Hi All, Being one of the old school as far as car maintenance,I still wanted enough knowledge of diagnostics for home maintenance (and to check the dealers wokshop estimates!). I felt that the ..Ross VAG system was (for me) too expensive and made for folk with more technical abilities and requirements than myself. So,I've settled for a Memoscan U585 scanner (£80 from www.autotec-direct.com (N.ireland) which has a very good spec for all VAG +CAN plus all other OBD2 makes. I've coupled this with a SCANTOOL COMPANION cd from www.carleysoftware.com (40 dollars-£28) which effectively enables those of us with limited knowledge to tie our diagnostic codes to investigation,as if you have a skilled technician with you to advise on how to progress further. It works great with the 06 Ockty and SWMBO's Fiesta. I hope this may be of help to some - plenty of info on the websites mentioned.

I've bought a similar tool - the VAG5053, which you should be able to get for under £60 on eBay. I guess it does the same as the U585, minus some of the generic OBD2 functionality.

It appears to do the vast majority of what VAG-COM will - I've just used it to reprogram my keys, for example. The fault codes I checked had full descriptions, and it'll show live measurement values too.

I know some people frown on these cheap code readers, but for those of you who don't have a Windows-based laptop or a computer near their garage, the VAG5053 is a pretty capable tool, and for about the same price as a diagnostic check at a Skoda garage, you can't go wrong.

I should say, of course, that on its own it'd be no use. Without Briskoda I wouldn't know what I'd be looking for, and I'd have either not got any readings at all or fried the thing because the K-line was connected to the aftermarket stereo...