Well I'm currently going to be doing an AWE KO4 upgrade - with fuel kit, dps, clutch, light flywheel and a bunch of other goodies - and I feel your pain - its costing me over $13K - which is really much more then it should cost IMO - but what can be done? I certainly would not re-install K03s - unless they were practically giving them away - and much of the cost is labor to install (in my case nearly 40 hours worth!) - I'm no mechanic - unfortunatly - so I'm stuck. Still I can't wait to get the car back after the mods - it will be sweet!

As for jettas with more hp then S4s or what not - well I can find folks who have modded old VW bugs to run 9 sec quarters - so what does that proove? Anyone with enough $$$$ can make practically any car a drag strip beast. Most of us are more interested in balanced performance on the road or possibly at the track. Can other cars be modded more cheaply then the S4 to do such - yeah likely so - still the S4 can be modded fairly easily (though not so cheaply - but a chip upgrade alone is not so hurtful...then of course you roll the dice and hope the K03s hold out). And while over $10k is an awful lot to spend on a (daily driver) car just for a few more horsies under the hood - the resulting performance really will put this car in far more exhalted and high $$$ territory. So while I'm not at all happy to be spending the cash - and would have been perfectly happy with the very fine chipped K03 performance - I know I'm really going to like the super go fast mode!

 

KKK.........from Germany makes them I believe to answer your question.

And I know what your talking about with the VR6 kits putting down the power....but also your looking at relibality issues. I had a turbo civic putting down 210 to the wheels (on a SOHC w/10psi ) but it wasn't allwheel drive and I couldn't drive it everyday either and no heated seats or ac or leather just to name a few things.

 

If you don't mind me asking how much is it costing u to install the kit?