Hi guys
after taking 2 days of reading different forums and talking to a couple of the major players involved in all this, I have to admit I'm not 100% clear of the future of our tuning product, but will try to set a few things straight as far as I'm aware of things.
When we purchased the SCT software, we had to sign 2 contract agreements, a contract for Capa and a contract for SCT. Some of the clauses in these contracts relate to us not trying to hack the software or reverse engineer their tuning devices and also not willingly allow another person to do the same.
As tuners we have the ability to unlock a flash box, providing the original tune was returned to the original car, the owner could then reuse his flash box on another car and this could be done up to a total of 5 cars. Now if this orignal tune was not returned, we as tuners could not unlock these boxes, so they originally would have to go back to SCT to be unlocked. They would normally only do this after a car was written off or was stolen and the owner still had their flash box, but legal proof would have to be produced.
SCT eventually allowed an australian
distributor the ability to unlock these boxes to save sending them back to the states.
It has been reported that an australian
distributor was recently trying to sell flash boxes that they would continually unlock for a fee, which means a customer could get a car tuned but without the cost of a flash box, but they would not own a flash box. Now this may work out cheaper for the customer for a 1 off tune, but if they wanted tune touch ups they would continiually have to absorb the unlocking fee, so after maybe 3or4 changes, they would be worse off and still not own a flash box. This
distributor has also posted, that this was not happening, but they threw it out there to see if there was a need for it.
This may not seem like a big deal to some customers, but it would be for SCT. Most software companies make their income by receiving licence fees. If you have another brand of car tuned, normally in part of the price is a fee for a vehicle licence or if no licence fee is applied, the tuner has paid a lot more money to have unlimited licences for a particular model and he would be passing on some of that extra cost as part of his price to meet his overheads. We have to think of these flash boxes as SCT's licence fee, every time they sell a flash box they received their licence fee. By a company/person having the ability to reuse a box over and over on different cars is basically robbing SCT, basically piratcy.
Now I don't think at this stage anyone actually cares about SCT at the moment, because of the way they have decided to conduct themselves, but they had to take measures to stop this from happening. The way they have done it is wrong as far as I'm concerned, I believe there is better ways, but now we have to suffer.
SCT has not sold any Xcal1 (our flash box) since 2005, they are old technology and all companies stop supporting an old product at some stage, but they should not stop it from working, just allow it to die a natural death from either old age or using all it's lives.
As far as Herrod, they have not just been made the
distributor, we were informed before october last year that they were now the australian
distributor and once anyone elses stock was sold, Herrod would be the sole
distributor for australia. Now SCT has told us in the last 8 months or so, that we could deal directly with them, so I'm not sure whether this still applies with Herrods being the local
distributor. I believe Herrod sell the X3 as this is the current unit being used in the states, SCT do not sell the Xcal1 or flash 2 anymore.
The unit is dearer than what we have become accustomed to, but remeber that the flash box was $1295 when it came out.
X3 is not the Livewire tuner
It appears that next week, SCT will be going over tuners and allowing some the ability to be able to flash the boxes again, but this appears to be for only another 90 days at this stage, but I know talks are still happening regarding this.
As far as other tuning options, I have spoken to some other tuners that have toyed with other software and it appears they are not compatiable with all processor codes and models at this stage, so some cars could be tuned with brand A but not brand B, so it appears SCT is the best product at the moment, but things may change in the future.
I think if distributors of sniper or VCM suite are serious about their product, they could offer tuners a sample of their software with possibly the ability to flash 1 car, so a good comparison can be made about products.
I believe SCT had to act
I believe they went about it the wrong way
I don't believe Herrod's are the villians
Pit Lane still has 290 burns left so we can still do a few cars and hopefully it will be sorted by the time they are used.