I'm thinking of purchasing a fault code reader - but I have to be honest I'm well out of touch with modern stuff so dont know where to start really. Prices seem to vary dramatically from £25-£200+. I dont mind paying a decent amount for something thats worthwhile as I will no doubt end up using it within my business at some point.

So, what recommendations do people have? This draper caught my eye, quite pricey but seems to have all the bells n whistles:

draper

But totally open to suggestions.....

the cheaper one require a laptop while in use,
the more expensive standalone ones have there own screen

I've found Autel are a very good producer of kit for a decent price. That Draper one seems to be quite useful, but personally I prefer a laptop based one. For the same money I'd pick up an older laptop and a cheaper interface, that then gives far more options.

The Draper would appear to be a re-branded Memoscan with a massive price hike, most of the ones branded with recognisable UK household brand names (eg Draper, Sealey, RAC,Haynes and others ) are re-branded scanners by Autel or Memoscan with a brand price premium added

If you buy one made by Autel or Memoscan you won't go far wrong just make sure you get a model that reads live data & pending codes and covers CAN Bus.
The Autel MS309 or MS509 should be suitable or a Memoscan U581, U585 or U691 Loads of thee on EBay just make sure you buy from a supplier with stock in the UK or EU or a US supplier.

If you want extra specific manufacturer coverage for air bags, ABS and other then you need to pay more and get something like an Autel EU702

[Edited on 23/7/12 by britishtrident]

quote:

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Originally posted by britishtridentand covers CAN Bus.

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The current issue of Practical Performance Car has a review of a bunch of OBD2 readers.