2018--2020 Buick Regal - 2.0L Turbo - Advantage

Didn't know what to expect...but pleasantly surprised!  While I definitely noticed a difference off the line with quicker acceleration and better throttle mapping (tune holds the gears longer but still shifts smoothly), where I really noticed the difference was at freeway speeds.  When wanting to pass another vehicle or merge onto the freeway, the car's acceleration is much, much stronger!  I could be going 50-60, pass another vehicle, and before you know it I'm going 90+.  Since the shifts are still smooth and the TourX's ride is already good, you don't even notice how quickly you've accelerated.  Highly recommend.  Super easy to install and when I had a question about installation, Trifecta was quick to get back with me and guide me in the right direction.

The Trifecta tune gave my 2018 Tour X (Roadmaster Lite) a wake up call. Much better throttle responce, transmission reacts quicker and as a bonus it got rid of that damned ASS (auto stop start). I'm a repeat customer; first used Trifecta on my Chevy HHR SS 2.0 Turbo. (It gave that car a major kick in the butt). Just so you know I'm not some youngster playing with E-Bay crap I'm a 75 year old gearhead looking for better overall performance. These guys know their stuff!

Have the tune installed for the last 5 months. Cannot comment on the fuel economy since I installed the tune within a week of getting the car and installed bigger tires. I am not sure how reliable the onboard computer is, but in mixed traffic it indicates about 25mpg in average since the tune is loaded. I like how responsive the car is and the longer gears. Makes the car overall more fun to drive. Trifecta service was great since I experienced some trouble during the first load. I like that Trifecta offers continuous support and will let you know when there is an updated file available (wondering what the current August 2020 update is about).

Consistent with other Trifecta tunes I've had, this one for my 2018 Regal TourX has transformed the driving experience. Much better throttle response overall, and especially at freeway speeds. The tune has improved the shift characteristics dramatically; lower gears are held longer during moderate acceleration around town. Once in a higher gear, a slight blip on the throttle gets a decisive response. Tip in is smooth. Much easier to modulate at all vehicle speeds. Excellent, smooth acceleration when needed. Fuel economy is very good, though I have no real reference since I switched to winter tires right after I bought the car. Even so, I think 25 or so around town and around 30 on the freeway in winter is good for a larger car like this. Very smooth and responsive overall, with much improved performance, while retaining the Buick's serene nature while cruising, that's an accomplishment. Highly recommended.

2019 Buick Regal TourX 2.0 Turbo calibration...

For less than $500 you get 40+ hp, improved throttle response & gear shifts. Plus, it get's rid of the annoying auto stop. If you want the car to return back to stock with the stupid auto stop,  just arm the cruise control. 

Instructions were straight fwd...less than 20 min & you're all set. Immediately noticed the difference as soon as I turned off my street to the main road. Trifecta was prompt getting back to me on any questions I had. Very happy.   

This product is CRAZY!  Trex stock was fun, fast (ish) and good enough for everyday use. I honestly find myself driving with the tune off most of the time because if I don't, I feel myself driving like an STI owner.  If you get this, I would highly suggest upgrading your tires and brakes.  I promise those corners will come at you A LOT faster than before.  If my next car is covered by Trifecta, I'll be buying again. 

After hearing about all the positive results from the group on Facebook I made the leap. It made the car 10x more fun to drive. Shifts are confident and throttle response is snappy. Extremely happy with the purchase!

Bought this for my TourX. Shift patterns are way better, and at speed acceleration is far more noticeable.  Definitely makes the car way more fun to drive.  Worth the price and would do it again. 

If Buick had this tune from the factory, they would still be making the Tour-x.

Could use better u tube support.

1 Year in Review

The trifecta tune has been a fantastic upgrade to my Buick TourX. The remapped transmission and increased horsepower have substantially improved the everyday driving dynamic of this car. It is way more fun to drive but also way more practical as the power band is usable right when you need it and the 8 speed transmission is managed much better for city driving. I started off with it using the "engage/disengaged function" but now have now installed the permanently on software. If you are looking for a great tune that is aggressive enough for a more fun driving experience but not aggressive enough to hinder everyday driving this is it. For more than that I'm sure the advantage plus and elite are great options. 

In addition to the tune being great, Trifecta's customer service and response time to questions were fast and reliable. All around a great company to work with. 

