Good morning everyone.
I'm a new member. Not completely new to working with the cars. Have had Miata for the past 12 years and still have it. Now, added Sportwagen TDI 2015 after a trip to Europe where the 1.6T diesel Juke impressed me beyond capability to describe it. After buying a VW with 2.0L turbo engine I noticed that it is not nearly as powerful of agile as 1.6TD Juke that I drove in Portugal. I presume it is a matter of how these diesel engines are tuned.
But I'm new to diesels and turbos.
Have read most of the applicable in FAQ.
My 2015 TDI was bought in 2019, so all the emission software patches were installed by dealer. No other modifications.
I am planning to use it as daily driving, tow bike racks with 3 bikes (+1 on the roof) every weekend and once or twice a year tow a utility trailer with some stuff for my backyard. Maybe adding a trailer with a light bassboat later. In case if this information is relevant to what I'm about to ask.
I found two tuning companies, KermaTDI and Malone and read from their website about the tuning they offer. Deciding part is difficult to me because I canot understand how different these tunes are.
The factors that drive me towards Kerma is that they claim pretty hefty increase in performance, increase in fuel economy on a highway and free retunes. The factors that drive me away are not significant, but only if I add a word "today". I am not planning to replace the stock turbo, knowing that there will be very little gain in performance. My biggest concern is that at some point in the future, the stock turbo will need to be replaced due to wear and I do not wat to find myself in the situation that my replacement options are only those that KermaTDI carries in their stock at that moment. For example, I might prefer Borg Warner turbine, but they would only carry Garrett at that moment. If I buy what I want, Kerma will charge me another fee for retune, while they would not charge If I bought Garett from them. This is just my understanding, after talking to their rep on the phone last week. The way the conversation went with the rep also did not sway my towards Kerma. I do not like getting a sales pitch when asked a particular technical question.
The factors that I like about Malone are: they seemed to be chose more often (sorry if I draw a wrong conclusion), their power increase numbers are not contested anywhere on this forum, while being numerically smaller than Kerma's numbers (not the same with Kerma). They are not making me marry a particular turbo brand. What I don't like is that their initial total expense will be higher (due to me needing to get the Flashzilla device, not a big deal), the fact that they do not specifically place accent on reducing fuel consumption on the freeway.
Can you please point to me where I am making the mistakes in my assumptions and what am I seeing wrong? Right now, while my turbo is working fine, I'm leaning towards Kerma, just because they are saying more clearly what I want to hear. I would appreciate a good advice here.
I'm a new member. Not completely new to working with the cars. Have had Miata for the past 12 years and still have it. Now, added Sportwagen TDI 2015 after a trip to Europe where the 1.6T diesel Juke impressed me beyond capability to describe it. After buying a VW with 2.0L turbo engine I noticed that it is not nearly as powerful of agile as 1.6TD Juke that I drove in Portugal. I presume it is a matter of how these diesel engines are tuned.
But I'm new to diesels and turbos.
Have read most of the applicable in FAQ.
My 2015 TDI was bought in 2019, so all the emission software patches were installed by dealer. No other modifications.
I am planning to use it as daily driving, tow bike racks with 3 bikes (+1 on the roof) every weekend and once or twice a year tow a utility trailer with some stuff for my backyard. Maybe adding a trailer with a light bassboat later. In case if this information is relevant to what I'm about to ask.
I found two tuning companies, KermaTDI and Malone and read from their website about the tuning they offer. Deciding part is difficult to me because I canot understand how different these tunes are.
The factors that drive me towards Kerma is that they claim pretty hefty increase in performance, increase in fuel economy on a highway and free retunes. The factors that drive me away are not significant, but only if I add a word "today". I am not planning to replace the stock turbo, knowing that there will be very little gain in performance. My biggest concern is that at some point in the future, the stock turbo will need to be replaced due to wear and I do not wat to find myself in the situation that my replacement options are only those that KermaTDI carries in their stock at that moment. For example, I might prefer Borg Warner turbine, but they would only carry Garrett at that moment. If I buy what I want, Kerma will charge me another fee for retune, while they would not charge If I bought Garett from them. This is just my understanding, after talking to their rep on the phone last week. The way the conversation went with the rep also did not sway my towards Kerma. I do not like getting a sales pitch when asked a particular technical question.
The factors that I like about Malone are: they seemed to be chose more often (sorry if I draw a wrong conclusion), their power increase numbers are not contested anywhere on this forum, while being numerically smaller than Kerma's numbers (not the same with Kerma). They are not making me marry a particular turbo brand. What I don't like is that their initial total expense will be higher (due to me needing to get the Flashzilla device, not a big deal), the fact that they do not specifically place accent on reducing fuel consumption on the freeway.
Can you please point to me where I am making the mistakes in my assumptions and what am I seeing wrong? Right now, while my turbo is working fine, I'm leaning towards Kerma, just because they are saying more clearly what I want to hear. I would appreciate a good advice here.