Cobb pulls out of the Mazdaspeed platform :(

[northvibe]

For quite some time, the MAZDASPEED community has, in large part, been confrontational, disrespectful, unprofessional, vulgar or childish regarding any announcements and/or business decisions COBB Tuning has made on public forums. Responses ranging from outrage and profanity to threats of intellectual property piracy have become the normal reaction when things don't go exactly to their wishes. No amount of professionalism, realism or rationale has worked in turning these communications into more constructive discussions.Although COBB Tuning is a business, it is made up of enthusiasts that work here and they love what they do. Everyone gets a lot of satisfaction from taking on the hard projects like cracking and controlling the MAZDASPEED ecu and making it do what no one else does. When ongoing criticism to these efforts is "**** COBB" or "I'm going to hack your software and give it away" or "**** these OTS maps" or "Hopefully Cobb will get it's head out of it's ***", it tends to make everyone less enthusiastic about working on it.We have decided to bring MAZDASPEED development to a close because no one at COBB finds it rewarding to put in the hours and hours of effort just to have so many people spouting negativity and insults. In fact, many of our pro tuners have been monitoring the MAZDASPEED forum discussions to gauge interest and have come back with "Uh, nevermind...not worth dealing with it" responses. It's a shame that while the MAZDASPEED community is demanding more performance products from manufacturers, the tribal infighting, Lord of the Flies atmosphere and unrestrained attitude displayed on the forums is actually driving choice and new development out of the market. It might be fun for some, but the entire community suffers as a whole.Regards,Gary SheehanDirector of MarketingCOBB TuningThis Gary guy is new and just pissed off a ton of people. At the mazdaspeedforums, the owner worked with Cobb for over a year to help develop and test the AP and other cobb products. then this guy comes and starts ruining everything in 3 days. It makes no sense as cobb products sold out the day they were released and then for months they were hard to find. I was pumped for the new bpv ugh what a childish "letter" to the community.

[BlueCrush]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »For quite some time, the MAZDASPEED community has, in large part, been confrontational, disrespectful, unprofessional, vulgar or childish regarding any announcements and/or business decisions COBB Tuning has made on public forums. Responses ranging from outrage and profanity to threats of intellectual property piracy have become the normal reaction when things don't go exactly to their wishes. No amount of professionalism, realism or rationale has worked in turning these communications into more constructive discussions.Although COBB Tuning is a business, it is made up of enthusiasts that work here and they love what they do. Everyone gets a lot of satisfaction from taking on the hard projects like cracking and controlling the MAZDASPEED ecu and making it do what no one else does. When ongoing criticism to these efforts is "**** COBB" or "I'm going to hack your software and give it away" or "**** these OTS maps" or "Hopefully Cobb will get it's head out of it's ***", it tends to make everyone less enthusiastic about working on it.We have decided to bring MAZDASPEED development to a close because no one at COBB finds it rewarding to put in the hours and hours of effort just to have so many people spouting negativity and insults. In fact, many of our pro tuners have been monitoring the MAZDASPEED forum discussions to gauge interest and have come back with "Uh, nevermind...not worth dealing with it" responses. It's a shame that while the MAZDASPEED community is demanding more performance products from manufacturers, the tribal infighting, Lord of the Flies atmosphere and unrestrained attitude displayed on the forums is actually driving choice and new development out of the market. It might be fun for some, but the entire community suffers as a whole.Regards,Gary SheehanDirector of MarketingCOBB TuningThis Gary guy is new and just pissed off a ton of people. At the mazdaspeedforums, the owner worked with Cobb for over a year to help develop and test the AP and other cobb products. then this guy comes and starts ruining everything in 3 days. It makes no sense as cobb products sold out the day they were released and then for months they were hard to find. I was pumped for the new bpv ugh what a childish "letter" to the community.Since you only posted COBB's side of the story, I say good for COBB. It sounds like the Mazda peeps are the childish one's, based on his letter. The Mazda winerbabies people shouldn't bite the hands that feed them. I'd drop them too. Maybe they'll appreciate what COBB did for them once they are gone. Idiots!

[Mavrik]

yeah both sides of the story would be nice. however if its as true as Gary says... He'd be the one to see the true profit side of it instead of the community.so are they also cutting off all support to the current cobb products that have been sold?

