People can say whay they want about 'tailored maps' but i've been in this game too long and 95% of maps are bought in from someone, could be anywhere in the world but most companies out there will just email their supplier and ask for a tuned file which matches the car they are doing.
I've also seen hundreds of 'tuned' files which are a total joke, people without a clue what they are doing going in and just altering maps until they feel an improvement without knowing exactly what they have changed or the adverse effects it might cause, remapping if done properly can yield good results but its not the holy grail folks as some people make it out to be. Even many good maps will only alter 1 map to get power e.g fuelling or turbo pressure.
Tuning boxes are not 'fighting' the ECU thats total rubbish, they are simply altering input signals it receives just as if the sensor supplying the information was sending different information, there is no conflict and the ECU is not under pressure because its receiving different voltages. Also many of our tuning kits are multi channel, especially for the latest engines with Bosch EDC 17 ECU's, these boxes are very clever and can alter up to 5 signals to the ECU, we can alter both start and stop point of the tuning, how harsh or smooth the tuning starts, fuelling, timing, fuel pressure, boost pressure and even turbo timer at max speed just like a remap could do but reversed engineered. We just tested our box at the weekend on the new Audi S4 and got +107 bhp, try to beat that with a remap!
Normally I find that the people who try to rubbish boxes are those who do remaps and don't know what they are discussing, tuning boxes are not all the same, just like remaps they wary greatly in quality and technology, there is some utter garbage out there and some extremely advanced technology.
Diesel engines up to about 2007 are very simple to tune, a diesel to point will keep creating power (within reason) if you keep adding fuel until it reaches a point where it can no longer burn the fuel at which time it starts putting out smoke (unburnt diesel) so on the older engines simply altering fuel rail pressure very carefully and by specific amounts you can make the injectors inject more fuel thus creating more power, it is that simple and no extra turbo pressure is usually needed, this method is also cheaper to make as it only requires the control of one signal.
As I said previously newer cars from 2007-2011 are a different story, the manufacturers have gotten wise to tuning and on some models have made it much more difficult to make alterations to the voltage from sensors, they have also security locked the new ECU's so you can't write software to them any more, this is where our multi channel products come into play, because the range of adjustment on each sensor is limited we acheive power by altering signals on several sensors within the allowed tolerance and can get the same power results.
So folks don't belive all the hype about tuning boxes being rubbish and remaps being the 'proper' way to tune. If you buy a good quality tuning box you can get every bit as good a result with the added advantage that you can take your car in for servicing or warranty work with the box removed and refit after, you can also re-use many boxes on your next car with a new cable and re-flash of parameters or sell it second hand to re-coup some of your outlay, none of those things you can do with a remap.
I'm not knocking remapping I just hate all the constant boll**ks that is talked about them being so much superior.