...the cars longevity is ultimately a large concern (i don't wanna do anything to it that'll limit and life of the car)

Simply put, don't put a tune on it. In my personal opinion Trifecta has a nice tune that isn't over the top and adds a responsible amount of power without stressing too much. However, even then, it's a tune and is pushing the car past it's factory recommended limits. If you aren't running wide open throttle (or close to it) a lot then you aren't really going to see any real noticeable difference from a tune. And to add to that, running wide open throttle (or close to it) often is going to decrease the life of the car/engine whether you have a tune or not.

 

With BNR you can have them water down a tune and mess with the throttle responce if you request it. Not every tune he does is exactly the same besides the base tune give or take mods like injectors or the GTX.

 

In less than a week I will have one 2017 Cruze with a BNR tune and one 2017 Cruze with a Trifecta tune. I will compare them both in a thread.

 

I went with BNR for two main reasons. 1. Great customer service and 2. The handheld does so much more than a crappy little wire. (and you do not have to lug a laptop around for the tune)

I have been looking at a tune for about 2 years. Trifecta WAS the top dog for awhile. However, they started doing some pretty shady things. They started blaming the vehicle concerns after the tune on the customer or the vehicle. They do not do unlimited tunes anymore (from what I understand). BNR does! In addition, people have had to wait WEEKS for tunes. I got my base tune within 48 hours of getting the handheld. Would have been sooner but my handheld was used to I had a few extra steps. I have turned in the datalog and it has been less then 2 days. I figure with more customization it may take a few days. So no worries for me. Seems like many get re tunes within a few days and they are pretty backed up right now with people getting tunes with their taxes. (not too backed up though). There are plenty of people on here who switched from Trifecta. If you have FB search for the Cruzetalk page. Tons of opinions there.

Now to describe the tune to you. If you have never driven a very fast car then you will smile from ear to ear the first time you hit the pedal. Even on the stock tune. I have always had slower cars so this tune for me woke the car up. Even on the base tune from BNR it shifts better, accelerates way better, and is all around fun as **** to drive.

Piece of advice from an outsider who was looking in. Go with BNR. If you want to save contact BNR and find a close by tuner. You can save money that way. However, it is good to have the handheld in case you go into limp mode or have to flash it back to stock for some reason.

Good luck choosing! (Choose BNR, it is a no brainer.)

 

U definitely answered some questions I had stirring up inside my head. I've also heard that trifecta was bad news. Also, to caveat on this, Vermont Tuning has some wicked parts for the Cruze as well. I think they have a better turbo upgrade than BNR, but that's just my opinion.. I can't wait to order my handheld from BNR. I had a couple questions to them directly and they responded within 48hrs and was straight to the point!


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The BNR turbo has a bigger compressor wheel, and the biggest compressor you can get on the stock style turbo. IIRC, the Vermont turbo also uses a used core as opposed to a new turbo.

The Vermont turbo also has a clipped turbine, which basically means that material is removed from the exhaust turbine fins so that you get more top end power at the expense of more turbo lag at lower speeds. The BNR turbo is not clipped.

Lastly, I believe Vermont uses a cast turbine, while the BNR turbo uses a billet turbine.

The BNR turbo is a better turbo, hands down, and one Trifecta won't even tune for.

 

Haven't had any experiences with the Cruze tunes, but for what it's worth, Vince & Trifecta have always been great with the tune on my Cobalt. I can email Vince whenever I need something and he gets back to me quickly. He put together and sent me a dyno-specific tune for the car (torque-converter unlocking issues) in less than a day after I emailed him about issues I had a couple years back. Car runs great, always has - and I did the blower swap almost 85,000 miles (and over 7 years) ago...and he worked with me on all the small tweaks to absolutely nail the tune.

Can't say anything about supposed "sketchiness" as I have not encountered it. I've had a couple extra tunes done (like the one mentioned above, plus another one for my summer tires - and one quick tweak to that after something accidently got flipped back on) since 2014, and have had no issues.

 

How long ago have you talked to Vince? I haven't talked to hin since BNR was the reseller of Trifecta tunes way back when.

