Poll Multiple Vehicles on the trinity

[dwolson2]

DS said that multiple vehicles for the trinity was a "possibility" I am curious, what would you be willing to pay and would you use it? Also, I don't work for them, but my hope is that they will see there is a demand for it(or there isn't and they can shut me up ) and make it more of a priority.

[mikel]

$175 or less is not an option, as its $179 to unlock a tool currently.

[Mike_Levy]

Thats why it has to be around $150. If you charged as much as an unlock, then everybody would just unlock their tools. You need to keep it below that to give them incentive to buy extra licenses instead of unlocking.

That said, I picked No. I don't have a single supported vehicle, let alone more than 1.

[mikel]

Yeah, but we also have to consider that an extra license likely means one less piece of hardware sold, so we have to make sure we don't go out of business by doing this

[dwolson2]

Mikel,
Its more of a "What are you willing to pay?" or "what do you think a fair price would be" Obvioulsly we won't have control over the pricing, DS will, but this should get them an idea of what people are willing to pay.

Mike_levy,
If you unlock the tool so you can put it on another vehicle, you loose the ability to modify the tune on the first. Otherwise people would just do that right now.

My personal reason for thinking it should be cheaper is that:
1. It puts DS ahead of competitors and pushes people to buy their product
2.There is very little cost involved in opening it(its a matter of publishing an update(DS) and calling them up(Customer), no worse than unlocking it)
3. With a cheaper price, the consumer may be willing to buy the second or third vehicle when they would have otherwise left it alone(see WIFE'S vehicles.) Therefore bringing more money back to DS

I really don't see a reason for DS not to do it. Most people I know, don't have/want to spend ANOTHER 600$ to buy a tuner after already spending the first 600. Some people look at me crazy for spending the $ for the first. My old subaru cost a 25$ cable and my laptop to tune. The programing was free(opensource) And, tuning wise, I could do a lot more. With electronics getting cheaper and cheaper, something like this(multiple vehicles) would make DS stand out from others. Its only a matter of time before someone else makes a trinity like device and does it either cheaper or with multiple vehicles. The name of the game is to stay ahead of them, unless thats the point. Wait until they release a like tirinty device for a hair cheaper then they will open the trinity to two vehicles to stay ahead.... but thats just the conspiracy theory working its way out

That said, please don't take what I say about it in a bad way. I really just want to see a great product in the end. Its cool now, but I would really like to see some of the potential unlocked. Yes it would benefit me, but none the less, I would like to see it better.

[dwolson2]

Yeah, but we also have to consider that an extra license likely means one less piece of hardware sold, so we have to make sure we don't go out of business by doing this

I won't be willing to spend another 600 to tune my wife's SUV. 100 yes, 150 yes, 600 no. Too much. Besides, she doesn't want to see the tuner up in the dash. She just wants it to get better MPGs.

[maine54]

Diablo, you guys could always run a script that only excepts queries from a registered VIN that the customer provide. That alleviates Diablo having to charge a good chunk o'change for extra licenses and also from customers being slick with tuning cars their neighbors whips.

[jwdemon]

Yeah, but we also have to consider that an extra license likely means one less piece of hardware sold, so we have to make sure we don't go out of business by doing this

You're kidding, right, Mike! Like I tell my boss all the time, "A piece of equipment that's paid for makes more profit than one that you're still making payments on!". There are costs to manufacture hardware, only a small fraction to copy software, so do you really think you make more on the hardware than you could selling the software alone?

[mikel]

Yeah, but we also have to consider that an extra license likely means one less piece of hardware sold, so we have to make sure we don't go out of business by doing this

You're kidding, right, Mike! Like I tell my boss all the time, "A piece of equipment that's paid for makes more profit than one that you're still making payments on!". There are costs to manufacture hardware, only a small fraction to copy software, so do you really think you make more on the hardware than you could selling the software alone?

we're treading on thin ice here with this specific topic, but surely you can imagine that as the manufacturer, we have to maintain a certain profit level, and if we reduce the amount of money we make on any transaction like that, it affects the bottom line for sure.

[jwdemon]

Do the math, I'd be willing to bet there could be more profit in the software than what you're making on the hardware!

[mikel]

Not if you guys want to pay less than $150...Im kinda telling you I know the math

[jwdemon]

I think $150 would be a very fair price for tuning a second vehicle and that should leave a good profit for DS!

[dwolson2]

Even if you end up charging more than 150, I think the option should be there. I can definitively say I will NOT buy a second trinity. I would however buy a second license. Its not worth 600$ or even 400 used to buy a trinity for my wife's vehicle. 200 and I can justify it in savings on gas. 100 and i would be pretty antsy pulling the trigger, 50 and it would be a no brainer. Hardware, shipping and marketing have to cost a fair amount. Word of mouth about a tuner that can work on both vehicles and no upfront costs(for making the tuners) puts the release on the software a little higher.

As someone suggested, you could have a person send in a copy of their registration and unlock only vehicles registered to them. I wouldn't mind doing that.

[dguth66]

Some good points made IMHO by dwolson2, why not have it as an option for those who may have the need because like he said very few out there would throw in a second $600 for another trinity ......one tuning tool is not bad to get past the wife but two....

You could always do the math at $175 or $200 and see how it looks, I agree that your not loosing but actually gaining by enabling some smart marketing that's already there and ready in your tool now. However, I also agree that DS needs to carefully look and make a wise choice for logistics to manage such an upgrade while keeping an enticing price.

[dwolson2]

Some good points made IMHO by dwolson2, why not have it as an option for those who may have the need because like he said very few out there would throw in a second $600 for another trinity ......one tuning tool is not bad to get past the wife but two....

That WAF(Wife approval factor) always gets you