I see plenty of posts talking about VCDS, so went onto the Ross-Tech website and the cheapest version is $199 USD for up to 3 VINs (which suits me fine as I only have one VAG car (so far! ) and no Wifi etc).
I can see some merit in it for me - one aspect was the XDS settings, and obviously being able to diagnose faults etc are also useful. Beyond that, is it worth buying or just getting someone who has one to set and forget once?
100% get one. If you have any, even slight interest/ability to do stuff diy. Or even just to be forarmed before going to a garage, it will easily pay for itself in no time.
All depends how deep you want to get into things or change coding, i bought vcds as i mainly work on vag group cars but i have a few friends who use obdeleven or carista just because of the price and functionality of them and they can be used on more than just the vag group
2017 caddy black edition
2016 caddy startline
2011 british gas blue maxi
seem to have a caddy problem and its all i seem to work on
All depends how deep you want to get into things or change coding, i bought vcds as i mainly work on vag group cars but i have a few friends who use obdeleven or carista just because of the price and functionality of them and they can be used on more than just the vag group
2017 caddy black edition
2016 caddy startline
2011 british gas blue maxi
seem to have a caddy problem and its all i seem to work on
Thanks for your replies guys. I didn't even know about the obdeleven, and after looking it up, I've purchased one of those devices instead. Should hopefully do everything I need at this stage.
I searched eBay for a 3 vin vsds, but couldn't find any unfortunately.
I've used OBDEleven for fault codes on a number of VAG cars now, T6, Seat Leon, Seat Ibiza, Audi TT and now my caddy. I've never owned VCDS but the OBDEleven has never failed to identify fault codes.
Isit not worth getting a snide copy of the VCDS lead..
Sure I seen some for sale on marketplace in Bradford.. no clue how good they are or how well they perform
Addicted2Derv wrote: ↑Tue May 03, 2022 7:01 pm
Isit not worth getting a snide copy of the VCDS lead..
Sure I seen some for sale on marketplace in Bradford.. no clue how good they are or how well they perform
When something like this gives you grief, it will be the network of support, and forums forged and funded by the legit developers of VCDS and the company that produces the legit leads. You could go for a cheap copy, and it may partially work, but I think it's a bit out of order imo.
The cheaper option is to find a 3 VIN version that has maybe already had 1 vin used. You can normally find these cheaper 2nd hand
Have a genuine vcds, very very good, I'm ex vw diagnostic tech and use it quite a bit, also have a new obdeleven and find it a bit fiddly but extremely good for the money, only issue I have is its credit based and uses credits to set stuff like service intervals but still handier than vcds unless you know where to set all the parameters
Yes. Super handy for most stuff, have a genuine cable at work and a clone cable at home. The genuine cable is a lot better, the pre-hex cable clone diddnt support the 1.6tdi, the newer clone did. The clone is a lot of effort to setup, the genuine one is effortless and the support is second to none.
Also consider Abrites, i think the clone version is called FVDI. Expensive for a clone at £300, genuine is insane money £10k+, but that'll allow all the stuff VCDS does plus key programming, module programming and all the interesting retrofit stuff. Means you can change clusters/ecus and all that stuff.
Would you say someone who was new to using VCDS. Would benefit versus going to someone to do the work .
Ie I get a new cluster and need to get it connected using VCDS. Would a garage be cheaper than buying the software outright .
For me
I’ve just bought a caddy and about to go down the line of modding it over time but would it be cheaper in the long run for me to buy it rather than heading to a garage ?
) and no Wifi etc). 