August 15th 2004 for the record

[Lance BLACK V70 T5]

On this date, I went to my first santa pod Volvo T5 meet where I was made most welcome by members of varoius volvo forums.
My car was completely stock at the time!
Obviously we were talking about performance upgrades ie chips that people had done.
I distinctively remember talking to a young man called Matt with a red 854R Auto, who was very happy and running very competitive times with a RICA upgrade done by VT of bromsgrove!
I also went out in a few RICA cars before the Pod meet , and two weeks latter i had mine remapped also!
Since then Ive done 40000 miles in the vehicle and millage is approaching 170k yes Ive been back for a 19T and custom map this year.
My car still runs a treat and Ive embarsed some very expensive machinary incuding mercs bmers porches and imprezzas in real world driving situations.
Ive also witnesed some very impressive diesel tunning from Vt and they came first in the donnington GP tunner day on 0-60 and 1/4 mile with a skoda Fabia VRS 1st and Adams S60 D5 2nd trouncing a supper chipped 530D and other Vag stuff.
Im sick and tired of seeing a few people on this forum constantly slagging the same company over and over again.
At the end of the day whatever product you sell theres always going to be the odd anolomy somewhere specially when it come's to people's 4 wheeled beloved's.
If I had a problem with any product I would 1st ring the person, then I would go to his premises to try and resolve the problem.
I would'nt endlessly go on about it year after year, for the sake of a few hundred pounds .
I once speant £1200 on an LPG conversion that knackerd my car and caused major issue's that cost thousands to sort out, I even went round to the guys house, I found out latter he had help wreck several cars after a few thousand miles.
Make's not getting a few HP out of an old car or having a solder in your chip small fry really.

Rant over!

Originally Posted by Lance BLACK V70 T5

On this date, I went to my first santa pod Volvo T5 meet where I was made most welcome by members of varoius volvo forums.
My car was completely stock at the time!
Obviously we were talking about performance upgrades ie chips that people had done.
I distinctively remember talking to a young man called Matt with a red 854R Auto, who was very happy and running very competitive times with a RICA upgrade done by VT of bromsgrove!

Obviously it was a good and enjoyable day for all.

Natxx

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by Lance BLACK V70 T5

On this date, I went to my first santa pod Volvo T5 meet where I was made most welcome by members of varoius volvo forums.
My car was completely stock at the time!
Obviously we were talking about performance upgrades ie chips that people had done.
I distinctively remember talking to a young man called Matt with a red 854R Auto, who was very happy and running very competitive times with a RICA upgrade done by VT of bromsgrove!
I also went out in a few RICA cars before the Pod meet , and two weeks latter i had mine remapped also!
Since then Ive done 40000 miles in the vehicle and millage is approaching 170k yes Ive been back for a 19T and custom map this year.
My car still runs a treat and Ive embarsed some very expensive machinary incuding mercs bmers porches and imprezzas in real world driving situations.
Ive also witnesed some very impressive diesel tunning from Vt and they came first in the donnington GP tunner day on 0-60 and 1/4 mile with a skoda Fabia VRS 1st and Adams S60 D5 2nd trouncing a supper chipped 530D and other Vag stuff.
Im sick and tired of seeing a few people on this forum constantly slagging the same company over and over again.
At the end of the day whatever product you sell theres always going to be the odd anolomy somewhere specially when it come's to people's 4 wheeled beloved's.
If I had a problem with any product I would 1st ring the person, then I would go to his premises to try and resolve the problem.
I would'nt endlessly go on about it year after year, for the sake of a few hundred pounds .
I once speant £1200 on an LPG conversion that knackerd my car and caused major issue's that cost thousands to sort out, I even went round to the guys house, I found out latter he had help wreck several cars after a few thousand miles.
Make's not getting a few HP out of an old car or having a solder in your chip small fry really.

Rant over!

Did you write this post of your own initiative lance? or did someone put you upto it? im guessing the latter, bit like how you joined the site when a heated thread was in progress and immediately started defending a particular party.

However lance, as nat has previously posted, you only have 14 days to to verify your upgrade and after that your on your own.

Also lance, yes i was happy with my time as they were better than std and yes they were competitive, but could that just be because everyone else was not making the claimed 304bhp so therefore running similar times to me?? -lol, plus my car would be quicker as it was running more boost, my car would also be quicker if i was to do a number of things (mbc, wastegate mod etc)

just think, if i had 304bhp (as promised) then my times would have been even better. so yes back then when i trusted VT had done what i paid for i was pretty happy, but then i discovered the truth by which time its to late.

Make's not getting a few HP out of an old car or having a solder in your chip small fry really.

we all have our own views lance, you may see it as small fry, but i paid £590 for my chip which i consider a lot of money. I also bought that chip beacause of it power claims (higher than its rival MTE and more expensive). When in reality both chips i would say are similar. so looking back i would have gone with MTE as it was more local and an invisable upgrade unlike the rica, plus would have saved me a few quid.

Also remember that as i now have all the tools to examine and create ecu upgrades i have seen exactly what my so called "full remap for £590" actually is, and all i will say is i decided to write my own version which i am happy with.

[adieu]

I have to agree with Bobcat on this one, but i'm sure you all know that already

Regards

Iain

P.s Nat could you ask Hamish to answer my question put to him earlier in another Thread? Or is just just going to let it go as he normally does when it's something he doesn't want to answer. Thanks in advance, looking forward to an answer.

