APR Stage 1 vs Unitronic Stage 1+

[ZuMBLe]

Agreed - seems hit/miss but I've read of plenty of people paying an hour labor for it. Just something for folks doing a line-by-line compro to be aware of.

I think the lesson is to try to shop around for a shop that will do the flash for "free". As someone who as stood next to my car while it was being APR flashed twice, and someone who has flashed my own ECU hundreds of times, there is no magic to this. They will plug in a laptop and and the software will do exactly as it's setup to do. The "tuner" just need to make sure the laptop doesn't go to sleep, or the cable doesn't get unplugged during the flash. Even then, recovery is possible depending on what happened.

 

[tigeo]

I think the lesson is to try to shop around for a shop that will do the flash for "free". As someone who as stood next to my car while it was being APR flashed twice, and someone who has flashed my own ECU hundreds of times, there is no magic to this. They will plug in a laptop and and the software will do exactly as it's setup to do. The "tuner" just need to make sure the laptop doesn't go to sleep, or the cable doesn't get unplugged during the flash. Even then, recovery is possible depending on what happened.

The shop I use for my VWs has flashed my car sevearl times b/c they did the turbo upgrades and are a Uni dealer - they do not charge for flashing if you don't want to buy the cable. When I was looking at tunes, the local APR dealer is a VW dealer and they did have a flash fee.

 

[maxwell]

Time to hit the "regular" Golf forum or the Alltrack/Sportwagen FB group. So much info here. APR vs. Uni - lots of folks on both tunes happy as clams. The differences:

Uni has flash-at home capability. APR is all through dealers.
Uni's Uniconnect+ cable is $150 extra to flash at home and does allow logging. Limits are that you can't download the logs (only can upload to Uni's service for tech support) to use for Datazap but their viewer is good and should allow at-home troubleshooting.
Uni runs more timing advance/less boost vs. APR that is more boost/less timing. What does that mean? Uni will be more sensitive to fuel quality. APR will push the turbo harder.
APR nixed their "stage 2" tune which was the IS12 (stock) turbo add downpipe. APR still supports the upgraded IS20 and 38 tune and has downpipe files for both. This is now called "stage 3". So much bad info out there on this. Unitronic still has a IS12 stage 2 tune. I see this as a non-issue b/c if you are adding a DP presumably to go "FBO bRo" you would be upgrading your turbo anyway...the power add is the DP, not the tune on the 1.8 as far I can tell.
Unitronic can take advantage of a little bit of ethanol (E20-30 depending on tune/hardware) to gain more power b/c of their timing-focused tune.
Both are larger tuners that have substantial R&D on VAG cars.
They both have proven track records on the 1.8 with lots of users on both tuning companies.

What do I run? I've had Unitronic software on my 4Motion DSG Sportwagen since 3K miles after buying new 3 years ago. About 10 mos. with their Stage 1+/Stage 1 TCU tunes. 1 year on the Stage 2 IS20 tune, and now have been on their Stage 2+ IS38/Stage 2 TCU tune (with all the supporting hardware - DP, IC, intake, charge pipes, United Haldex tune, blah blah blah) for the last year. Fantastic software and solid support if you need it. I've dragged it and tracked it. My wagon rips. I've spent time on the road hooning with folks on the corresponding APR IS38 tune in their GSWs/ATs, they are basically the same performance-wise. Pretty hard to argue with my 1/4 mile performance numbers in my signature...I think those sit at the top of the Dragy leaderboad for the wagons over on the "vs." sub-forum if they've updated it recently which of course only means someone with APR hasn't spent the time like I have to get those numbers, I'm sure an APR IS38 in my conditions would be similar.

my response was shortsighted and I made a mistake. @tigeo is accurate here. Apologies.