HONDATA has been purchased by EPT

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[Cueyo]

Lmao, cobb didn't like that people still preferred hondata over their tuner. Guess ktuner needs to step up their game.

I imagine the cobb access port is gonna integrate the hondata functionality into it. If private equity has shown anything though, it's that the product always gets worse. Fully expect for PRL and Hondata to get much much worse in the coming years. Such a shame.

Though that said, most modern Honda tuning solutions all kind of suck for the end user.

 

[Bishop]

I'm ok with this.

 

[blueroadster]

Hopefully Doug is retained.

 

[ctechauto]

I'm ok with this. Cobb has always been a preference for me/my personal cars, and I tend to steer my customers to Cobb and local Cobb tuners anyway. Hasnt let me down for 15-ish years since the early Subaru days. The only drawback is slower on releasing popular products to the masses due to scrutiny and engineering for 50-state approval and CARB, integration within their full ecosystem (CAN Gateway for example) since they support a wide variety of cars etc. but their products, customer service I prefer. Also FWIW our shop FL5 was their R&D car for the MY25 FL5 Accessport release.

And on a side note, the sale of PRL to EPT has been a little bit of a mess dealing with APG and PRL during the transition. Hopefully the acquisition of Hondata is smoother for shops and customers alike.

 

[Superhatch]

I'm not ok with this.

A consolidation of any industry always makes things shittier. Private equity is a scourge on any business sector and their only motivation is profit, at any cost.

As noted above expect Doug to be driven out or his input greatly reduced, expect the product lines to culminate into one piece of hardware, one user experience, etc. Expect it to be harder for individual tuners to use the product, etc.

F.

 

[Mrjustin81]

I'm not ok with this.

A consolidation of any industry always makes things shittier. Private equity is a scourge on any business sector and their only motivation is profit, at any cost.

As noted above expect Doug to be driven out or his input greatly reduced, expect the product lines to culminate into one piece of hardware, one user experience, etc. Expect it to be harder for individual tuners to use the product, etc.

F.

Yeah, private equity usually takes something good and shittifies it

 

[Cueyo]

I'm ok with this. Cobb has always been a preference for me/my personal cars, and I tend to steer my customers to Cobb and local Cobb tuners anyway. Hasnt let me down for 15-ish years since the early Subaru days. The only drawback is slower on releasing popular products to the masses due to scrutiny and engineering for 50-state approval and CARB, integration within their full ecosystem (CAN Gateway for example) since they support a wide variety of cars etc. but their products, customer service I prefer. Also FWIW our shop FL5 was their R&D car for the MY25 FL5 Accessport release.

And on a side note, the sale of PRL to EPT has been a little bit of a mess dealing with APG and PRL during the transition. Hopefully the acquisition of Hondata is smoother for shops and customers alike.

You just described one of the biggest problems with Cobb and private equity as a whole. They support a wide variety of cars, hence the individual support for different brands and vehicles will never be as good. I said it have jokingly, but it seems they really only bought Hondata for the tuning related things access port and cobb didn't have. This is thoroughly a method to force people to come to cobb.

And they've shown how bad it was with PRL, to think it'll be good for Hondata is nonsense. Private equity maximizes profit. I can all but guarantee the prices of everything will go up and the excuse will be something about making sure Hondata is 50 states and CARB legal.

I'm just incredibly upset that Hondata even sold to private equity. You'd think that tuning would be something that requires a lot of passion, so the thought of making money and getting out would go in the face of that.

 

[ctechauto]

You just described one of the biggest problems with Cobb and private equity as a whole. They support a wide variety of cars, hence the individual support for different brands and vehicles will never be as good. I said it have jokingly, but it seems they really only bought Hondata for the tuning related things access port and cobb didn't have. This is thoroughly a method to force people to come to cobb.

And they've shown how bad it was with PRL, to think it'll be good for Hondata is nonsense. Private equity maximizes profit. I can all but guarantee the prices of everything will go up and the excuse will be something about making sure Hondata is 50 states and CARB legal.

I'm just incredibly upset that Hondata even sold to private equity. You'd think that tuning would be something that requires a lot of passion, so the thought of making money and getting out would go in the face of that.

Completely understand but unless you're doing full flex fuel or disabling O2 CEL/MIL, in the end they're just both ECU flash devices and software. And Cobb is already planning to release the CAN gateway with FF support soon (hopefully). While I understand there are use cases for the above, its not like Cobb is a "deficient" product because it wont let you disable a CEL for emissions especially since nowadays a catted DP is 99.5% the same power output without the the smell and environmental impacts. And as mentioned, Cobb support has been as good or better than non-PE brands, so that doesnt sway me and what I recommend to customers anyway. And though I agree it probably wont be a smooth transition in reality, I'm just hopeful it will be.

 

[Cueyo]

Completely understand but unless you're doing full flex fuel or disabling O2 CEL/MIL, in the end they're just both ECU flash devices and software. And Cobb is already planning to release the CAN gateway with FF support soon (hopefully). While I understand there are use cases for the above, its not like Cobb is a "deficient" product because it wont let you disable a CEL for emissions especially since nowadays a catted DP is 99.5% the same power output without the the smell and environmental impacts. And as mentioned, Cobb support has been as good or better than non-PE brands, so that doesnt sway me and what I recommend to customers anyway. And though I agree it probably wont be a smooth transition in reality, I'm just hopeful it will be.

Regardless, loss of a competitor is bad for the industry and the customer. I just hope ktuner is able to step up, otherwise we're all beholden to the same brand. Any boons that cobb may offer are immediately offset by the downsides that we'll see in a few years.

 

[ctechauto]

Regardless, loss of a competitor is bad for the industry and the customer. I just hope ktuner is able to step up, otherwise we're all beholden to the same brand. Any boons that cobb may offer are immediately offset by the downsides that we'll see in a few years.

That I agree with, more boutique companies are harder and harder to find nowadays. But its understandable on both sides.

 

[raptor718]

good while it lasted

 

[optronix]

I'm just incredibly upset that Hondata even sold to private equity. You'd think that tuning would be something that requires a lot of passion, so the thought of making money and getting out would go in the face of that.

This is such a naive statement. BUSINESS IS BUSINESS. Passion has no real place in business. At all.

If you're one of the lucky few who does something for a living you're passionate about, congratulations. Otherwise, making money is literally the meaning of life. If you haven't figured that out yet, I don't know whether to praise you or feel sorry for you.

No one. NO ONE. Works for free.

 

[Cueyo]

This is such a naive statement. BUSINESS IS BUSINESS. Passion has no real place in business. At all.

If you're one of the lucky few who does something for a living you're passionate about, congratulations. Otherwise, making money is literally the meaning of life. If you haven't figured that out yet, I don't know whether to praise you or feel sorry for you.

No one. NO ONE. Works for free.

I counter that with the notion that cars, the purchase of and modification to, is emotional. Take one look at how and why people modify their cars and you'll immediately see that it's based off how they feel and what they want, not need. If the audience you cater to does things emotionally, then you need to be able to relate to that. Business is business, but when there's zero passion in the business it shows. Great example is the car channel 'Donut' and what happened after they were sold to private equity.

Yes, not everyone wakes up loving what they do, but that's a consequence of their choices and the cards they where given - but that has nothing to do with cars, and I'm talking about how this is bad for the community and cars. Hondata had no reason to sell to EPT, and in no way is it a business decision to sell to private equity when it means you leave the business in the process.

I can't hope to know why you think the way you do, but I hope you can find a reason to not make money the point of life.

 

[Ic@ns33urhrt]

You might want to think a little more critically about your statement. LOL. “ making money is literally the meaning of life”

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