 

I used to run Trifecta until their customer support went downhill back in 2014. I haven't looked back. Too many stories of people waiting weeks, even months to get a tune update and never having it arrive.

BNR makes more power and makes it reliably in this car. To date, I have not yet seen a single mechanical failure in any car caused by a BNR tune. Note: a good synthetic oil is required to maintain reliability; the OEM semi-synthetic oil simply won't cut it, and neither will some low quality "full synthetic" options.

The BNR tune can be customized to your preferences. If you want to make less power, that can be accomplished; you tell BNR what your preferences are for the tune and it is custom made to order, and fine tune adjustments are free and provided in a timely fashion.

Customer service is always exemplary.

The tune is a night and day difference in power; it completely changes the way the vehicle drives, in a good way. I used to drive a lot more often than I do, but still put about 8,000 miles on my car a year. I've been tuned for about 30,000 miles.

BNR Tune 2011-2016 Limited Chevrolet Cruze 1.4L Turbo

 

I bought a Trifecta tune from BNR 6 years ago for my 2010 V6 Camaro. I have to say it was worth the $300 I paid for it. I would recommend that you get as many power mods done before you go with the tune.

 

That tune you speak of has been replaced like 6 times to nothing like it. The current EZ Flash out won't even recognize those .TRT files. I take it, you got the ghost cam setup?

 

y power mods I mean headers, throttle bodies, intake manifolds

 

Bnr is an absolute no brainer at this point vs trifecta

Comparing tune quality
Customer service
Etc
Bnr blows them out of the water

Plus trifecta has been very very inconsistent and shady as of late


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Trifecta tuned, and it was right at the time they decided, without notice to change their tune to remove the Eco mode, and go normal and power mode.
I actually ordered (and their website and everything showed what I ordered) the Eco tune. I wasn't interested in more power at all. MPG gains claimed 5 MPG better with this tune.
The tune they sent me, was the normal/power one. After 3 attempts to try to get the tune I ordered, I gave up. They kept telling me, they don't do legacy tunes anymore. (whatever that means), even though, its what was ordered.
Only thing I got outta it, was loosing $300 bucks, and having a car that changed gears weird and less MPG. Sure, when it was in power mode, take off from a stop sign/light was OK, but hitting 2nd gear, you'd be pushed forward, as the car shifted at the wrong point.

After getting no where with them, I decided to trade the car out. So, as of this Jan. I no longer have a 2014 LT/RS. And glad of it!

 

Again, in a couple days I will have a direct side by side comparison of both tunes, each tune on a separate Cruze.

 

Unfortunately, the actual tune isn't always the issue with Trifecta; it's the customer service you get after you pay for it.

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Customer service hasn't been an issue in years. The only time we had issues and delays was back in 2014 when PAL was released, and all the backlash from the community came about to take it back to how it was.

Yes, everyone had to wait during that time to receive an update. Why? Because we had to go back and redevelop the calibration to be more in line with what the community was asking for. Thats not something that happens over night. It took a few months of dev time to get an update out that worked on all versions of the Cruze/Sonic (2011/2012 were different controllers etc than 2013+). So, continuing to use a 3 year old incident to represent where we are now, and have been, is unfair and grossly misrepresenting TRIFECTA.

Apart from that, there have been no delays since and no issues with customer service apart from normal little hiccups here and there that everyone experiences. We have seen many posts from the community about competing products where they have been waiting for weeks for log reviews etc. No one company is exempt from this. Ask any new customer since then or "as of late" to see if they had to wait weeks for a reply from us or weeks to get their calibration service/support.

I've only seen one member in this thread that is a recent customer post. Everyone else that has posted in this thread either went through the PAL debacle or never tried TRIFECTA in the first place and is simply repeating what they have heard from others with no real personal experience to draw from. So, take what you see here with a grain of salt, OP. (the person that posted the opening post/thread starter, for those of you unfamiliar with the lingo)

 

Loving all the input guys! I'm going to take every5hing here into great consideration before making a choice, I'm still months away even at this point but I wanna dive into the research now like with everything ! Very helpful!