This is the second vehicle that I’ve used trifecta for and I’ve been tremendously happy with both so far, with the first vehicle holding strong 5 years later. The tune for the Buick makes an absolute world of difference. While I loved the car I was frustrated with auto shift points, manual shift reaction and throttle reaction. The tune completely turned the wagon into a peppy little rocket that responds immediately to everything I’ve asked of it. Although I have noticed an uptick in mpg’s, it was not a priority for me when originally purchasing. Extremely happy with the results, absolutely worth it. 

Overall very satisfied with the tune. It's close to a 5/5 rating.

I like that the "stock" calibration is retained when cruise is activated. It lets you manually activate auto start/stop when it's appropriate instead of the stock tune wanting to kill the engine if you're stopped for a nanosecond. You paid for the beefed up starter and expensive batteries, may as well use the system a bit. I've never seen auto stop activate with the Trifecta tune active, so I'm not sure what criteria must be met for it to actually occur. Seems like a straight delete would make more sense.

Doesn't really feel any faster in a 0-60 type scenario. It's a heavy car so that's to be expected. I only mention it to temper your expectations. I had a +40 horsepower tune on my Fiat 500 Abarth and that made a night-and-day rocketship difference, but that's on a car over a half-ton lighter. I'm sure the Buick is measuredly faster, but with AWD and a smooth automatic the power is put down with no drama and not much extra sense of speed. The extra power is more noticeable at higher speeds.

The transmission tuning is much improved. Stock tune wants to grab 8th gear and never let go, then reluctantly kick down and snap your neck with a surge of power. Trifecta tune is much more liberal with downshifting and delivering power in medium-throttle everyday applications. Sometimes it feels like it holds a gear too long though. In some steady, medium throttle scenarios it'll hold a gear and slowly rev out to 3500-4000 RPM. It's supposed to be a sport tune, so holding revs is good, but the throttle input threshold for the tune to provide early/lazy shifts in casual driving and holding the gear seems it could be tuned better. This is obviously solved by toggling the "stock" tune on with cruise control but I like to leave it in sport mode so full power is one foot stomp away, not buried under modes.

The car seems to shift into Drive much smoother. On the stock tune I'd had to shift to Drive and wait a beat, otherwise it would lurch into first gear. Now I can shift to Drive and take my foot off the brake and much more gracefully cruise away.

The installation process was easy, but a little clunky. The OBDII cable had to be received first and ECM information sent to Trifecta for the tune to be delivered. This wasn't mentioned on the store page, or at least I didn't notice. This isn't their fault as they didn't design the ECM, just noteworthy. Just means extra fiddling around with the laptop in the car and interacting with the ECM, which is a bit nerve-wracking for a novice. Also means if you're impatient and overnight the cable you might still be waiting a little extra. The provided instructions were easy to understand (for someone proficient with computers at least) and support staff responded very quickly. I got my calibration file sent to me the same day I sent them my ECM information.

While I just got my Trifecta tune installed on my 2018 Buick Regal Tourx, from the 30 or 40 minutes of running errands (in-town and highway) there is definitely a big difference both in acceleration and shifts.  Just as the other reviews stated, the acceleration has quicker response and is smoother.  Seems to have shaved a few seconds from the slow rolling type of acceleration to 60mph.  From a standing stop the acceleration is also much better, but it is definitely not a dragster.  While moving above 30ish mph is where this tune really shines. When you want to pass or accelerate onto the freeway the car just wants to go.  In almost no time and before you know it you are at triples 😃  The transmission shifts are crisper and gears last longer before shifting to the next one.  This tune is definitely worth the money, and puts an ear-to-ear grin on my face.  Two thumbs up, and a one big toe up from a lead foot too  

First of all I will say I very seldom write reviews. I purchased the advantage calibration for my 2018 Buick Regal Sportback. The Buick was sporty enough from the factory but I HATED the Auto-Stop function that GM so thoughtfully forced upon me (with no way to disable it) so I was looking to the aftermarket for a solution. I visited a local performance shop and heard about the auto stop delete I could get from Trifecta. When I saw the Advantage Calibration I couldn't resist. I'm very happy with the improved performance and shifting. And for the money spent I don't think there is any other way to gain 25+hp and Torque! 

Purchased the "Advantage" package during the Black Friday special for my '19 TourX and have been using it for 3 months. Dollar for dollar nothing will improve your TourX's performance better than this tune. The tune is a bargain and a blast. It makes the vehicle just flat out fun to drive. I've found that the most dramatic effect is when you stomp on it around 35 mph and the TourX goes into rocket ship mode and just takes off.  And it keeps going and going and going. I swear the faster it goes the harder it accelerates. Triple digits happen in a heartbeat. Out of curiosity, I asked Trifecta if the tune eliminated the top speed governor (155 mph from the factory). They stated it does not. I'm curious what the top speed could be with the tune installed and the governor eliminated.  If anyone knows....

