Hey guys, I’ve been doing a bunch of research on scan tools lately and have noticed there are 2 camps. Those that buy their tools on amazon or ebay and save a bunch of money, and those that will only buy us market tools from a US based dealer as this is the only way to guarantee vehicle coverage and get proper customer service.

I joined this fb group called automotive scan tools and most people in that group seem to think the only way to go is to buy an official US market tool from a tool dealer. But these groups are also basically run by the dealers and I see a bit of a conflict going on here. If course they want us to buy tools from them! It makes them money.

I see a lot of professional guys on YouTube that seem to be using the global versions of theses tools they acquired on Amazon and happily endorse them. How bad could they really be? I’m just a DIY guy so I don’t really need the pro level support, but I don’t want to have problems working on us market vehicles either. Is it really worth it for me as a diy guy to spend an extra few hundred bucks on a tool from a dealer? It will force me to buy a lower level scan tool where if I go with a global version, the money saved allows me to buy a more high end scanner. What is realistically best for me?

  • justawindsorite@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You won’t have problems working on US vehicles. What you’ll encounter problems with is support from someone in North America. If you need warranty, you’ll have to deal with whoever runs the amazon or ebay listing you got it from, in another country, rather than calling up a rep who will likely just put a new tool in a box while you send yours back. I can’t afford to be down a scan tool for a day, let alone the weeks it would take to process an RMA claim in China. This matters a lot to people who use the tool professionally. The Automotive Scantool groups are mostly populated by professionals, not DIYers.

    Think of it as insurance. I have a Topdon Phoenix Plus, and an Autel tool, that I have owned for less than a year. I have had to contact USA support once each for an issue I couldn’t solve on my end (software based).