I've been looking at getting a tune for my 997.1 TT, and I'm finding the prices are, well, high.

It seems to be a case of expensive car, rube willing to pay more. I've bought high-end tunes for my 335i TT for <$1200. It seems I'm looking at double that for some odd reason on a 997.1TT. Are there any tuning outfits that are not out to take advantage of us? I mean, let's be honest. They did the work once, and now are selling the same tune over and over for thousands.

 

Im getting front seats for this one.

 

I'm not being cantankerous, I just cannot comprehend the price difference for a tune on a BMW 335i TT vs a Porsche 997 TT. I spoke to a buddy of mine that owns a performance shop, and his answer was effectively "your porsche is expensive, you can afford to pay more". When pressed on any technological differences that would warrant double+ the price he stated that there were none. It seems to be a case of "errr, that tune will be twel... errr I mean twenty-four hundred dollars..."

 

yeah ofcourse theres porsche tax.... but you own a 997 TT, and your *****ing about the price of a tune ?

you know how the the game works..

and lastly , the tune is the LAST thing you should be looking to skimp on...

 

How many 335i's are out there you think? How many 997 TTs? You can get software for some import cars for a few hundred. How many of those are out there?

If you spent 6 months developing something for an audience of 10000, how much would you charge for it per unit? What if the audience was 10?

Time is time. These tuners have to recoup R&D costs. The cost then goes to the people who buy. And if there aren't enough of them... well. It's not always about gouging. These guys did hard work and they need to cover their investment.

For the same reason, I'm really bothered by people who pirate software. In the end, your argument is no different to the excuse given by folks who pirate software. Just sayin

 

I work in the software industry. Please do not compare my suspicion of a severe form of "Porsche tax" to copyright infringement of software. They are simply not comparable.

What I was looking for was either:

"yeah, it's porsche tax bull****, but hey, that's the price" or

"actually, you can get an excellent 997TT tune for less money from x" or

"the reason for the 2x+ price delta is that the 997TT has some factor(s) that add considerable complexity to the tune warranting the additional money".

It seems the answer is the first one.

 

yes it is .... another thing that is important is the customer service/support of your tuner... when you have questions or issues and you shoot them an email... they get back to you... over and over and over again... that right there is priceless.

give protomotive a call... Todd is the man..a porsche tuning wizard.

 

Yeah, so do I. And I hear the "you guys wrote it once, and you sell those bits over and over for thousands" argument many times. The same reason that argument does not work (the cost of R&D it took to produce the software) also applies here.

The way it gets cheaper is if there is volume.. or it was copied. The latter happens all the time in terms of tunes for cars. Heard of multiple cases of this happening with BMWs (I have an E60 M5).

 

Ok. I'm going to leave this alone, as I'm getting offended.

 

I apologize if you're offended. Didn't mean to offend that's why I had a smiley face up there in my first response. My pirate/copy comments were not meant to suggest you do such things if you took them that way. I was just providing an example of my personal opinion. Again, I apologize if I offended you in anyway.

 

"What I was looking for was either:
"yeah, it's porsche tax****, but hey, that's the price" or
"actually, you can get an excellent 997tt tune for less money from x".....

Why are you so insistent on ignoring the very basic, very true, very hard facts outlined above by Zero911 concerning economies of scale? The rest of us were taught these no later than ninth grade.

Your attitude is clearly that all companies in the Porsche aftermarket are arrogant, greedy pigs, and their customers (us) are, as you write, "rubes". Wow, we're all RUBES!! But it's going to be okay, because you're here to save us from our gullible ol' selves. Rubes! Does that get us a group discount or anything? Probably not, huh?

 

Let's be honest here. I'm well aware of the "economies of scale", but I'm also aware of basic human nature. Do you truly feel that the former fully explains the cost of aftermarket tuning software for a Porsche? Do you truly feel it explains the high cost of many things in the high end car world? Or do you think *maybe* the latter is a significant factor?

I'm a free market guy, I understand that the economy, even a micro one, will adjust to what people are willing to pay. That's fine. But take one look at multi-thousand dollar airdams for our cars, or $2300 ECU software and tell me that it's just economies of scale. I'm not just in software, I'm also in sales. I just don't eat that food.

Look, the purpose of this post was to enquire as to whether or not $2000+ was the lowest price for a good, stock equipment tune. I also floated the idea that if that is the lowest price, that there may be some human nature at work. That's it.

 

If the 997TT tuning market was bigger companies like COBB would enter and sell a $1000 AP for our cars, right now its prob only a few 997TT owners that even thinks about tuning and even less that does it.

I had a N54 335i and beemer owners where complaining about the BMW tax as well. Even though you got an COBB AP with unlimited amount of reflashes and maps for less than $900.

But now you get an 335i (in the US at least) for like $20k a 997TT is somewhat more expensive

 

There are probably 500 tuned N54's to every 1 tuned 3.6tt. I have a BMS JB4/DCI on my 335. $500 for instant big gains.

 

I see both sides here and of course it's natural to want the best price for the best tune regardless of how much one paid for the car. Is it realistic, likely not but more human nature IMO.

To the OP, best way to accomplish what you want is to contact the tuner directly. They will work with you in some way, at least that's been my experience. Lots of great people/companies out there.