CammedC6520

Proabbaly nicer also, rick got a call from my friend and just talked a bunch of bullshit

5knives

Talking **** about you?

Is your friend's car running?

CammedC6520

Yeah his car is fine his tuner just couldent get the idling right so he took my tune and told me
My tune looked rushed also and he knows rick. The bullshit talking I'll explain another day.. to tired

NemeZ

I have the same expirence as above. Matt spec'd my cam and tuned my car. I personally think he's one of the best in the business. First thing I would do is get a retune from Matt. If anything is wrong with the car he will know and let you know as well.

CammedC6520

Is he near by I'll look it up thanks brother wish I knew about him before real disappointed at synergy

NemeZ

Yes he is in the Bay Area.

Nowanker

An opportunity to help everyone out by getting an apples-to-apples-comparison.

Jayfabs

I'm having Matt@GPTuning tune my car but be prepared he is months out. My car should be running this week but I called him about a month ago and my tune date is mid July. Everyone I talked to has said amazing things and the key thing is that he takes time to make the idle correct. From what I hear.

ZZ06

I have a buddies car I'm about to take a look at here in another week and this is EXACTLY what I'm aiming for when I tune somones ride. Ive been in the seat with the blank stare of "what sort of black magic is going on in that computer" I wont allow a customer to feel the way I did all those years. To the OP, keep grinding away. I started at 22yo with my C5Z and STILL have it. LOTS and LOTS to learn here......from the right people and right attitude...

Unreal

While that makes the customer feel warm and fuzzy, it does not mean the tune is better. We deal with that locally all the time. The good tuner has tuned 5k+ cars. Many combos he knocks out in 2-3 pulls, and 15-20 minutes of street driving because he has tuned that combo 100+ times and his base maps are so close there is almost nothing to tweak. Then people bitch how they paid $500 for a tune that was quick. So other local tuners like to capitalize on that saying how he is quick and doesn't spend time on the tunes. They spend hours, but they have no clue what they are doing. So you get someone driving your car for hours, and a crap tune, but they make the customer feel good, until 2-5 months later when the car pops, then they blame bad gas, or AZ heat, or something stupid. Its amazing how many people fall for it.

Not saying this is the case, but time spent tuning, and time chatting with customer is not an indication of quality at all. Most good tuners I know get to the point where they don't have time to sit there explaining the tune, because they are so busy doing tunes and that is counter productive.

When you tune 1 car a week, or do it on the side, feel free to spend all the time explaining to the customer every little tweak. When you have to do 4-5 cars a day, and are booked out 5-6 weeks for a tune like many good tuners, spending hours chit chatting with customers is just bad service to all the other customers.

Mordeth

I agree with Unreal. There are a few local tuners around here. The only one who knows what the hell he is doing is short, professional and to the point. He doesn't screw around and has no interest in idle conversation. When I'm talking to him in his shop, I can tell that he is simply tolerating me, and is itching to get back to his Dyno (Your **** is done, it is done right, now GTFO). This suits me just fine and is how I like to do business. The issue is that while tuning is part science and part art, customer service is almost all art. Some guys need to be talked to as it makes them feel better about what happened to their car and about the whole experience. Especially for a first timer who is nervous about what is going on and perhaps already had a bad experience. There is nothing wrong with this. For a busy, successful, competent tuner this is hard to manage.

All my tuner wants to know is what was done to the car, what if anything is going on and what are my goals and intended usage. I give him 1-2 sentence responses, my keys and then I'm out. Same thing when I pick it up. I hand over my money, he hands over my keys, the dyno sheet and a brief explanation and I'm out. Just the way I like it.

Unreal

Would you rather have a brain surgeon spend 30 minutes removing a tumor under your skull or a high school janitor spend 12 hours?

Mordeth

I flipped a coin and came up with the former. So as usual, looks like you are right.

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Mike's LS3

Since I had both tuners tune my car (more than one time each), your comparison is irrelevant.

They are both brain surgeons.
I just prefer the brain surgeon that takes the time to listen to my concerns, answer some questions and not rush out the door. It's called customer service which is part of doing business. That lack of customer service can turn business away because of a communication gap. In this case it has and more than once.

Tech

Talking about the tune doesn't make you a good tuner. Someone with a month worth of tuning knowledge could easily talk over the head of most people who know nothing about tuning or PID systems in general.

Unreal

I wasn't saying in this case, that applies, just pointing out there is an annoying thing of if a tune is quick it is bad, or if the tuner doesn't want to coddle you, it is bad.

There are cases with quick tunes that are crap, there are cases with long tunes are crap. There are tuners that are short with people who can't tune worth ****, and world class tuners that don't mind talking for days. The time it takes or friendly nature of a tuner is completely irrelevant to the quality of the tune.

So when people say "go to this other tuner, he spends more time" that is like saying "go eat at this steak house, they have good soda" when all you care about is the steak. It is not reflective of the quality of work.

If they are both qualified and great, then pick the cheaper or friendlier, or quicker, or whatever quality you value the best. But NEVER go with time spent tuning as the factor you use to judge a tuner.

Nowanker

One more time.
Here is an excellent opportunity for an apples-to-apples comparison. Data for all to see!
I don't doubt that for a known combination of parts, or a really close approximation of those, a good quality tune can be supplied in a matter of minutes.
Unfortunately, every engine is just a little bit different. I'm sure the first 95% of the HP is easily found, and there probably won't be a magic 20-30 horses more.
But if I'm paying $600 for a tune, I expect at least a little time spent finding that last 5.
Not my strong suit, but yes, I have tuned. Alas, no more dyno, or I'd be able to answer this myself.

HOXXOH

In principle.
I don't know enough to tune from scratch, but I understand enough to tweak the tune to squeeze out that last bit and/or to compensate for any later changes.

I can't expect someone else to fine tune the car without having the knowledge of how the car performs in the areas of my interest. By the same token, you can't expect a tuner to have the same interests.

Since my primary interest in performance is drag racing, the tune doesn't always follow what can be achieved on a dyno. There is no substitute for track data and timeslips.

meanjoe

I just read this entire thread. Don't ask me why I didn't hit the return button sooner. This was 30 minutes out of my life I'll never get back.

Seems to me like the OP doesn't really appreciate any of the help you guys are trying to give him.

But maybe he does??

ZZ06

This is what I was getting at. Ive been around beginner tuners who were just starting (myself) and ive been around guys who had no clue what they were doing and then ive been around guys whos been at this over 10+ years. It depends on the customer. I know a guy who did my tune in Florida who is seriously becoming widely known as he has been doing this now for years as well and travels to a few places too who nailed the WOT stuff in less than 5 pulls. The car idled great too but there were still areas I discovered later on that needed some attention. I didn't/don't knock him at all. The problem with tuning 100's of cars is one can get complacent with it and forget some cars may be just stubborn. For my car it was Main VE table to be exact. I don't care how many cars you tune, although the motor's can be the same, they will NEVER drive the same. I don't believe ill ever turn this into a profession but ill be sure to take the time and explain some things if the customer ask. IMO a car still needs to see the street after the dyno, if not before.