Review on 🛠️ XTOOL D8BT Automotive Diagnostic Scan Tool with 3-Year Updates (Value $600), ECU Coding, 31+ Services, Bi-Directional Controls, Full Diagnostics, Key Programming, Cam/Crank Relearn, Latest Version 2022 by Nick Tucker

I have had Xtool D8BT for about a month now. I have many diagnostic tools and I actually ran them through the call. I work as a diagnostician for a well-known nationwide used car dealer and scan and repair about 10-12 vehicles a day. I've studied this tool inside out and I'll tell you a little bit about it. QUALITY First of all, this is a pretty solid tool (unlike many other sub-$1,000 scanners in this price range). The case is strong, with no bends. It also has a stand so you can hang it on the handlebars for good old rider seat diagnostics. It can be difficult to balance on some cars as the tool is quite compact but light enough to use on most cars. PLACE CORRECTION I originally bought this tool specifically for mileage correction. Many cars come to us with damaged, non-functional or even missing dashboards. We typically order a used replacement unit and ship it based on the vehicle's mileage, which takes time and money. Well, I am happy to report that that is now (mostly) a thing of the past. I'm sure there are some vehicles that do NOT have the odometer corrected, but I haven't encountered any of them in the time I've been using it (remember we only do it with relatively new vehicles have to do; nothing for more than 10 years). This is a BIG money saver for shop owners or mobile technicians! IMMOBILIZER/KEY PROGRAMMING The immobilizer capabilities are also incredible for the price. I have successfully added keys to many domestic and Asian cars using this tool. The menus can be a little confusing, especially compared to some of the high-end programmers we use, but it just takes a little digging to find the right feature. I've also successfully performed the "lost all keys" operation on Nissan Altima with Smart Key (very impressive!) and on several Jeeps with standard flat keys. A few years ago, a tool with this capability would have cost you thousands of dollars! GENERAL DIAGNOSIS Every vehicle that enters my bay undergoes a full scan. I am pleased to report that Xtool D8BT is a more than effective diagnostic scanner. This is SUPER fast and will automatically identify vin and run a full system scan. Once the car is loaded it has the same active tests and special features as my MUCH more expensive Autel. Updates also seem to be very frequent. In my second week of use, a Ford update (v13.10 as far as I remember) broke the auto VIN feature. For every Ford vehicle I scanned, I had to manually enter the year, make and model (pretty annoying). However, a week later a new update was released that restored this functionality. That tells me the company stays on top form. Very comforting. However, DISLIKES is not without its drawbacks. For example, when viewing live data, the search function is not available, like on my Autel. This probably won't be a problem for most, but some cars have HUNDREDS of PID data to scroll through, and Autel's search function makes it easy to find exactly what you're looking for. (See my edit below; XTOOL has now added this feature as of March 2022!) There are also a few annoying quirks that I think are specific to the Bluetooth model (I don't have a wired version to compare). The range of the Bluetooth VCI is actually impressive, but if you lose connection for even a second you're instantly taken back to the main menu. It can be disappointing, trust me. It also seems that if you put it to sleep during a session, the Bluetooth connection drops. I disabled the auto sleep feature in the Android settings menu to fix this issue. The last thing I have with this tool is the refresh rate when viewing/plotting live data. It's pretty slow, to say the least. The data appears to be updated at a rate of about twice a second. It's about twice as slow as my Autel, which I find pretty slow too. Overall, this is useful, but makes troubleshooting complex issues more difficult than it should be. All of these complaints are really minor considering the price, to be honest. All in all, it's just a fantastic tool. Can't recommend enough. Just makes the tool so much better!