Hi Jonathan,

At this point, we have now provided close to 4000 tunes for this engine platform. Into the thousands on pulley combinations. With such a large sample size without question we are going to and have run into some problems that we need to solve, and we're also going to see some customers have failures and issues that are frankly, of OEM origin (ie, things that were going to fail regardless.) For example, catalyst failure while by no means an endemic problem is something that happens often enough on 100% stock vehicles that it's a known issue. Any time you modify a vehicle to produce more power (or in particular to add pops & burbles which everyone seems to want these days) you are going to add stress to components like catalysts. I don't think that using a 'tuner' versus us as an established company is going to alter those outcomes.

Without knowing the specific instances you're referring to I can't respond to specific concerns, however I will point to a good example that I know about. A prominent Youtuber who's vehicle was fitted with our crank pulley and tunes ran into an issue with some misfires under very heavy load acceleration (WOT only, in a specific gear & RPM range.) As I alluded to previously there are something around 30 different OEM software versions on all the FTypes, some of which are close matches of 80-90% to other software versions and others which are completely different. In this case, the customer had an uncommon software version which had a few tables in it which were functioning in a way that was VERY different to the more common software versions. We were able to resolve the issue by datalogging the vehicle with our proprietary datalogger (it would not have been solveable without this tool) and to make the necessary edits to those tables. Based on what I know and have seen, it's my opinion that our software engineer Chris is likely the only one in the aftermarket with enough knowledge and experience on this platform to solve that particular issue. A non-specialist 'tuner' without the detailed definition files & knowledge of the platform... I'm less convinced.

Either way, generally I think we do a good job of addressing the outliers and helping customers figure out issues that crop up. Whether those are related to the addition of our products or not. A friend of mine who is very successful in business once said (and I'm paraphrasing) that if you aren't running into some problems & outliers you're not doing enough business. Obviously I'm 100% biased.

 

I would also add to that - look at the number of customers who had purchased pulley & tuning from another Jaguar tuning company and who had ongoing & unresolved misfire issues. The company in question eventually 'solved' the problem by simply dialling back the tuning to reduce the power output. Chris was subsequently able to confirm this by looking at the ECU files, and to add back the missing power & correct the issue. All because we have the logging equipment and investment in the expertise on the platform.

 

Added to which is the other important business rule - it doesn't matter if you make a mistake, what matters is that you learn from it. My father drilled that into me whenever either of us, or any of our staff, screwed up somewhere.

 

We follow the extreme ownership rules in that regard. Take responsibility for fixing it regardless of why it happened - it's why we try as much as we can to help with OEM issues as well.

Also, we like the Mercedes F1 rule - we blame the problem not the person.

 

It's a good way to do business, on both counts

EDIT: Apols for slightly derailing the thread, but seeing your post reminded of those things father drilled into me about mistakes and the value of learning from them.