[northvibe]

Lets just say every product they released for the mazdaspeed's the first batch had at least a large issue with failing. They made promises that didnt get kept (yeah stuff happens but dont lie about it and be honest and fess up). Mazdaspeedforums, were huge in helping christian and josh with beta testing but they are gone now, which was the demise of the cobb reputation. Here ill post the thread you can see MSF's comments.. yes there is *****ing from some mazda owners, but thats expected from ANY tuner and ANY platform. CPE is another tuner and they for a year had crap flung at them...they stayed to it and now look they will be the prominent one...http://forums.cobbtuning.com/f...53017Just a note, I never bashed cobb. Their rep was good when I got my sri from them, but the plastic maf housing was out of tolerance from their supplier (I fully under stand) so as long as they replace it under their "warranty" I still support them. I just think there is something else than "people made fun of us" to why they are backing out. Their ms3 track car did awesome when they raced it, I was sooo pumped to buy almost all cobb parts, coilovers, bpv, tbe, etc.. but now I is sad.

[BlueCrush]

That MSF.org guy is a winey *****. He is doing the members of his own forum a disservice. He is removing all info and the COBB info and support forums from his site? What an idiot!!! He should be canned and banned. Where are all the current owners of COBB product suppose to get info for their cars now?? As one guy put it: Gary vs. MSF.org = Gary wins! LOL!

[northvibe]

Quote, originally posted by BlueCrush »That MSF.org guy is a winey *****. He is doing the members of his own forum a disservice. He is removing all info and the COBB info and support forums from his site? What an idiot!!! He should be canned and banned. Where are all the current owners of COBB product suppose to get info for their cars now?? As one guy put it: Gary vs. MSF.org = Gary wins! LOL!yeah...he is a little full of himself. He is the one that helped cobb before Gary, to beta test the AP maps and worked with christian and josh. He feels back stabbed.... I mean I kinda feel like that too, Ive bought cobb parts and was hoping to get more and now they cut everything with a weak explanation After a lot of their lay offs the company wont talk openly to anyone. If they dont warranty my sri maf housing that will be the breaker.... as "life time warranty" should mean something.I did wish he left a cobb area where members could share AP tunes though, but not yet. maybe after he cools off?

[BlueCrush]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »yeah...he is a little full of himself. He is the one that helped cobb before Gary, to beta test the AP maps and worked with christian and josh. He feels back stabbed.... I mean I kinda feel like that too, Ive bought cobb parts and was hoping to get more and now they cut everything with a weak explanation After a lot of their lay offs the company wont talk openly to anyone. If they dont warranty my sri maf housing that will be the breaker.... as "life time warranty" should mean something.I did wish he left a cobb area where members could share AP tunes though, but not yet. maybe after he cools off? Hopefully, he will come to his senses and keep the COBB info on his site for everyone.

[AKLGT]

or have them go directly to Cobb's site and forums.BOth Mav and I are big Cobb supporters. I've always had great success with them and when they screwed up the design of the RSB for the LGT 3 yrs ago, they completely replaced it with all new hardware and suspension bits.

[northvibe]

