Whos going to start up the 'mk5gti APR appreciation facebook page?'
I do like APR's attitude to ownership of the map, means that you can buy APR, go try all of the others and then back to APR for a reflash.
If prices were a little more appealing and profit margins were larger for dealers I think they could do well.
Retail is where its at because its quality and we spend more resources on our development than most.
Margin is where it is because our retail price is our real price. You wouldn't be able to participate in price wars across the UK in order to win business away from other APR dealers.
We believe in a local support philosophy where pricing is the same at all APR dealers and those dealers focus on providing the best service possible to their local communities.
Price wars create a race to the bottom where eventually everyone suffers as the guy that sits in the basement of his parents' house doesn't have a proper workshop with proper resources and tools to pay for and is happy making slim margins as he only has to support himself. This will eventually ruin the customer service and warranty support for our clients. We like our dealers to be able to do an honest business and fill their facilities with the best technicians and best tools that aid in the best results. This then eventually trickles up to the manufacturers who have to move manufacturing to China or similar, reduce overall quality or hire cheaper labor. APR is full of engineering boffins that command higher salaries and produce what are better results in my opinion.
Cheap remaps for all will result in all companies becoming a Man in a Van as I think you guys call it over here as opposed to a proper R&D center. It also makes it more difficult for these companies to properly take care of clients when something does go wrong as every quid is tight and the resources for speedy resolutions or even resolutions at all aren't available.
Its why most tuners over here have "never" made a mistake and anything that goes wrong is always blamed on something else like a bad tank of gas or a weak OEM part.
We've made mistakes, sure, we are human, but when we do, we compensate our clients and make them whole again.