Ok, been 2yrs, where are the PNP tuners

[ronnyek]

well if you ask me, thats the only people the 135i SHOULD appeal to, but then there are always the clueless pps that want a faster 128i and could care less.

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by jc_lbc

There may be a ton of vehicles then but are there a ton of customers? I imagine for every 10 WRX cars sold there's at least half as many customer's looking to tune or mod their cars. For every 10 N54s sold I'd be surprised if there was even 1 customer looking to tune. Of course I could be wrong but in the last few months I've only seen one 335 on the street that wasn't completely stock. And that's out of the countless BMWs I see driving around SoCal on a daily basis.

I'd be willing to bet that you'd be absolutely shocked at how many Juice Boxes and Proceeds have been sold. You can't tell if a car has been tuned by looking at it. Mine's almost completely stock on the outside.

[Simsims]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

I'd be willing to bet that you'd be absolutely shocked at how many Juice Boxes and Proceeds have been sold. You can't tell if a car has been tuned by looking at it. Mine's almost completely stock on the outside.

let's see some numbers before outrages claims like these are made

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by Simsims

let's see some numbers before outrages claims like these are made

Where would you suggest I get these numbers? You want me to call Terry at BMS up and ask for his sales figures?

All you have to do is hang around the boards for a little while and you'll see how many are being sold. If 1% of the customers are buying them it's a hell of a lot of units. The hardware cost is nothing on these things and the margins are huge. The development time is recovered very quickly.

[nordique14]

A while back I recall seeing an announcement for a "Shark Edit" that would allow users to create their own custom tunes. I think the Shark Edit never materialized and just sort of faded away.

[Gimlet]

I haven't seen anything more about this recently...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=361642

I'm curious about this and the GIAC solution as well. I'd like to be able to re-flash to stock if need be w/o having to pull any hardware out, keep a number of maps for different octane levels, etc...it just seems that only a couple of companies are tuning with it at this point. From what I've read the BMS tunes are equally good if not better, but you are still dealing with a piggyback.

[gotcone.com]

I see the question on here of why would someone want to Flash vs. Piggyback... I thought I would offer up my reasoning.

I am setting up my 135i for STU (autocross). STU doesn't allow for any tuning/modification of boost. So it would be nice to have the option of having a tune that doesn't touch boost for events, but if I want to mess around or do a track day or whatever, flash to a new tune that does alter boost levels. Also without being able to modify boost, a custom tune (done by someone who knows what they are doing) can get the most out of any modifications done to the vehicle.

[Cronic]

This is a good topic honestly. Coming from building/owning quite a few high HP subies, evo, etc the first thing i noticed was the lack of aftermarket support for things like the OP is talking about.

The price of mods is a whole different thread in itself. I'd like to see some of these companies like AMS, who are well known for offering super high quality parts for other cars start making their own in-house parts for these cars, and not price gouge.

I am currently considering the 135i, but my biggest concern is if i will be content with its performance. With the cost of the motor in these things, i am very reluctant to go past a PNP/intake, and just not sure that is going to cut it.

[ronnyek]

thats actually exactly the point tho... with mild tunes, this motor can actually hit pretty high hp with stock turbos. AS a tuner if you intend to go a ton higher, HPFP could definitely be a very real restriction.

Parts for this car are expensive for the sole reason that its owners have been willing to pay it. I've heard all these rumors about the ecu requiring some crazy battery charger, but is the BMW ecu really so touchy that it cant handle a flash on a reasonably full charged battery?

In any case, I've kinda decided to just give up on this subject... its been recent corporate practice to give customers what they ask for at 2x the cost of everyone else's competing progress, and likewise am not confident anyone is doing anything, or anyone cares.

I'll tune my cummins and my hotrod, and drive the 135i until the whole bmw culture drives me over the edge.

[ronnyek]

Originally Posted by Cronic

I am currently considering the 135i, but my biggest concern is if i will be content with its performance. With the cost of the motor in these things, i am very reluctant to go past a PNP/intake, and just not sure that is going to cut it.

The jb3 is making a safe 375-400 whp or something iirc pretty easily... I wouldnt rule it out for that... its just that you have to wire up a piggy back inside your ecu box, or go pay somone to flash you car for 700-1000 bucks (and not have any control)... just to do what your ecu is MORE than capable of doing... and then some.

[Mike@N54Tuning.com]

BMS has tuned around 8500 N54s over the past three years. I bet Vishnu has done Around 3000 (my guestimate) and then add to that thousands (tens of thousands?) of SSTT and other tuners and you've got a sizable volume. But no idea how many N54s have been sold world wide. It seems like a large percentage do tune the cars though. Maybe 5%?

Mike

[Cronic]

Originally Posted by ronnyek

The jb3 is making a safe 375-400 whp or something iirc pretty easily... I wouldnt rule it out for that... its just that you have to wire up a piggy back inside your ecu box, or go pay somone to flash you car for 700-1000 bucks (and not have any control)... just to do what your ecu is MORE than capable of doing... and then some.

375-400whp with what supporting mods?

Like i said, coming from cars where you can make 400-500whp, reliably, and when something pops you are looking at a few $k, and you are back on the road again, modding the n54 does seem a bit intimidating. I always like to mod with "what if" in mind, and need to budget for the worst case scenario.

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by Mike@N54Tuning.com

BMS has tuned around 8500 N54s over the past three years. I bet Vishnu has done Around 3000 (my guestimate) and then add to that thousands (tens of thousands?) of SSTT and other tuners and you've got a sizable volume. But no idea how many N54s have been sold world wide. It seems like a large percentage do tune the cars though. Maybe 5%?

Mike

Thanks for chiming in Mike. I knew there were a lot of tuned cars out there. It's just so cost effective on these things....why not?!