Quote, originally posted by AKLGT »or have them go directly to Cobb's site and forums.BOth Mav and I are big Cobb supporters. I've always had great success with them and when they screwed up the design of the RSB for the LGT 3 yrs ago, they completely replaced it with all new hardware and suspension bits. eh cobbs forum wasnt the best for getting knowledge quickly. Most the hardcore mazda guys are on MSF. Well Trey from Cobb did a press release, well spoken. This is the piece that should of been released not what Gary said.The decision to cease NEW development for the MAZDASPEED platform was made unilaterally within the organization. Everyone from our support staff to the engineers to the calibrators agreed that given our already limited resources, it made sense.It should not be read that all COBB products for the MAZDASPEED platform will just go away and we won't provide warranty and our normal support for our products. We are simply stating that no NEW development will occur for this platform. We are stating this in as straight forward of a manner as possible in an attempt to set proper expectations. We have been fairly criticized by the market for not properly setting and/or meeting expectations in the past so we are trying to be more transparent in our plans moving forward. We also decided to be forthcoming about some of the reasons for our decision in hopes that the community as a whole would begin to take steps to insure a rewarding relationship between enthusiasts and companies that continue to participate in it moving forward.The predominant opinion here at COBB still is that the MAZDASPEED vehicles are a fantastic platform with enormous potential. That's what led us into this market to begin with. One area where I think there is a lot of misconception about our company is our motivation to take on some markets/vehicles. While there has to be some degree of a business case for it in order to stay solvent, the larger factor is our enthusiasm for the vehicle and the people that own them. We want to develop relationships with the community and work WITH them to maximize the experience in owning that vehicle. Knowing you're working WITH a group of fellow enthusiasts to make the vehicle better, learn more, and having your work appreciated is extremely motivating and exciting.As stated by Gary, the MAZDASPEED community in large part (though clearly not the WHOLE part) has been rather negative towards us for quite some time. In part, we've earned some of this negativity and we don't shy away from that. On the other hand, there are often cases were expectations are so high that we are destined to fail regardless of skill or effort. We have always sought to improve on our weaknesses and learn from our mistakes, but for quite a few people our actions will never be enough. We're quite use to facing criticism in honestly EVERY market we participate in. We've always thrived on it, as it makes our company and products better. However there is a significant difference between constructive criticism from those that want to see things improve anddestructive criticism from those that only want us to fail. The former certainly exists, but it has been the growing predominance of the later that has weighed heavily in this decision.For those that are upset that you are being "punished" by the decision, we have a lot in common. I'm also upset that the motivation to continue development of the MAZDASPEED products has been sucked out of the company, and myself. We're both being punished by the same negative elements that flourishes in this community. Some may argue that it makes little sense for a business to take this action when there's money to be made. If money were our primary motivator, that would certainly be a valid argument. In our case, we prefer to go where we can interact positively with fellow enthusiasts and feel as though the work we are doing is appreciated. Silly notion for some, I know, but I get more enjoyment from that than from looking at some numbers on my bank statement.Finally, I do feel things are concluding on a positive note considering that we do have the AccessTUNER Pro out now that will address the needs of MAZDASPEED AP owners for years to come. The Race version is coming shortly that will also provide the solution so many of you have been asking for. My sincere hope is that we helped the MAZDASPEED enthusiast community by providing more tools, knowledge and resources than what was available when we started. That you, and the others that purchase these vehicles in the future, will be able to achieve their goals and that our effort will have been a positive contribution.And for those that have been so willing to work with us, it has been sincerely appreciated. We apologize that we've been unable to meet your expectations, and hope that the fruits of your effort will be enjoyed by you and others by the tuning tools we have and are making available to the community.Best of luck to all and happy tuning,Trey Cobb

[BlueCrush]

That was a much more sincere and professional statment than the one Gary released. Make much more sense why they pulled out of the Mazda market. Too bad for those innocent bystanders that wanted COBB products. Too bad the negativity of some ruined it for everyone else.

[AKLGT]

no kidding. Cobb is spendy, but they do a LOT of R&D in their products and don't like to release half assed stuff. In fact, we're trying to convice our buddy with the GTR to get an AP for his.. amazing little gadget these Accessports are. I use mine daily: boost gauge, fuel economy meter, accelerometer, data logger, etc not just for the ability to change my maps on the fly. oh ya, CEL reader.

[ColonelPanic]

Sounds like a few whiners ruined that one for everybody! They should have been happy that there was some sort of aftermarket support such as that available... You see, there are poor, starving "tuner" kids in the world with Hyundai Accents who I hear constatly *bleep* / moan /whine / cry about how nobody wants to develop aftermarket thingies so they can turn their crappy econobox into a race car. *sobbing* And these Mazda people, they had all those things and they took it for granted! Such as it is... I guess this just goes to show how some companies DO look at the feedback on the internets.

[northvibe]

Well...their SRI for the ms3/ms6 is breaking the battery box secure point. It looks solid till all that engine rocking snaps some metal. So idk Ill prolly have my uncle weld the crap out of it, it was a poor design flaw that even another well known, cpe, company did but puta rubber chunk on there to absorb some of the shock.Their STS had bad threads in the first shipments and the AP shipped with very poor maps at first. But I think they released them ahead of time to try and please customers but then pissed them all off because the customers dont understand when they riot to get stuff early thats what happens. Cobb took care of everyones issues. Man it is sad to see them go, but I really think theres something else... I think they had too many cars to "research" and tune for and the ms3 was one of the cheaper cars with a market that *****ed a lot so it was easy to ax it.

[AKLGT]

LOL imagine so. still too bad, they do have very good products.

