DIY STAR machine? Options?

[Dog Star]

Dealers - be it franchised or indies - are not my favourite people. I've yet to come across an indie that I trust, dealers are better but the £/hour is a bit steep.

Most jobs I'll happily take on myself, however a STAR or similar gadget would really help - for example I have a mate with something called a Solus that I used to sort out a dodgy airbag connector (and reset the light!) - would have cost me a fair bit at any garage.

What's the best DIY option? Are there PC software setups available with the relevant interfaces? I'm talking about things that will work on mid-2000s S and C class cars here.

Any reccomendations?

[SLacKer]

I would also like to have independence from garages of all types. This gives an idea of a complete system

http://www.autoscanit.com/product_info.php?cPath=1...

I think the market has a lot of Cinese copies kicking around so one has to be careful. Always thought it would be a great tool to buy for a group of MB owners as it wouldn't be needed every day.

[steve_amv8]

My understanding was that MB dealers pay a monthly fee to MBUK for each STAR unit, incl updates ... and that the fee was far from small!

Could be wrong though (memory isn't what it used to be!)....

[Dog Star]

SLacKer said:

I would also like to have independence from garages of all types. This gives an idea of a complete system

http://www.autoscanit.com/product_info.php?cPath=1...

That's the sort of thing I mean! On the face of it $1500 seems pretty steep - however work out how long it would take to pay itself back, especially if you have, say, 3 MBs in the family...