So I have an '05 STi. Minor upgrades at best - just bolt ons. Fuel pump, turbo back (no cats), intake, and greddy ebc. Where I live in Colorado I have really good UTEC and ECUTek tuners. However I'm just stuck at a wall. I like Ecutek because it's always been consistent on all of my friends cars ranging from stock, to bolt on's, to bult motors and big turbos.. However it is not appealing is the cost of reflash's and the intial cost of license and tune considering with things like UTEC that cost a little bit more you can get launch control and other features as well.
Without spending an arm and a leg on FULL stand alone like hyrda or tweaking my sti to go AEM or Autronic what would you recommend.. I'm not looking for die hard brand loyalists but people that know what's tried and true for the STi because I know the STi and with most subaru's anyways - the auto learning ecu is a pain!

Any help would be appreciated as I will be getting ECUTek or UTEC installed and tuned this friday, four days from now

Thanks, Jake.

 

how far do you want to go with the car

i mean are you done modding it or is there another round

i would say do all the mods and then get it tuned

i have had a utec and im now on a stand alone

im looking for a stock ecu now hehe

 

If I were you, I would get an accessport or ecutek custom map.

IMO the only reason to get the utec is if you want to learn how to tune or you already know how to tune and constantly like to tinker with it.

AP and ecutek are more 'set it and forget it'. I have a custom ecutek map on my wrx, and Ive been happy with it. One drawback that you mentioned is the cost of having it re-tuned whenever you add something new. I wish I had the accessport, but back when I was choosing, the AP didnt have custom tuning available. Now that you can have protuned custom maps, the AP is really a no-brainer decision IMO.