Review on Upgraded Thinktool Mini 2 All System Diagnostic Tool with 28 Services, ECU 🔧 Coding, Active Test, Free Lifetime Update - CANFD Compatible OBD2 Scanner Bi-Directional Scan Tool by Emmanuel Winschel

I have cheap code scanners in all our cars and have taught my family how to use them. First of all, I do this so everyone knows when to fix the car and when to take it to the shop. Our current ratio is around 50%, we're fixing it. Older cars can save you hundreds (if not thousands) a year. We have 4 family members and 4 cars. 3 cars over 10 years old (one of them is 20+ years old). This device provides quick diagnosis and conversion of codes to error messages. This significantly reduces the number of Googles associated with working on the car. I thought that would be great. I've found this feature to work well on two of our vehicles, my old Altima (first time it failed after 10 minutes then tried again) and our not at all Toyota Avalon 2000. (It had trouble getting the VIN to find if I didn't manually select the connector type). Our Rav4 2021 worked great. For a home player like me, it's important that everything works well with older cars. However, this product is not intended for me. It is intended for a small shop that supposedly deals with newer (e.g. less than 10 years old) vehicles. For this use case, it's probably a much better fit. Key features for in-store use are quick scan functionality, customer/vehicle management, dedicated diagnostic/repair workflows and easy-to-print reports (with optional printer). This enables real-time monitoring and graphical display of the most important parameters. It includes essential auto downloads for life (no subscription required). Advanced features cost about $50 a year, depending on the make of car. I don't know what these features are, the descriptions on the device and on the website are a bit unclear on this. The device itself is compact, has e-reader storage space and comes in a nice zipped case. Looks professional (the color scheme hints at Snapon). The UI seems fast. It looks like the device has a camera, but heck if I could find a way to snap a picture. It has some rough edges: 1) The English translation varies from mediocre to poor. There were several messages I received that were almost illegible. However, most of the time it's just a minor annoyance. 2) Old cars require a lot of fiddling to get them to read. Avalon needs to specify the number of pins used in the OBD2 port - how should I know? Through trial and error I found this out. 3) Supported Avalon models from 2013 (ie only 9 years ago). That puts my 2000 Avalon out of luck. 4) It's basically a tablet, so it has a battery (unlike cheaper scanners). This limits meaningful storage. I can't just throw it in a tool box or in the trunk of a car because it needs to charge the battery. There are nice things about it: 1) For the cars it supports, it's fast. 2) It outputs messages, not codes. 3) It's pretty easy to understand - which is a good thing considering there's a very minimal manual. 4) It has a lot of features (although I'll never use most of them). Their applicability to your vehicle will vary. 5) It is business/business oriented and manages data accordingly. This makes it difficult to see. It's not intended for my use case, so it doesn't fit. Given the price, I'd probably be better off with a more advanced, basic device that doesn't require charging. I have this though and it's probably more tools than I need, but it has features that I'll be using frequently. This is probably a 3 star rating for me (a major home player when it comes to auto repairs). For a store, this might be more of a 4 or 5 star rating. The feedback I would give to the manufacturer is: 1) Clean up the English translation. 2) Indicate which features are supported in the basic version compared to the subscription version of the program. It's very unclear why I should pay $50 for advanced features on my Toyota, Nissan or Ford as I don't know what advanced features are. But all it has to do is save me a trip to the store and it will pay for itself - I just couldn't find any information about the features that would justify paying for it. 3) Enable better support for old cars. So overall he does (mostly) what he says. It's just not good for some older cars. This probably makes it a 4 star item for the small shop or home car enthusiast who owns older vehicles.