Product claims used to sell aftermarket parts and services span a range from factual to comically absurd.
Factual information helps consumers by allowing them to fairly compare options and decide on a suitable “solution” for their needs.
Comically absurd product claims help vendors separate consumers from their money.
Product claims:
The following list is the Top 5 most absurd product claims I have found from vendors serving the VW Mk7 platform:
#5
CTS Turbo – Mk7 Turbo Muffler Delete
CTS Turbo
Our Turbo Muffler delete replaces the restrictive, power robbing OEM Turbo Muffler, which is designed to reduce turbocharger harmonic noise.
CTS Turbo
Accompanying the product claim is a dyno chart that purports to show the CTS TMD picks up ~8 whp at 4350 rpm increasing to ~13 whp at 4640 rpm and ending with an ~5 whp gain above 5500 rpm. This looks to be from a Stage 1 IS20 based on the wheel power numbers, 258 peak with the stock TMD and 263 peak with the CTS TMD.
There are also gains of ~10-15 wtq.
I contacted CTS Turbo to inquire about details of the comparison and they informed me they had been provided the dyno chart from a shop that sells their product, they didn’t have any information about how the information was gathered.
#4
ARM Motorsports – Mk7 Front Mount Intercooler
ARM Motorsports makes this statement about intercoolers:
Contrary to popular belief, bigger is not better, at least when it comes to intercoolers for the MQB platorm.
ARM Motorsports
As luck would have it, it isn’t just a popular belief that a bigger intercooler is better, the science of heat transfer also supports this.
Q = Cp * A * \Delta T
Where Q is the heat transfer rate, and A is the heat transfer area.
#3
FellyBuilt – Titanium Volkswagen Intake Tube and Airbox.
Increased HP. Test car gained 30 hp after switching from competitor intake to a 3.5″ FellyBuilt intake
FellyBuilt
The product claim is accompanied by a dyno chart showing the FellyBuilt intake-equipped car, seemingly IS20 equipped based on power levels, making 34 WHP and 49 WTQ more than with the competitor’s intake.
Pair a FellyBuilt intake with CTS TMD and pump up the output from your IS20 by nearly 50 WHP!
#2
Integrated Engineering (IE) – Mk7 Intercooler
Approaching the top end of this list, the shit is getting pretty deep.
As a result, the IE FDS intercooler has been proven to drastically reduce intake air temperatures more so than any other units available on the market -offering the largest power gains possible.
Integrated Engineering
The claim to have proven this result is not supported by any proof. Given that there are at least 35 “other units available on the market”, it’s doubtful this claim will ever be backed-up with proof.
#1
Equilibrium Tuning (EQT) – Blaze Performance Intake
Not to be outdone by IE, the advertisers at EQT took their “proof” claims to the next level with their advertising for the Blaze intake.
The Blaze Performance AToM V2 Air Intake System is one of the best-performing and flowing options on the market as verified by independent testing.
Equilibrium Tuning
Of course, you don’t take the prize for the most absurd product claim by having evidence to back up your verification claim, and EQT fails spectacularly at delivering the goods to back up this claim.
They failed in such spectacular fashion I devoted an entire post to discussing the challenges substantiating these claims would pose.
Some doozies! TMD is beyond egregious.
I feel like it’s a toss-up whether companies are intentionally misleading or just ignorant of advertising rules.
I do enjoy reading these post about false claims by companies. The eqt blaze intake have been like a Soap opera lol. Looking forward to reading the next one about them
The conduct from that company is particularly noteworthy.
“Contrary to popular belief, bigger is not better, at least when it comes to intercoolers for the MQB platorm.“
Arm really should’ve leaned into the whole “location of the intercooler actually matters”
U need over 900 cubic inches if U want a stock location to even perform as good as a smaller fmic half its size. It’s crazy how the whole community is convinced stock location intercoolers are better.
How exactly? Fmic is cheaper, easier to install, quicker to install and perform better cuz location actually does matter. Do folks not know what a mk4 Supra with a 900 cubic inch intercooler can do when using all of the intercooler? No GTI would be able to make that power and not max out that upgraded stock location intercooler cuz location actually matters!
Nice read dude! Thanks
Sorry but I have tons of actual data that shows under track hot lapping conditions a FMIC (arguably the best on the market) performs on par with nearly every other stock location intercooler (and it’s certainly not the “best” if strictly going by numbers). The truth is it doesn’t matter especially on the street… Just get anything but stock.
https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/index.php?threads/track-temp-data-ic-and-radiator-combo-data-collection-all-your-logs-are-belong-to-us.425356/
The only thing a FMIC is definitely superior at is cooling with the AC on.
Which FMIC is arguably the best on the market?
So the cheaper, easier to install option, that also happens to be smaller than the stock location upgrade. Performs identical to the oversized stock location upgrade. Yet u call them on par?
That’s wild. Seen a lot of logs thanks to the good folks on Reddit. And the fmic always came out on top. If only by a little. Especially on track and auto x. But sure. Imagine location not mattering. To be fair, all the logs I saw were from gti’s in a ton of different mod configurations. From all over America. Not a single one ran an ie intercooler. Ran a lap. Logged it. Switched to a fmic and did the same. The only thing that stood out to me was the fmic equipped cars always ran a cooler vs ambient vs the stock location.
If u need 900 cubic inches of intercooler to handle stage 2 is20 temps. U have a problem bro. I went from is20 to dtr6054 yet my fmic is performing identical. The dtr isn’t even enough to stress my intercooler any. Not even at a drive through. But yeah. They’re the same…..