with my vrs arrival getting closer, and my brother having just bought a ~3 year old jetta blumotion I wonder if we would use VCDS enough to warrant getting one.  I tend to think that at £260 its a bit costly for the usual individual car owner and much more of a tool for garages or fleet owners.  I would hope that a crate of beer supplied to a nearby vcds owner as and when I want to change something or access a fault code is an easy and more cost effective option but...how much do you use it if you have it?

TBH, I used it a lot when the Golf was being readied for use last year, I have also used it for the Lupo and some tweaks on the Fabia and Yeti but I can honestly say that now it gets used only occasionally or as and when a fault needs to be scanned.

£260 is not a lot when compared to the cost of the car.  It'll give you the freedom to set your car up how you want it and experiment with some configurations, it'll help with fault finding, so not important on a car under warranty, but it'll give you some idea if the dealer is being straight with you.

 

Used genuine cables are always in demand so even if you sell it for £160, you could have had a lot of use out of it for the cost of a couple of dealer scans.

It is quite an outlay (especially if you only have Mac computers as you need a Windows system to run it on), but I have saved hundreds on trips to the dealer as I have been able to retro-fit several items that all needed coding to gain full functionally.

 

I have also been able to set the car up the way I want it rather than the way it was bought. I also change some settings at various times of year (coming home lights for example).

 

I have also helped out a few Briskodians set up their vehicles the way they want or retro fit their choice of items. Occasional beers have helped me out as well...

 

As a bove, I could sell the cable and get back around 70% of what it cost me. So for around £70, its a genuine bargain in my mind.

 

Granted it doesn't get out much now I've stopped adding things to my car (although I am trying to diagnose issues with my Octavia and the wife's Fabia), but when I get my next Skoda (or VAG group car), it will make a surface again to set that up and no doubt add items to that.

£70?  I just googled it and found a price of £260.  at £70 it does seem much more affordable!  where/how?

£70 would be about the remaining 30% of what I initially spent to purchase a genuine cable.

 

£250 to buy - sell for up to £180 = total cost to me of £70 (or just over £20 per year so far) - the beers I've had = no cost at all...

 

NB: All figures approximate and off the top of my head, so don;t quote me exactly, but I hope you can see my logic.

It does depend on the owner, for sure. I've had mine about 8yrs now and its easily paid for itself, plus helped countless others with issues and also friends with VAG motors. Even as a basic fault code reader for non-VAG too!

Depends what you actually want to do with it? For quite a few, they just want settings activated. If that's you, clearly a visit to a local member with a cable already is the way to go.

I more than recovered the cost of mine on the first scan when I identified a faulty Haldex controller just before my Octavia I was out of warranty. I have since headed off my sons from buying lemons by scanning VWs they were considering buying.

anyone know where I can get vcds form at a good price 

The genuine article retails at £263 for the HEX-USB+CAN version from 2 official UK distributors. That is a good price for what it is and does.

Gendan or Ilexia for legitimate products.

Has anyone purchased direct from Ross-Tech to the UK? $349.00 +$58.27 shipping = £240.00 at todays conversion. A £23 saving over Gendan. Just wondered if there would be any duty to pay on import?

Has anyone purchased direct from Ross-Tech to the UK? $349.00 +$58.27 shipping = £240.00 at todays conversion. A £23 saving over Gendan. Just wondered if there would be any duty to pay on import?

Duty+VAT+customs handling fee

Yep, it'll wipe out that £23 saving quite easily, by the time it's made it to your door.