I bought the 5-Star Tune a year ago at a cost of $508.39 which included a discount of $82.49, but considers shipping and IL sales tax. I finally got around to installing it last week, just prior to taking a 700 mile round-trip journey, all highway driving and not towing.
The first task was to update the 5-Star Tune hand-hend unit using a Windows computer. An Apple does NOT work. The process involved downloading an updating tool called "Device Updater" then performing the actual update.
After updating the hand-held unit with my Windows 8.1 (now unsupported by Microsoft) laptop computer, I plugged it into my OBD-II port. It then loaded my factory tune into it. This is saved in-case you later change your mind and would like to revert back to the factory original tune.
Afterward, I uploaded the 5-Star Tune.
.................Here are my observations...................
I cannot provide a good evaluation at this time because this was a short trip of only 700 miles, all highway driving, relatively flat roads, not towing our 2006 Jeep Liberty, and the gasoline in our fuel tank was over 2 years old.
BEHAVIORS: The transmission shifts more like, and accelerates more like a normal car would. I describe it as a refined version of "Tow-Haul Mode". It simply "feels better" with the 5-Star Tune.
I used cruise control nearly all the time. I made note that the transmission did NOT downshift when climbing over-passes.
Our cruising speed was a consistent 63 mph per our ScanGauge-II readout (65 mph per the speedometer). Per The ScanGage-II, our fuel economy to our destination of 350 miles consistently read 12.6 mpg. Our return trip back home of 350 miles consistently read 11.6 mpg. On the way out, we had no notable head wind. Our return trip, we felt a head wind which explains the 1 mpg difference.
Our average fuel economy there and back was 12.1 mpg.
Performance was improved, but we were not towing our Jeep Liberty which is what we are used to. So my comment on "performance" is nearly worthless.
I liked that the transmission did not downshift with each overpass, emphasizing again that we were not towing our Jeep Liberty.
I will provide a better evaluation after a 5000-6000 round trip journey out west when towing our Jeep Liberty. That is most valuable to me, not a short 700 mile trip not towing. I post this because I didn't want my first 5-Star Tune experience go undocumented.
Ron Dittmer
