Newbie with APR questions

General Discussion
#1

Hey guys. I stumbled upon this forum after doing some reading on vortex. I was a VW mk4 owner for several years, fell out of the scene, and just picked up a new to me Audi A3. Previously, my mk4 had an APR software flash, and I loved it. Pretty mild but no complaints. Now that I’m back in a VAG product, I new I wanted a software upgrade and so naturally APR was my first choice, I’ve actually been thinking of going straight to stage 2.

Anyway, after some reading, it seems there have been many complaints about their latest software offerings from some GTI guys. That alone made me a bit leery. But, after digging, I found some pretty incredible discussions regarding APR around the time of their acquisition by Mangrove. I got the impression that the place has been falling apart at the seams, and I was more than put off by the actions of some of their employees (Arin in particular, who I’ve seen in other forums), and disturbed by the stories of their business practices.

I know all companies have their own internal culture, no one is perfect, and as a customer, that doesn’t always affect me. But… as someone who is doing stage 2 with a DP and intake at the most, how concerned should I be? I don’t care what the employees do in their private time, but if I get a flash that doesn’t work right, can’t get support from APR, because they’re jerking each other around on Facebook, or wherever, maybe it’s time to look at the numerous other tuners out there?

Sad because I used to be a big fan of APR and back in the day sung their praises.

#2

I dont know much about the GTI or A3 stuff so I dont have too much to offer there.

obviously the next biggest company would be GIAC to look at.

As for APR they were pretty bad for a while. They lost there older better tuners that put out solid safe tunes. There current tuner was pretty terrible for a while. He tuned the cars and talked about the cars like they were all hondas and evos like the cars he had tuned before coming to APR. Several blown motors later and a ton of drama along with some other tuners brought in by APR it seems like things have cooled down and look more under control. After a long string of what looked to be unsafe tunes the current trend looks more safe and closer to solid.

I have always been a fan of APR as well. I think it should be a solid choice again for the A3. I wouldnt recomend them for every platform but The smaller motor stuff was always there bread and butter. But if they are not getting good reviews from the GTI guys currently that might not be a good sign as the A3 is in line with the GTI as far as motor and parts are concerned as far as I know.

Welcome to the forum and let us know what way you go. I think we have an A3 section on here. Feel free to post your thoughts in there after you make your choice

#3

I personally would steer clear from them and will do so going forward with any other vehicle i buy. It seems every few months something new comes out about them. Just two days Jeff Atwood at United Motorsports had a customer come in with a DSG flash (DSG was slipping) and he went to take a look at the tune. Low and behold APR had stolen his files and tried to rewrite them to “make” them their own. They couldn’t even do that right. lol.

I just don’t trust a single person there. Too many issues and company lost its core value. I would look elsewhere. I’ve heard good things about GIAC, United Motorsports and Integrated Engineering. Integrated Engineering stuff is amazing. They are also great to deal with. Good Luck

#4

Thanks, and yeah, also looking at Giac or Unitronic. So far loving the A3 but it will need a power upgrade at some point.

#5

post more about this, or link to it if you can

#6

I have APR Stage 1 ECU and TCU software on my MK7 GTI. Very happy with it.

#7

I’ve read the latest version that came out this week seems to be better.

#8

Its from the VW forums R32 or Golf R i believe. i have a few pics snapped from it but ill see if my Golf buddies can send over better screenshots and then ill post them up.

#9

Arin thought it would be funny to send a screenshot of Jeff Atwood texting him on the Facebook. However, it backfired.


http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g241/ifryrice/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2016-12-11-20-25-58.png

Now you can see people responding and Jeff answering.


http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g241/ifryrice/download_20161205_111705.png


http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g241/ifryrice/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2016-12-11-20-28-23.png

And of course i had to make mention of it on the Zoo. lol wonder how long until my post is deleted.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/740185-APR-Software-Sale-Dec-12th-to-Jan-7th?p=12067719&posted=1#post12067719

#10

Not properly worded.

Try ‘are these the same tunes Jeff Atwood at United Motorsports alleges you stole part of the coding from him?’

Then post a screenshot like you did here.

The way you wrote it you’re making an assertion without evidence. Just one tunervs word against another. It’s easy to discredit a tuner by saying they stole.

The other side of it is…why is Jeff Atwood digging around in an Apr file? That in itself is damning. Makes it look like HE is the thief.

So calling attention to the Atwood post is more valuable. In my opinion.

#11

I have to agree with sakimano. Jeff looks like more of the thief then APR would be here. He casually is admitting that he looks at other peoples work and Im sure jeff never uses anything he finds in looking at everyone elses work. ::slight_smile:

So you take a step back and think about it like this. Jeff steals from other people as he admitted. So you would be taking a addmitted thiefs word for what another company was doing. Hes already on a platform of dishonest actions kinda makes it hard to believe his claim is fully true.

I obviously dont know all of the information on what happened but from that perspective it looks worse for Jeff then it does for APR

#12

Jeff said a customer came in with a slipping dsg and the customer asked him to take a look at it. Jeff has been a pretty competent tuner for a number of years. He writes the United Motorsports tunes and also tunes Iroz Motorsports kits as well. I have no reason to believe he would be stealing anything from APR.

#13

point is it just doesn’t look good for someone who is paying close attention. It doesn’t look like you are.

Frankly I’ve seen customers with bad tunes or car problems go to good tuners and the good tuners tell them FIRST to have a mechanic look at the car to ensure there’s no mechanical problems and to ensure maintenance is up to date…and THEN if they want they will sell them their own software. At no point would they dig into the existing software to see what they’re doing. Why would they do that…what…they’re going to ‘fix’ the other guys’ software? No. Jeff’s excuse is bullshit. No high quality tuner (which you’ve painted Jeff to be) gives a flying fuck what his competition is doing, because he’s better than them. You’re not going to waste your time to see what second or third place is doing. WHo gives a fuck. Unless you’re second or third place and are too lazy to become number one and you want to see what first place is doing.

If you want to kick Arin in the nuts, ask Arin to address Jeff’s allegations. Don’t make your own allegations because you just look a bit naive in believing Jeff whole heartedly.

#14

Yeah the first thing that came to mind for me was why was Jeff looking at the software in the first place. APRs DSG software increases the clamping pressure, so if it is slipping there is likely a mechanical problem. Not a software issue.

If it was a software issue than everyone with that flash would be having a slipping issues.