Upgrade Credits

For vehicle models that have a Year/Model license available, each purchase of a Single Vehicle license will earn "upgrade credits" that count towards the purchase of the Year/Model license:

For these models, 75% of the credits used to purchase a Single Vehicle License will count towards an upgrade to a Year/Model license for the same vehicle. For example, 75% of the credits spent on a 2001 Camaro Single Vehicle license count towards an upgrade to a 2001 Camaro Year/Model license.

This combination of lower tier license availability and discounted upgrades provides customers a relatively low cost entry point while protecting that investment for future growth.

Upgrade credits are applied automatically. When you are prompted to license a new vehicle, the reduced number of credits will be displayed for the higher tier license. It is possible to reduce the number of credits required to purchase the Year/Model license to zero.

Example 1

In this example, a customer does the following things:

Uses 4 credits to license two Fbody single vehicles that are model year 2000.

75% of these 4 credits count towards an upgrade to license for all model year 2000 Fbody vehicles. So, they are added together, then multiplied by 75%, which yields 3 Upgrade Credits.

Since the 2000 Fbody Year/Model license normally costs 6 credits, it is now reduced to 3 because of the customer's 3 upgrade credits. The calculation of this is completely automatic. All the customer will notice is the reduced number of credits on the licensing form.

The customer then decides to purchase the 2000 Fbody Year/Model license at the reduced 3 credit price.

The customer then purchases the 2001 and 2002 Fbody Year/Model licenses for 6 credits each.

NOTE: Since all available upgrade credits had already been used by the previous purchase, these new purchases are recorded at the full price of 6 credits each.

Example 2

This example shows a small tuner shop or weekend tuner using upgrade credits to take advantage of the lower entry point while protecting their investment. In this example, the customer was an existing HPT customer with Year/Model licenses for 1999, 2000, and 2001 Fbody vehicles.

The customer upgrades from Serial to MPVI Pro. Existing licenses are transferred at 6 credits each.

Then, the tuner is faced with a decision. He has a customer who wants a 2004 GTO tune, but he's not sure how many more 2004 Ghats he's going to get. So, he decides to take the Single Vehicle option for 2 credits on this one and "see how it goes".

Six months pass and the tuner receives another 2004 GTO request. The tuner thinks it's been 6 months since the last one, so he will just do the same thing.

NOTE: At this point, the software would have prompted him with a cost of 5 credits to upgrade to the 2004 GTO Year/Model (since 2 x 75% = 1 upgrade credit).

Another few months pass and the tuner receives a third 2004 GTO request. The tuner thinks he has only done two of these and it's cost him $199 for the two single vehicles, he is still $100 ahead over the last nine months compared to the 2004 GTO Year/Model at $299. At this point, the software would be prompting him to purchase 3 credits to upgrade to the 2004 GTO Year/Model (since 4 x 75% = 3 upgrade credits). The tuner decides to go the Single Vehicle route again happy that he is doing the right thing.

After another few months, the tuner receives a fourth 2004 GTO request. This time, the tuner sees the software is prompting him to purchase 2 credits to upgrade to the 2004 GTO Year/Model (since 6 x 75% = 4 upgrade credits). The tuner then decides he would be crazy not to take the 2004 GTO Year/Model option for 2 credits. He thinks back over the last year and realizes sure he has paid $99 more than if he had taken the risk initially on the 2004 GTO Year/Model license. But, given the length of time that has passed, it is of no concern. He would have been much worse off had he purchased the Year/Model up front and never tuned another 2004 GTO!

The Year/Model upgrade purchase is recorded at the reduced price of 2 credits, which is now the tuner's actual purchase price to license the 2004 GTO Year/Model.

Reviewing available Upgrade Credits

To review your available Upgrade Credits:

Open VCM Editor.

In the Help menu, select License Information. The License Information window appears.

Select the License Upgrade Paths tab. You will see the upgrade credits you have and how many additional credits are required for the license.