Came across this ad yesterday. Yes, it definitely panders to someone like me who is a bit bored with their car and I know I might be falling for a trap. Living in the city I don’t drive much so the adult within me has voted against dumping money into my aging G35x. I still do my own maintenance but it has been a long while since I’ve done anything performance-oriented to it. The car has a CAI (laugh all you want but the intake sound is amazing), a plenum spacer (this one opened up the power band a bit according to the ol’ butt dyno), and most recently I got Firestone Firehawk tires for it.
I’ve owned this car for 10 years now. That sounds insane to me, but after I got involved with two-wheeled machines I didn’t feel the need to move onto a different car. I plan on keeping it until the rust takes over (likely), the engine dies (it’s been reliable), or I die (you read that part about me being into bikes, right?). My next car will be an EV, but I would still keep the G because it pains me to think about letting it go for a measly $2,500.
With that in mind, a tune actually sounds like a decent idea. I don’t need to shell out a huge amount of money for parts, like an exhaust or headers, that will require an arduous install. I did some research last night and there is some performance to be unlocked with a proper tune on even a stock car with ‘real’ tools like UpRev and EcuTek.
Hence the question - is this proposition sketchy? The ad promises 20 HP and 20 ft-lb for a stock car. These numbers are possible according to forums, and I might get a little bit more out of it because of the mods. I messaged the guy and he gave me typical Craiglist-style responses, so that bothers me because I don’t trust a shop who can’t take the time to respond properly to my questions. But, there are other shops out there, and I can try them as well.
What do you think... waste of money, potentially detrimental, or a sweet idea?