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Thread: Advice from all you car modifiers out there!

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    Vehicle : vectra 1.9cdti 150 sat nav

    Trim : sri

    Engine : 1.9

    Year : 08

    Mileage : 122000

    confused Advice from all you car modifiers out there!

    Sorry a bit off topic from the vx but was looking for peoples opinion on something, if im in the wrong section apologies and or can someone re post in correct place;Basically I am looking into a 2nd job part time and was thinking ecu remap dealer? there are lots of companies out there offering this service with various ways of going about it from kassv2 rental to outright purchase and file fees etc. my main question I suppose is what company to associate myself with in order to get maximum workload- by this I mean a recognised brand that people think of to use to maximize my chances.. ? I will advertise etc and most people know a map is a map and it will mainly be cost related who they choose... but if I have the backing of established and recognized name that's half the battle....any other mappers out there with any advice? and to the general population who I should run with...has anyone heard of quantum? regal tuning? celtic tuning? or others that spring to mind...?all inputs greatly appreciated...

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    Regular Member Teapot's Avatar
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    Vehicle : Signum

    Trim : Design+

    Engine : 1.9 CDTI 150

    Year : 2007

    Mileage : 101000

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    The problem with being a 'slave' to one of the big 'file dealers' is that they tend to charge extortionate prices for files. So your profit margins will be very small, and the only way to make a reasonable profit after buying the tools and paying their file prices is to be working flat-out at least 6 days a week. On top of that, the firms you mentioned primarily sell 'generic' files (even though they might claim they are customised), so you will be limited on the flexibility that you can offer your customers. No one person or firm can be an expert in all makes/models/ECUs despite their grand claims.

    Also, one tool doesn't cover all makes and models. Then each tool has perculiarities which you will need to learn and work around. It is absolutely imperative that you take the time to learn to learn how many of the common ECUs work, how to avoid bricking them, and how to recover them if anything goes wrong. A tool capable of BDM and Tricore boot mode is essential for this!

    A better strategy would be to buy a 'master' tool. Kess or MPPS are probably the most flexible ones. Then spend some time going around tuning/remapping forums and identify the experts in tuning certain popular cars. Then approach them by email and see if they are willing to edit files for you and how much they will charge. That way you will have more satisfied customers and make much more profit, as these individuals will probably charge much less than any of the big firms.

    Another strategy (and the one that I found myself in) is to buy a selection of master tools (either genuine or clone - clone tools are fine as long as you test them thoroughly and learn their limitations before starting work on paying customers cars) and take the time to learn how to edit files yourself for one or more popular makes/models where there is a high demand for tuning. In my case the GM 1.9 CDTI was the obvious choice as I owned two and wanted to learn how to remap them myself.

    Obviously this option will require a big time commitment from you to learn, and time to build up a reputation as 'the expert' in those particular makes/models. But once you have done that, you will get a loyal customer base, many personal recommendations, and you don't rely on, or have to pay a penny to anyone else!
    Last edited by Teapot; 13th July 2016 at 08:38.

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    Vehicle : vectra 1.9cdti 150 sat nav

    Trim : sri

    Engine : 1.9

    Year : 08

    Mileage : 122000

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    Thanks for that info teapot, I agree it is probably a modified generic map being sent and of course I would learn how to re-set and put the car back to standard if any issues arose......as a starter and when I said a 2nd job I mean very occasional for some play money so if I did say 2 a month through one of these companies I can make a few hundered quid and I am not repling on it as income as I have a full time job. As a 2nd wee job I can do ocassionally and being into cars myself I thought it would be a good venture.... ( of course initial outlay for equipment or hire and map files will be a cost I need to spend, there are no huge costs involved other than that and how I choose to advertise... so another positive as a back burner type job I can do in spare time. I fully agree a car "nut" will want to research and use a company tried and tested but there are thousands of drivers who look at a remap as a way of smoothing out and economy...so would go down this route for the average man.... whats your thoughts?

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    Regular Member Teapot's Avatar
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    Yes that's fine, and indeed I expect the generic remap files are good enough for at least 80% of people.

    What I was mainly questioning was your business model when you suggested that you would be a slave for one of these big file dealers. As you only plan to do this as a part-time job, it will take a long time to recoup the initial outlay. A genuine kessv2 and ktag kit will cost about £3000. A slave kit might be cheaper but probably still over £2000. Most of the big file dealers charge at least £100 per file. You might be able to charge your customers £250 perhaps. Remember also that at this price, most customers will expect you to travel to them. So depending on how far you are willing to travel you will need to consider fuel and wear+tear on your vehicle. A rough guess would be an average of £30 per customer.

    So best case we have £250-100-30. That makes a best-case gross margin of £120.

    In your last post you said you expect to get 2 customers per month. I'm going to be generous here and increase that to 4, as I think as long as you are flexible with time you will be able to achieve at least that. So £120x4 = £480 per month. This makes a gross margin of £5760 per year. That also means you will take £3000/480 months just to repay your equipment cost, before you start making any profit at all. i.e. 6 months. But the calculation doesn't end there...

    I have seen several cases where the big firms have failed to remap vehicles correctly. On GM 1.9 CDTIs this is often due to a bug in kess, which reads and writes the wrong partition in the ECU and so the remap has no effect. The big firms seem unaware of these bugs, only smaller remappers who specialise in these engines seem to be aware of that. In addition to that, some customers will be fussy and not satisfied with the generic remap. As you won't be able to edit files yourself, and the big firms often won't know how to customise the file to appease the customer, these customers will want their car put back to standard and not pay. From conversations with other slave remap dealers, the big firms will not refund the cost of the file. So you will lose your file cost and travel expenses in this case. A best guess is that 10% of customers will be dissatisfied. Sometimes it will be because there are defects on their car, sometimes it will just be that they are fussy and not happy with the generic remap. But at the end of the day you have to cut your losses in these cases as one disgruntled customer can ruin your reputation.

    This means for every 10 jobs, one will *cost* you file+expenses of £130. So based on our earlier calculation of 4 jobs per month, or 48 per year (I'll round up to 50 to make the sums easier) we can assume 5 duff jobs per year. So our margin has reduced by 5*(£130+£250) = £1900

    This leaves your first year margin reduced to £3860. Then take out equipment cost of £3000, and you are left with a measly £860 profit in your first year

    Admittedly these sums are not perfect. I have used a mix of best and worst case scenarios. You might be very lucky and make more than this. I'm not trying to put you off, but what I'm trying to say is despite what the file dealers claim, there is no 'easy money' in remapping, and you need to think very carefully before diving into this, and consider the other options that I suggested which may ultimately be much more profitable but require you to put more effort rather than money upfront.

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    Regular Member Thundercat86's Avatar
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    Bit of a thread revival, but ive kind of found myself wondering the same thing. Im not wanting to rely on it as a steady stream of income, im just interested in learning how to remap. I have a version of MPPS and a cable for my laptop, however i have no idea where to get files from or how to edit my own, and i dont even know where to start looking for information! Could you point me in the right direction @Teapot? Thanks in advance!

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