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Not in my book. The PPIII works just fine on my 99'. But once again it all depends on what you're looking for it to do. It worked fine to program the engine, set the shift firmess, shift points and rev limiter. The PPIII and K&N twin filter gave me 10RWHP on the dyno.
the Hypertech units are not useless. They do work well for reprogramming shift points for an A4, firmness of the shift and adjustments to rev limit and adjustments for rear gear changes as well as fan/on adjustments. In that regard, the $400 bucks has a place. I would argue that an Hypertech unit has more value to an A4 owner than a MN6 or MN12 owner. It certainly is not for everyone as the programming for engine performance is based on elevating stock parameters and does not give you the overall benefits that Cole's work or Ed's work can offer.
To me, the best solution is custom tuning done in conjunction with real time testing on a dyno such as work done by Mike Morgan. But for $800 , I would hope that is the case.
Then again, the Hypertech unit is fairly easy to get, is portable and reversable. Kind of a nice feature as well. Can't say the same for the other gurus, as they tend to lock their programs, thus necessitating the buyer to continually go back to them for adjustments for mods that are installed after the initial programming.
As said before, depends on what you need and are looking for should guide you on which solution is best.
I have read several times that with a lightly modified car ( especially MAF ) the Hypertech power programming will not work, or will cause a lose of power. I just got off the phone with Hypertech and they confirm this can happen. I have a Hypertech that I bought used ( IMO the only way to buy one ) but I wanted it for the cooling fans and trans. shifting points and firmness. :cheers:
I have one and it works just fine on my 98 coupe. They are fine for an automatic transmission car because of the changes to the shift points and firmness in shifting gears. I purchased mine off of A Forum member thru the C5 Parts for sale here on the Forum. I paid $200.00 and it works and looks just like A new one. My car was sluggish and after reprogramming it is way more responsive and feels A lot stronger.I don't know if It has more Horsepower but I do know it feels better then it did before the reprogramming. Just make sure you find one that is for your year. Also make sure that the person selling it to you has put his car back to stock with it so you will be able to use it. It will only program one car at A time.If the seller does not go back to the stock programming which removes his VIN# from the Hypertech it will not work on another car. :cheers:
The point is moot Larry..Hypertech just doesn't make the product for 2001-2003....Call Ed wright at www.fastchip.com for real programming..2-3 day turnaround:D
What I do not understand, and it may just be me, but why would someone want to have to send their factory computer off to get reflashed and then get it back and it possibly might not be the best tune or even work 1/2 decent in the first place? The downtime is one of the main problems IMHO. Plus if you ever want it redone or back to stock you're looking at more of a delay.
And the HPP3 doesn't offer enough to justify paying the price. Not a sales pitch here, but the Predator IMHO justifies it's price totally when you look at all the available options out there, plus you can still get custom programming by experts w/ no downtime to your vehicle.
Maybe it's because I come from Ford country and I have never personally first hand felt what it is like to not be able to just stick a chip in your vehicle and it run like a scalded dog. I know it must suck not to be able to do that to GM's these days; there just wasn't the option there to get decent programming easy, until now.