APR and Linden Volkswagen Want to Tune Your VW Straight from the Dealership

As we all know, going two places to get something is 100% worse than going to just one. Think about your lunch. If you had to buy the bread and the meat at different stores, the chances of you making a sandwich would drop precipitously. But there’s a supermarket, and all of the sandwich fixings are in one place. Nowadays, when you want to tune your car, you have to go to a different places, do research, and talk to more strangers, all of which sounds terrible. But APR and Linden Volkswagen, in New Jersey, think they have a solution.

Next week, the two plan to start a new program called APR Plus that will allow buyers can get an ECU tune straight from the dealership. If it goes well, the program could find its way into dealerships all over the country. So far, it’s only available on 1.8-liter and 2.0-liter engines, and only in the Golf family, but APR says it wants to expand to more cars. Under the program, you can buy a new Golf Sportwagen 1.8 TSI that makes 225 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque, instead of the stock 170/199. Which means that straight from the dealership, you can get a base Golf that’s more powerful than a GTI. Just be careful you don’t meet a GTI from VW Linden, because it might have 260 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque.


Best of all, though, you don’t even have to give up on a warranty. Instead of VW’s warranty, you get a new 5 year/60,000 mile limited powertrain warranty with APR Plus, that gets you roadside assistance and a rental car in certain circumstances. And claims can be processed at any VW dealership (not just Linden), provided they have an ASE certified tech.

The actual cost of the APR Plus is up to the dealership so prices will vary, but on the APR Plus site the company has worked out a “worst case scenario” price over five years. You also have the option of just paying up front for the tune, though. Unfortunately, APR Plus needs to be purchased when the car is sold, so if you live near Linden, you can’t just take your car there to have the tune applied.

This isn’t a deal with Volkswagen of America, so you won’t necessarily see this in your local dealership, but APR says it’s gotten a lot of interest from dealers across the country. For now, the company’s taking it slow, though, trying to see how things go. When APR Plus does expand, the company wants to go dealership by dealership.