Kennedys Tuning

The Mondeo was never quick. It is more driveable now: less strain on the hill by the retail park, a clearer mid-range, and a calmer cruise. Fuel use on my regular run has not gone the wrong way.

The hill out of the village used to drop the Golf GTI a gear. It climbs in fifth now, the throttle meets you sooner, and a pass on the bypass is a shorter decision. Day to day it just drives better.

S3. The mid-range arrives earlier and the hill onto the dual carriageway is no longer a downchange. Sharp when you ask, calm when you do not.

We load the Passat with the children, the dog and a boot full of bags, then point it at the hill out of town. That was the weak spot. It would hunt, sit on the limiter of its patience, and only wake up once you had dropped two gears. After the tune it pulls up there in the gear you are already in. Around the shops the pickup is smoother rather than snatchy, and a motorway run no longer feels as if the engine is working for a living. I am getting slightly further on a tank. Mostly, though, the car has become easier to place in traffic.

My 320d does the same commute it always has, and that is how I can tell the remap is right. The long drag up to the ring road no longer forces a downchange with a passenger aboard. Pull in the mid-range is there when the road opens, yet it still trickles through town without feeling wound up. I have been watching the fuel figures. Town is about level and the dual carriageway is a bit better, which I did not expect once it had more go. The gearbox is quieter in its work. Drivability is the real change, not a party trick.

I bought the remap for the X3 because of a trailer, not a timesheet. The climb to the yard used to have the gearbox dropping and the engine moaning with the weight on the back. It takes that hill in a higher gear and still has something left at the top. Unhitched, the throttle is tidier in town and the car feels lighter between junctions. Empty motorway miles look a touch kinder on fuel. The change is in how it works, every day.

Focus ST. Cleaner pickup, stronger through the middle, and it walks up the hill by the estate instead of surfacing for a lower gear. Easier to drive fast and easier to drive slowly.

The Transporter is a tool. It does hills with a full load, and that is the sentence that matters. Before, the long pull up the valley meant sitting in a low gear, watching the temperature, and planning the lay-bys. It holds its speed now and does not hunt every time the gradient changes. I still drive it carefully, but I am not fighting it. On the empty run back the fuel figure has improved, and the throttle from a junction is clean enough that I am not surging into traffic. Turnaround at the workshop was short. The van simply does the job with less effort, which is all I had asked for.

The A4 is simply more willing. Hills that meant a kickdown are a flex of the ankle, and the in-gear pull makes the bypass less of a calculation. It still rides and idles as an Audi should.

I took the C220 up the same A-road I have used for years, the one that climbs for a mile behind a lorry. It used to fall out of gear and make a noise about it. This time it stayed put and pulled. Overtakes are finished sooner, the throttle is less lazy off a roundabout, and the car feels settled once you are at a cruise. That is the remap I wanted.

The Ranger used to labour as soon as the trailer nose came up. It pulls away cleaner and holds the hill without falling off the cam. Solo, it cruises with less effort and the economy has held.