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As far as parts, I have not heard anything bad about Vermont Tuning. I was going to go with them until BNR released their tune. However, I have not heard too many great things regarding them either. In the end it is your choice. One main thing I have heard, I am sure someone from WOT will say something if I am wrong, only BNR offers unlimited adjustments with the purchase of the tune and handheld.

 

one main thing i have heard, i am sure someone from wot will say something if i am wrong, only bnr offers unlimited adjustments with the purchase of the tune and handheld.

I'll comment on that. TRIFECTA has always tuned for modifications. We've been tuning this platform from day 1. We're the first to offer support for the 1.4T.

We have two tiers: Advantage at only $298 for a 100% stock vehicle and Elite for $398 for those that have mods and require ongoing support. We've never not had a solution to tune for mods

XtremeRevolution is correct, we do not tune for custom forced induction.

 

Andrei is right.

BNR GTX:
largest compressor wheel available and its billet
laser balanced to 250,000rpm
starts as a brand new turbo from GM
comes with a warranty against defects in materials or craftsmanship

VT turbo:
a slightly larger than stock wheel and it's cast
i have no idea if it's balanced or not
starts life as a used turbo with who knows what mileage
no warranty that I'm aware of


our turbo has proven time and time again that it walks the walk. There is a reason all the fast 1.4T guys use BNR parts and tuning. Nothing else needs said.

 

I personally can’t comment on Trifecta, as I’ve never tried their stuff. When I first started my modifications… I didn’t my research as I like to see my options. After a month of digging, I decided on the BNR tune. Man, what a difference in performance and the tune for the auto-trans is worth it alone. The unlimited tune updates and adjusting to what you want your vehicle to do is also worth it. Each tune is adjusted to your specific vehicle and NOT a canned generic tune made to work for every cruze. I’m now running the BNR GTX-14 turbo upgrade and a can’t be happier with it and the performance its putting out of this little 1.4. And I did do my research on the other upgraded turbo’s out there for the 1.4, it was a no brainer to go with BNR. As hard as I push this turbo, I’m still getting a little over 480-500miles to a tank with a mild tune loaded(93 octane). Now their customer service is another bonus. To me, customer service goes along way, witch is why I will continue to purchase from BNR. I ran into an issue that was none tune related at 11:00pm one night. I messaged Jerry, ran a log and he help me fix the issue and I was back on the road by midnight… Now that’s customer service lol.

 

This should answer your question.

This is made with about the same boost levels. BNR tunes are still within safe operating conditions and have the safety triggers built in that throw the car into limp mode to prevent any damage. To date nobody has reported any failures as a result of the tune.

The BNR car is the one pulling away.

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=QA3ArArF5js

BNR also allows you to store multiple tunes on the handheld device, which are customized to your liking, are free, and don't require a laptop to flash.

The handheld device is about half the cost of the BNR tune and can be recouped by selling the handheld to someone else if you sell the car, which isn't an option with Trifecta.

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I chose BNR for the simple fact of wanting to have a tune that fits my expectations through testing then revising until satisfied. So far they have done just that. Plus, free revisions from tuners are wonderful. The only complaint I have is that BNR's shipped products get bottle necked trying to leave Florida (mainly through Opa Locka's facility). That's not BNR's fault though; that's the postal service's fault. Other than that my daily drives very smooth, gets 2 miles more per gallon (29.5avg before and 31.3avg now), and she can get pretty feisty now, with all the added torque, when driving through town.

I have a friend with a bolt-on, tuned, turbo Cobalt and another with a tuned ATS that love Trifecta's tuning. They just didn't seem to have the E-tuning versatility that I was looking for.

 

UPDATE FOR INQUIRING MINDS:

I have now had the base tune from BNR for 2 weeks and my other requested tunes for about 4 days.

Base Tune: More power and better shifts.
Race Tune as requested: Even more power! (Mostly feels more Torquey and I love it.)
ECO Tune: In one tank using the trip calc. I went from my usual ~24.3 MPG to ~29.5. Even if you are not looking for power this tune alone makes it worth it. I cannot wait for it to warm up and see what the max MPG I can get!

It is your choice. But I am very pleased with the results from BNR.