EcuTek = no resale value?
 

Can someone clarify how this works? Had a customer who decided to pursue other avenues try and sell hiss EcuTek cable and tune, but being told he cant.

He paid 300 cable, 300 license, 300 tune. He has flashed the car to stock. So is he out this money?

In the domestic world, you buy a diablo or sct or whatever programmer. You get various tunes for one car. Costs $300 to $500 all in. If you flash your car to stock, it releases the 'license' and the unit is fully functional, tunes and all so you can use it on another vehicle, sell it etc.

Can someone clarify the EcuTek deal? Is he really out a small fortune?

He can sell the cable, the rest is not transferable.

Wow, that sucks. I hope by the time I tune my car some better options will be out there.

Wow. That sucks. So what's a used cable worth? $150? Too bad Diablo isn't in the game. They chose to develop the Genesis coupe instead. But they are great. 300 to $500 depending on model, comes with tunes, and if you flash to stock its fully functional, tunes available etc.

Unfortunately this is the case, but they're upfront about the "for life" tune. I wish they used the HPTuners method where you pay $600 for the gear/program and then $100/car in credits to license and tune. $900-$1350 is a sizable sum for not being able to tune or resell, but you're paying to have a master tuner provide for your car with updates for life. To many this is worth it. Just have to be positive you're making the right selection for yourself. Condolences to your customer though. :(

With the handheld programmers like cortex, diablo, etc, is there any manner of tune customization feasible? Or are they just premade off-the-shelf maps with only minor adjustments like shift points, etc.?

There's a piggy-back EMS called Unichip that you can recover most of your investment (pay for the hardware - maps are free).

I've seen some EcuTek cables selling for $250-280. He shouldn't have a problem getting that since a lot of tuners charge the $350 retail.

has anyone actually contacted sct or diablo? I was working with SCT directly when I had my turbo'd mustang. May be a good thing to look at.

BTW, I currently use the unichip system and it's worked well. I just cannot find a local tuner to tune it haha

Not sure how this is different from people sharing cables/dongles. I purchased an EcuTek cable along with some tunes. My buddy purchased an FR-S and ended up just purchasing the tune. When he needs to tune his car, he borrows my cable and dongle. The dongle ID had to be provided to the tuner but it works as-expected.

This really shouldn't be a surprise for anyone unless they didn't do any research at all before purchasing. Ecutek has been around for a while and it's always been the same. You pay for license and tune file. You can purchase the dongle and cable if you want or get a loaner/share.

You can't sell something you don't own. This is just yet another crucial downside to the ecutek model.

As always its great for vendors (can't buy used must buy new) and awful for customers. Par for the course for ecutek.

Its a surprise to anyone not familiar with ecutek. And it truly blows. Even greedy microsoft lets you transfer a windows license.

I guess im just spoiled by Diablo, SCT, efi live, brzedit, tunercat, nistune, hondata, binary editor, hp tuners and all the other companies that have a fair licensing and hardware model.

~500 percent markup on the cable AND a 300$ non transferable license AND 300 $ non trasferable tune?

It also protects tuners. I remember receiving my custom K-pro tune on my Honda and the tuner imploring me not to just give it out to people. I'm an honorable person so I did not toss the tune file around, but there was nothing stopping me from giving it out to anyone with the same setup. I don't have a problem with intellectual property being protected in this manner.

It blows my mind that people talk seriously about Unichip in 2013.

I've run both EcuTek and Unichip. For the value, Unichip is better. I think you get more out of EcuTek but it's also at least 2x as expensive and you can't recoup much of the investment. If EcuTek is the 95% solution, Unichip is 85-90%.