So here's my situation. I own a 99 S10 ZR2 that I put a 96 Vortec engine into. In order to get it running on 8 cylinders, I licensed a 99 Suburban 5.7 file, wrote the entire file to the 99 S10 computer, and then tweaked from there. Here's my rub:
In order to do this, it cost 6 credits. $300. Maybe that isn't a lot to some of you, but to me it's a lot. One of the original reasons I got HPtuners so long ago was it's "everyman" tuner schtick.
So, I completely understand 4 of the 6 credits. 2 for the vehicle itself. 2 because I need to license another file/OS. But the fact that the resultant combination needs YET ANOTHER license seems ridiculous. I can license an entire year/model group (hundreds or thousands of cars) for the same cost as getting ONE vehicle's VCM swapped from V6 to V8 (come to think of it, had I known ahead of time maybe a year/model would have worked instead if I had known I'd need the final 2 credits.
There's 2 additional minor rubs here. The first is that I asked ahead of time about this process (that I KNOW has to have occurred numerous times over the years), and got the phrase "you'll need some credits". Now that I've done it, it seems they know exactly how many credits I need. The second is that had I known what was needed ahead of time, I could have modified the original file that was going to be flashed as extensively as possible and foregone fine-tweaking and saved the final 2 credits for full access. It seems less than forthcoming to not have been perfectly clear what would be entailed until after I'm committed. Or maybe I'm just the first non-tunershop yokel to try this. Jokes on me.
Now, I have already paid for my final 2 credits, so while I'd absolutely love if the HPtuner guys would see my point and hook me up, this is more about what seems to be an oversight that screws the "little guys" over in the licensing/credit system. Guys, I understand that pirating is a huge deal in this business, and that your program is built to safeguard against that. But there's got to be a common sense way to not screw over someone looking to do something like this. You have an awesome product (an opinion shown by the thousands I've sent their way in license fees). I enjoyed this swap and would like to do more of them, but this tuning cost makes it almost the most expensive single cost of the entire project.
Jon
Originally Posted by 5FDP
