened to have the polar opposite experience as you with regard to tunes and suppliers. My car made more power with better drivability when I switched from the Protomotive/softronic tune to the EPL tune - same day, same dyno...

In closing, frankly, after seeing your post above, I thought I should share my positive personal experience with EPL, after your negative comments, that's all.

 

Epl.....performance w/o compromise!

 

Kevin @ UMW. + 1

 

John,Whats negative?? I expressed my FACTUAL comparison of those 2 different tunes on my car and gave the feed back of my results, as comparisons between tuners were posted before mine....Mine was Back to Back with same equipment.
I am Glad you car runs the best with your EPL tune..Sorry to hear about your
Protomotive tune..But didnt you change things after his tune??
I wish mine did to with EPL,it would have saved me alot of money and time,Unfortunately mine didnt until after Protomotive retuned it.
We all have our favorite tuners for WHATEVER reasons..We all share good info on here but some have a problem with that..

 

Hi John,

Yes, I got rid of the blow thru set-up and the Ford MAF and went back to a Bosch OEM MAF based tune and OEM style intake. My car performed much better that way.

Anyhow, it seemed to me that your post had a negative connotation towards EPL, maybe I misread it, but I am not here to discuss that - this thread is about EPL vs. UMW tunes and my primary purpose here was to say that I have an EPL tune and it's fantastic. Maybe it will help the OP reach a decision. IMO, Tony puts out a fantastic tune!

 

I also have the epl tune now for two years. I can't compare as it is the only tune I have had on the car. I can say, it has been flawless and my mechanic with many years experience has complimented how well it runs. Tied with the speedtech 3.0 exhaust, I'm pleased daily! I'm finally getting the suspension setup next week.