For those who haven't noticed, there's an interesting discussion going on in the Rules&Regs section re: cleaning up the Engine Control Unit (ECU) rules. I'd like to point out that the current rules make it much harder and/or more expensive to tune a VW than to tune many other makes. This is because VW uses Mass-Airflow (MAF) meters while others use simple Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensors.

I like doing my own tuning. I don't want to be at the mercy of the chip tuners, and I don't have enough budget for an expensive ECU (e.g., Motec more than $3000). There are cheap alternative do-it-yourself ECUs (e.g., Megasquirt less than $200), but they use MAP sensors. The current rules do not allow the addition of a MAP sensor or wire.