[northvibe]

Quote, originally posted by AKLGT »LOL imagine so. still too bad, they do have very good products.Well I know how manufacturing parts goes. They dont do everything in house, their Maf housing supplier messed up the tolerance on the plastic. No biggie for me I understood and waited patiently. The STS had the thread issue but they fixed it and shipped out replacement bolts for free. I mean what do you expect from the first product of anything? Nothing so far they "messed up" on was life threatening. They tried to meet demands and get product out for people and they think they would get a 100% never failing part? this is the real world. I think the main thing was they announced release dates for products and then when they werent done by then the "community" freaked out and said cobb sucks they cant even stick to release dates. Well j christ, why wouldnt you wait, id rather not have a not finished part and just wait till its done. AAAHHHHH its those younger kids and their entitlement and the internet so they think they can say whatever they want....Bah well I hope they finish the bpv and man that cobb tbe was the sexiest exhaust but now its sold out every where

[AKLGT]

it took them almost 2 yrs before they came out with the new canbus AP for our Subies. I'm just glad they released them right before I bought my 08 STI. otherwise, I'd have been waiting like the LGT crew for the 07's.... a long time. LOL. but maybe we're more patient and understanding, we do make up a HUGE portion of all their sales.

[northvibe]

exactly, I mean you cant rush good stuff. specially for cars, as with cars these days the computer controls EVERYTHING so its very important things work. The AP is a very cool product, I like that its fairly user friendly but can still be tuned. Then theres the addons like no lift shift and launch control!Check this out:Quote »Originally Posted by The guy at Cobb who took his head out of his ***I have had some time to reflect on the developments over the last couple of days and I feel that I owe the MAZDASPEED community an apology.I am relatively new here at COBB Tuning and am very excited to be a part of this team. I believe in what COBB Tuning is trying to accomplish in the marketplace and know that we have the talent to accomplish the goals that we set for ourselves. I have a great deal of respect for the engineers and calibrators that dedicate so much of their time and put forth huge effort to make the AccessPORT products the best they can be. I see the long hours that sales and tech support put into taking care of our customers' needs. Over the past six months I have come to know the people that are the driving force behind the company you know as COBB Tuning. In my enthusiasm for being a member of this team, I have taken the comments on several MAZDASPEED forums as personal attacks on me and my fellow COBB Tuning employees, and have vented my frustration in an inappropriate way.I allowed a small minority of offensive forum members to get the better of me, and in lashing out at them, I have inadvertently offended a large population of the community that was not the target of my criticism. The part that I find most embarrassing is that I was influenced by people that have no interest in our products whatsoever, who post solely to stir controversy. I want to offer my sincere apology to the entire MAZDASPEED community for comments that you found offensive and promoted a negative stereotype for the community as a whole. Just like all other forums I have participated in, the vast majority are good natured people sharing a common enthusiasm for a cool car. I do know better, yet I let my emotions cloud my judgment.I would also like to offer an additional apology to all of the MAZDASPEED enthusiasts that have supported COBB Tuning throughout the development of our products and stuck with us through the difficult times as we explored and learned about this platform. Although it was not intentional, I do see why my comments were perceived as a "slap in the face" and how you feel you are being unjustly punished and abandoned. Our decision was based on the actions of a minority, and the COBB supporters that have remained quiet and faithful, anticipating future features, were the ones we asked to bear the burden of that decision. That was not a fair decision for us to make.In an effort to make reparations, COBB Tuning will move forward with implementing the Launch Control and No Lift Shift features on the MAZDASPEED AccessPORT that so many have been waiting for. Launch Control and No Lift Shift will be implemented in the same form as on other platforms. Launch Control will allow the user to set an RPM that the engine will rev to, building partial boost pressure, while the clutch is in and the throttle is at maximum. No Lift Shift will allow the user to set an RPM that the engine will maintain between shifts while the clutch is in and the throttle is at maximum, maintaining partial boost pressure. Development on these features is not complete and we will provide availability dates when we are 100% confident in their accuracy.We understand that many of you just want to use the AccessPORT with OTS maps, but variance of the MAZDASPEED from the factory has prevented our OTS maps from working properly on some vehicles. In an effort to assist these customers, COBB Tuning will release a full featured beta version of AccessTUNER Race software for the MAZDASPEED3 & 6. There will be no charge for this beta version of AccessTUNER Race and the software will be released on April 20th as previously stated.In closing, I must admit that this has been quite a learning experience for me. For what it is worth, I assure you that I will not let my emotions generate another outburst like this in the future. I hope that each of you will accept my apology and not allow my indiscretion to tarnish all of the positive advances that my COBB Tuning colleagues have brought to MAZDASPEED enthusiasts.Sincerely,Gary SheehanDirector of MarketingCOBB TuningUgh he must of realized int he uproar from people that supported them, that there is a large supportive group of mazdas! I just hope they make parts again...that exhaust was just teh secks.