Just purchased a 2008 Prius. Would like to get one of those OBD2 scanners to keep in the glove box. A lot of people on here use Carista. Can anyone that does use it confirm if it's worth the $26 price tag? I don't need an expert/mechanic level scanner, just something simple to look up basic codes and stuff if I'm ever having vehicle issues. Also, how would I use Torque, Dr. Prius or some of the other diagnostic apps in conjunction with Carista? Are they compatible? Why are they worth the extra cost? Thanks
You will be able to use the Carista with those apps. The Carista is worth it just for the modifications it does. I do not like the anual fee though.
I may use Carista and have never had a problem with it, but have never subscribed to their worthless service. The device is great without it. As for apps: --Torque is buggy and have given up on it everytime I started using it. I even gave them money for Torque pro which was a waste. The Prius PIDs for Torque may seem cool but my experience is they're outdated and not maintained. --Hybrid Assistant and its companion app Hybrid Reporter is great if you want to generate 10 pages of data in the form of interesting charts and graphs, as well as best app for diagnosing battery cooling fan issues. --Dr. Prius app is #1 best for 99% of what you need from an app for a Prius --Also free version of "OBD Auto Doctor car scanner" is an essential app for monitoring coolant temp if you have engine overheating issues, as well as a great app if you're driving through challenging mountains because it gives you lights to ensure you can keep engine at most fuel efficient peak power of ~3500rpm. Was a game changer in terms in terms of climbing mountains not only faster than what I thought was appropriate, but I also got better MPGs. That doesn't happen very often.
Yes I have a Carista too from Amazon and it works great with Dr Prius and I never paid an annual fee.
Just want to make it clear that the annual fee is for extra features that only the Dealer can do for a fee. I paid the fee once and used it for things like disabling the reverse beep and to quiet down the A/C compressor. You can change things like how/when the doors lock too. I would say to check the features on your make and model from their website and if you want, purchase for a year then cancel, all the changes you do will remain changed even after you cancel the membership.
Just a consideration, I do not know what the limits of many apps are, but AFAIK most are not capable of reading codes in some-most-all of the ecu's on a Prius. Dr Prius is great for live HV battery data and can pull HV control (hybrid) ecu and ECM (ICE) codes. Hybrid Assistant has amazing data and reports for the HV battery and ICE operation (IDK if it does any codes?). Torque is so non-intuitive that any time I think about using it I want to gouge my eyes out. There are other apps out there - some can more- but since I fix cars professionally my "daily driver" scantools are high $$ but "full function" models that do it all. (Plus I have Techstream as well). So - what do you really want your tooling to be capable of? Which of the 15+ ecu's on a Gen2 Prius do you want to be able to talk to? What is your budget? Then you can research what will accomplish that. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
