I looked into purchasing a second hand unit but the price to get it working with another car fast approaches a new unit, that's before you have paid for the second hand unit as well. I spoke to MTM and the box needs programming to that specific car for it to work. The cost of programming and a new warranty comes out at £858 plus the cost of the second hand unit. A new one is about £1400 installed.
I think that's something to bare in mind that the resale value of one of these boxes could be very low. It certainly put me off buying used. I think you have almost got to look at it as lost money as I don't think they are very easy to flog on like a DTUK one for example.
This is not strictly true. The MTM Cantronic boxes can be used with like for like cars. Ie 8V model S3 to another 8V S3. Infact probably even to Golf R etc with same engine block.
The canbus is not blocked by VIN / Chassis ID.
I spoke with several MTM premium partner outlets in Germany last week ( via a good German friend ) and atleast one other forum member on here spoke direct to MTM themselves. It would appear the above note got more than a few people worried/ concerned and conflicted with their understanding of the product.
From what we have been told outside of the UK from the mother land of MTM. The chassis number / VIN link is really for the warranty side of things. They take a download of the cars data incase of any issues so they have a reference point... just like a proper remap. Not much else.
They don't really like people buying used items as they want to keep you in the MTM dealer network from day 1. Surely if people were drip fed in, they might actually buy more products later down the line, but hey..
As nice as some tuners maybe on the forums or on the telephone we all have to remember they are in the end business people who want/need to make money....Which I fully understand, but it would be nice to see some consistency. ( around information and price for starters )
One of the chaps in Germany was especially good and basically stated there is no reason why like for like boxes would not work on like for like cars and said that in most cases buyers do not take out the additional warranty as he has never had a case where one of his customers has needed it.
Warranty price is ontop of the new RRP price of the boxes.
For completeness sake you can take a used Cantronic box to a MTM agent if its from the same model and they can link VIN / Chassis numbers, complete a rolling road, and take a scan on your car etc. In the UK the cost I was quoted was £400+ vat. ( which is a crazy price) and lets hope that drops.. But this is not a necessity, and the German premium outlets said they personally would not bother.
The bottom line is the boxes run a map for the specific car model, wiring loom etc. If you want to use the cantronic box in a different model, lets say S3 to S4 for example then the boxes have to be reconfigured. If you buy a different make of car you would probably have to change the wiring loom as well. Thats when it gets very very expensive. Boxes do work lbetween like for like models.
Maybe they can be tweaked some how to perform even better on an individual car but to say they will not work is simply not true.
Oooh and......In the name of science and for the sake of curiosity to see what all the fuss is about . I have gone one step further. I have put my money down and have put my hard earned cash on the line.
I bought a used box from the classifieds.
I can categorically confirm its fitted in minutes, throws no error codes and appears to works a treat.
More to come on a seperate thread etc...
Jungle.
