[evanevery]

I've been coding BMW's for over 6 years now...and I'm a professional software developer in RL. But, I guess you know better than me!

And now, you are confusing "tuning" with "coding". "Tuning" is a completely different process then "coding".

"Coding" is actually a pretty trivial activity which is easily accomplished using standardized tools (E-Sys). "Tuning" is a basically a deep exercise in extracting code, symbolically disassembling that code, reverse engineering its functionality, modifying that functionality, and then reinstalling the modified code into the same binary footprint as the original without BREAKING anything while obtaining the desired modification to its functionality. This is why it often takes YEARS of work to crack new ECU's and very few shops have the capabilities to do this. Its a VERY expensive process so the business model needs to charge a premium even just to break even. This is why custom tunes and software can cost over a $1000 a pop. There also has to be the DEMAND to support the PROFIT or no one is going to do this. I'm unaware of any custom firmware developed for anything other than BMW ECU's for engine and traction control. Folks have been tuning various BMW ECU's for quite some time so there is a fairly well established ecosystem (and high demand) to crack new ECU's as they are released. How much are you personally willing to spend to have someone crack the body and/or nav module firmware just so you can do one pretty meaningless thing in one very isolated model car which has very limited sales distribution?

Please let us know how it turns out!