Install was easy and took about 8 minutes. There are various options. I set mine to always be on, unless cruise control is activated. Also, I set it to disable auto stop-start. A minor note is that the vehicle idles more smoothly with the tune enabled. Before installing the tune, I would engage auto-stick mode at a stop to prevent the engine from cutting out. It idled OK, but it wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. With the tune, the vehicle idles very smoothly. The only other modification I wanted to make was a change to the exhaust to give it a little more grumble. However, I've found that with Trifecta's longer gears, I have enough grumble to keep me happy so it saved that expense. Also, just like before the tune, 93 octane makes a noticeable difference. All octanes will work fine but, for maximum effect, 93 it must be.

I'm very happy with my sleeper wagon with just the Trifecta tune, but I also like the fact that I can upgrade should I ever decide to make other modifications. Overall, 5 glorious stars. Fun, fun, fun!

Tune was easy to install on my '18 Regal TourX using a cheap Windows 10 laptop, no issues there.  Woke the car up a good bit, mostly noticeable at mid to high RPMs.  Curious to see a dyno graph comparing the TourX (rather than the torque handicapped FWD Sportback) to the Trifecta tune, as the difference is fairly subtle in my opinion.  For a purported ~40hp increase over stock, I was a bit underwhelmed, though I still feel this is a good value for the money spent.  Horsepower is not cheap; given the plug and play nature of this tune, it's probably the best thing going if you want an easy way to add power. 

Did not gain much in the way of off the line performance, I suspect the car has some serious torque management in the first couple gears (that perhaps can't be defeated or would be unwise to) that really limit performance from a stop.  Stomp on the gas at 50-60 mph and it's a whole different ballgame.

As it pertains to shift points, the programming on this is pretty much the polar opposite compared to stock tune, almost to a fault.  Normal everyday driving (not in a hurry) with light to moderate throttle, it will often slowly run up to 3500 to 4000 RPM before shifting, primarily in 2-4 gear.  Makes it feel like a small displacement N/A engine at times, because revving that high isn't really necessary, perhaps other than having power available at a moment's notice without downshifting.  I find myself having to feather to gas pedal to prompt an up-shift in normal driving, and it's very quick to downshift upon a slight increase in throttle-- sometimes giving it the feeling of "hunting for gears."  Because of this I have reverted to the stock config (cruise control armed) for most driving, which, by the way, was a wonderful idea to implement.  If I want to have fun, I simply hit the cruise control button and enter "performance" mode.  I feel the car should have had a performance/sport mode from the factory-- having this feature via this tune was a worthwhile investment, and what additional power is gained is the cherry on top.  Also the ASS has never kicked in while in perf. mode, a nice bonus.

I did the best testing I could for fuel economy-- ran a whole tank on stock mode compared to a whole tank in performance mode.  Replicated conditions as best I could: usual mostly highway commute, typical late spring / early summer weather, no excessive throttle input, and not allowing ASS to engage while in stock mode.  Calculated MPG by hand.  In stock mode (cruise control armed) I get about 27.5 mpg average, which is spot on with what I had gotten before the tune.  With the cruise control disarmed (performance mode), it drops about 1mpg, yielding somewhere between 26-26.5 mpg.

At the end of the day I'm quite pleased, especially given the ease of use/installation, and that it retains the stock character of the car if you want it.  Though I expect I'll be using the performance quite often as it really livens the car up and gives it a sporty feel.  Just don't expect night and day performance gains in the way of torque and horsepower-- they are there, but in some driving conditions, it's hard to tell the difference.

Very happy with this tune. I tune every car I have, and this is the slowest car I've purchased in a long time, so I was back and forth on whether it was worth it. I wanted to get Auto Start/Stop turned off because it's garbage and heard nothing but good things about this tune, so I went for it. Car was pretty slow and boring before, it's now surprisingly fun to drive. No Auto Start/Stop, more passing power, and enough for when you just want to have some fun. This tune makes it a completely different car. On top of the power increase, the changed shift points only make it better. The only thing I have noticed that I am not a huge fan of is when accelerating from a stop it seems to hang on to 2nd gear a little too long before shifting. This is under slow/normal acceleration. Highly recommend this for anyone considering. Makes it a completely different car!

Definitely feel increase in power; car is transformed from feeling spritely to feeling like a performance car. Also appreciate that the auto stop-start is defeatable. Best of all, the tune is idiot-proof...be sure to hold the start button for 10 seconds like it says.