I am not going to Hi-jack this thread as it isn't fair to Lance, but I have sent you a pm instead Iain.

[Drew]

Looks like the car is doing well Lance - trusty Volvo's eh?

[Lance BLACK V70 T5]

Did you write this post of your own initiative lance? or did someone put you upto it? im guessing the latter, bit like how you joined the site when a heated thread was in progress and immediately started defending a particular party.


Completly off my own initiative, Although ive only recently started to post on this forum Ive been reading posts on here for a couple of years.
I do feel that VT get a very hard time on here, and I make no bone,s in offering some defence from a satisfied customer point of view.

It seems yourself and Adieu have a real problem with VT, and im sure nothing I say or anyone else will make a differnce, however I do feel you are a small minority as they are many happy customers of VT as there will be with other tuners.

I'm sure other tuners will have had the occassional unhappy customer who was'nt happy with the product! But they don't continue on a witch hunt for that company.

In terms of promises , the Jaguar E Type when launched promised to do 150 mph , which the press realese ones did as they were tweaked, but few customer cars would top 145 mph, did customers complain, not really the E type was one of the sexiest looking cars of all time, people still love them to this day.

The Toyota Prius promises somthing like 65 mpg but most owners can't get more than 55 mpg, how many customer have been offered a refund?

If I go and speand say £500k on a house which was meant to be built in 1600, but lets say it was mainly extended in 1700 again in 1800 and I found out 4 months after living there, would I get a refund???

Its small potatoes guys, you were happy for some time after, do you expect a life time guarantee??

Lol

In perspective Ive no doubt that a mint brand new 850 T5 would produce around 300BHP with a decent map, but wait a minute they stopped making them 10 years ago, most have done over 100k so surely 270-280 is more realistic.

Also if RICA such a crap product why do some main dealers offer it to there customers, and the dutch police have there T5s RICA,d

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by Lance BLACK V70 T5

In perspective Ive no doubt that a mint brand new 850 T5 would produce around 300BHP with a decent map, but wait a minute they stopped making them 10 years ago, most have done over 100k so surely 270-280 is more realistic.

As im aware lance, your not in the motor trade. so if you can come to the above conclusion why couldnt VT considering hamish says he has been in the motor trade for 20 odd years. so do you think its right to promise 304bhp on a 10 year old car? - i look forward to your views.

From your above post lance, im guessing that your a salesmans\conman's ideal customer\victim as they can promise you one thing and actually deliver something different and you still wouldnt car.

Im sure you wouldnt practise this in your line of work, charging someone for something that dont actually recieve.

so lets relate this to your car, what would happen if you found out your car didnt actually have as i believe a "cut and shut" 19t and in fact your wastegate had been tightened to hold boost higher up the rpm - so it wouldnt bother you if that was the case (note im not saying it is the case, so please dont send me anymore letters ) considering you had paid for a new turbo?

another analogy would be, lets say you paid to have a marble granite worktop put in (you paid alot of money to have this), you then find that they went down to b&q and bought some stick on stuff that actually looked the same - would you be happy with that?



however If im promised something, then i expect to get it. Thats the fundamental issue.

im quite new to the remapping of volvo T5s, i did create a thread about remapping chips etc on a number of forums and didnt realise that this subject is quite heated. ive had many cars modified pulsar gti-r, preludes, bmws etc which made me spend £1000s+ but for an approx gain of 35bhp+ on a T5depending on what model for around £300 sounds like a bargain to me on a remap.

[Lance BLACK V70 T5]

Originally Posted by bobcat

As im aware lance, your not in the motor trade. so if you can come to the above conclusion why couldnt VT considering hamish says he has been in the motor trade for 20 odd years. so do you think its right to promise 304bhp on a 10 year old car? - i look forward to your views.

From your above post lance, im guessing that your a salesmans\conman's ideal customer\victim as they can promise you one thing and actually deliver something different and you still wouldnt car.

Im sure you wouldnt practise this in your line of work, charging someone for something that dont actually recieve.

so lets relate this to your car, what would happen if you found out your car didnt actually have as i believe a "cut and shut" 19t and in fact your wastegate had been tightened to hold boost higher up the rpm - so it wouldnt bother you if that was the case (note im not saying it is the case, so please dont send me anymore letters ) considering you had paid for a new turbo?



however If im promised something, then i expect to get it. Thats the fundamental issue.

I was never promised anything i didnt get , I was expecting 265-270 whp , I got 280 whp!
In terms of a salesmans victim ive worked in sales for over 10 years, I don't make promises I can't keep, infact I seldom make promises certainly not in writting. All I do is give information much different from any promise!
But did VT make promises, I doubt it, just a claim which is a quite different to a promise. All VT have done is used published figures that were correct at the time of writting according to RICA.

Just like an independent phone shop saying a nokia phone has 30 hrs talktime, it might only have 5 when its been used a bit! It might have had 30 when it left the factory but only 24 when it reached the customer!
Are car phone warehouse going to change the spec sheets , I doubt it!


Look in Autocar , how many car companys blag there figures upwards 0-60, max speed , volvo in particular seem to publish much better figures than Auto car road test sugest every time along with other companies, thats the real world for you!