Hey,ive done a search on here but couldnt find anything.But has anyone got one of these Handheld vag.com readers?..im just thinking of getting one

http://www.gendan.co.uk/product_GDVAG.html

At that price, im sure it will only read about 5% of the fault codes that cars can have.

Please correct me if im wrong, but I doubt i am.

laptop, cable, vag com. Done

Not got a laptop tho dude.

so you could just plug a laptop in if you had the cable and software?

Yeah if you have a laptop mate you can buy the lead and software.Its a lot better as it gives readings etc but costs about £200 i think.

i see

I've got a scan gauge and it's fairly handy but only reads codes if the engine management light is on.

Beware of cheap scanners guys. I can't stress this enough. Manufacturers including VW group don't sell their information to anyone, so the scanner manufacturers have to reverse engineer it themselves. This leads to the fault codes & data often being inaccurate, unreadable or just bloody wrong. In short you get what you pay for. I've seen some clever people be led up the expensive garden path by cheap scanners. We currently use VCDS (VAGCOM) & a Snap-on Modis, but even these sometimes contradict each other especially with descriptions. Your best bet is to do what Tiz said or look out on E-bay for a used VAG1551/2 (useful up to about 2004). Alternatively pop in to see us. As I've said on previous posts we do all scans for £5 to all Fendubbers & chances are we've fixed one like it before.

i have a mate who works for snapon, his job is just to drive around garages and plug in his scanner his scanner will copy the codes and there faults, then the info goes back to snapon and they use the info in there new scanners.

if i had a problem with anything i'd just go to him and for a couple of pints, he'll identify the problem.

obviously he has all the gear to read ALL cars too!