This video stopped me from buying the Carly adapter and software. Thank you for letting the public know and providing a service that is valuable!

Glad I looked for reviews prior to actually buying one! They’ve been heavily endorsed by seemingly pure people but this was the final nail in the proverbial coffin.

First off thank you for spending this much time on this product review. I was very close to ordering one of these. I'm getting ready to pick up a 2011 BMW X5 with the diesel engine. There's something I wanted to do with it that needs to be coded. I can't say that I have noticed that a lot of the KZfaq channels that were sponsored by them have not been using them. It seems like most of them have gone over to TopDon. You are 100% right about how the influencers make it seem like this thing works like magic. I guess the magic is when it doesn't do what you want it to do you plug in another scanner and then flashback to Carly and talk about how great of a job it did. Again thank you for stopping me from wasting money and I'm sure a lot of other people are going to feel the same way after watching this.

Thank you. You've just saved me a lot (to me) of money! I'm going with the Vgate iCar 2 WiFi OBD2 Scanner and Bimmercode.

Wow & to think that I was right on the verge of buying one of these useless pieces of rubbish!! I was so glad I watched this video from the start to the finish & without a doubt you have saved me heaps of what would merely have been totally wasted money on a piece of electronic equipment that was far from idea for the job it was supposedly designed for!! Personally the most important aspect here was not quite so much the saving of money (important sure) but what shone over & above all of that crap was your "SHEER & UTTER HONESTY". I don't care about any mistakes you may have made whilst in the process of setting this rubbish up but man alive your honesty just shone through with sheer & utter brilliance!! Respectfully what planet did you come from whereby honesty was automatically built into your system?? You could sell a heater to an Arab sitting on the back of a Camel & living in the Sahara Desert & simply because of your honesty!! Wow & wow again!! You covered so may different area's including the refund rubbish & their possibly illegal methods & operational procedures etc, etc!! Well done indeed & all the very best!!

Wish i had seen this before i ordered mine lol. Everything you said is 100% correct. Their email responses make me feel like I'm the victim of some grift and they are rubbing it in that they tricked me out of $100.

Was interested in the product, after watching a Carwow endorsement. Staying clear now. Thanks for your review!

Thank you for the video. I was very interested but now I shall stay clear.

Thanks for this honest review,I'm lucky I came across this video before I wasted my money, scandalous having to pay subscription for extra features thanks

I am in exactly the same position as you. I have been refused a refund by Carly. I have cancelled the renewal and am now getting legal advice from Which? Legal and will be applying to Mastercard for a refund. I will let you know how I get on. This should be renamed the Carly Scammer.

good job, i was about to get and i gave up in time. Thank you

They are running an ad on TV currently with a 25% saving, but using the link, the offer has expired, and it takes you to the same page that you show. I am happy I saw this before going forwards with a purchase.

Many many thanks ,for all your time here ,very informative , you have saved so many people including myself a lot of money, and grief, with this very doggy and borderline Carly scam .

Thanks for the honest video on this product, unfortunately i have already ordered the premium version of the item, and expecting delivery in a few days☹☹just i would have found your channel earlier.

Thanks for this vid, almost bought one. No chance now, hate companies like this.

Hi, Same issue for me. Carly didn' make clear it was a yearly subscription (and I took specific care back when purchasing to look for if that was a limited in time, did not find anything like that). I was surprised a while after, to receive e-mails apparently from Carly and claiming that they did not receive my payment for license renewal. I honestly thought it was some kind of phishing and ignored it. Later I figured out that I did not have access to the features I paid for on the app ... And "of course", the Carly scanner is locked to be usable only with the Carly app ... I feel those practices being dishonest. I also agree on your comments about Influencers promoting this. Carly is to me real disapointment and leaves the feeling of having been fooled.

at least someone is honest about this device! Never trust any company when they’re that vague about things. Scamming ba******

Thanks for revealing this! That saved me £100!

For VAG group cars like your Audi the OBD Eleven OBD2 reader is far better. It isn't subscription based, but you do pay per coding. You can however get free credits for it and I personally haven't paid for any coding with it. You can also do manual coding for free if you buy the pro version, but you've really got to know what you're doing there. Of course it's no good for non VAG cars so that's where the Carly might be better? I used the OBD Eleven on my 2015 Seat Leon FR and I managed to get rid of the fake exhaust sound, turn on rear DRLs, make the mirrors fold on lock rather than having to hold the fob lock button and a few other things. My car already had the auto dipping mirror feature you were trying to activate, but there was an option there for it. With the dipping mirror function you need to put your mirror selector on Left for it to work. You can also adjust it's angle with the mirror controls while the car is in reverse and it will remember where you set it

I can’t even connect the adapter to my mini. They sent me a replacement, but it’s still doesn’t appear on my WiFi

Dipping mirror is for left hand mirror only. Change the joystick to the left mirror and put the car in reverse.. it should dip

Thanks for doing this and saving me time and money

, been researching the carly, and like you say, no mention of a subscription ,so at the moment, they are about £59 ,so it would be cheaper to buy a new one every year😊

for mirror dip on reverse you need to have electric memory seats. the mirror dip setting gets stored on the memory seat. Also you need to have the mirror adjustment knob on R (right) or left idk i'm european so i drive on the right side of the road and then you just pop it into reverse p.s. I used a cracked VCDS + cracked VCDS software i bought from a guy on OLX ( romanian online marketplace) for about 10 eur. still works perfectly

I don't know if you've realized it or not but you have to buy a license for each individual brand in order to get full access to all features. So you have buy the audi license for audio vehicles which is why you can do coding on the audi. You have to buy the Renault license to get access to all features in order to do the same with the renault

Similar to other comments, i was going to purchase one of these and now having seen your review I'm definately not. Thanks for saving me money.

I've had the Carly OBD2 scanner for 3yrs and never had an issue with it. It is amazing what it can do. I have a 2020 Toyota Landcruiser Prado and it allowed me to customize almost everything (I say almost everything, for example you can't customize folding mirrors if they are not fitted to the vehicle!) I have disabled things I will never use or find annoying, such as lane keep assist, the damn fuel saver thing that turns the motor off at traffic lights will never bother me again lol and annoying beeps/chimes for seatbelt not fastened and have also enabled a heap of features only available on higher spec vehicles. Many are just disabled in the software. The best thing I enabled was the DPF feature which shows how full the DPF is and allows you to do a 'manual' burn. The dealership wanted $250 just to enable this feature (just ticking a box, literally). Oh, and it also reads all fault codes, diagnostics, etc. You can even change idle speed, fuel pressure, injector timing etc but I don't mess with any of that because I don't understand it and it could stuff something up badly.

Hilarious how carly advertising popped up twice while watching this ( KZfaq adds) maybe cause i searched for is carly a scam 😂

Whould have seen the video before buying 😢. BTW mirrors need to be manually adjusted down one time on Reverse gear to set it up first , afterwards it works whenever you put on reverse gear .

wish I had seen this yesterday...

Great review. I saw this device being promoted by certain car KZfaq channels and it looked intriguing, especially owners of VAG vehicles. Shame that it is such a disappointing product and consumer-unfriendly company. Regarding the auto tilting mirror - have you tried different positions for the physical mirror switch, now that you have done the coding change?

We need that update on what happened next, great review video as well.

I was lucky enough to have my card expired a few weeks before automatic renewal. Now every 10 days or so I am getting notification about failed payment.

Came from my mate vince, and I like this channel.

If you are within 30 days of purchase then you can reject on the basis of not fit for purpose. Not sure of the cost so not sure if worth pursuing. You did forget to shake it all about after taking the Carly out and putting the Carly in. Personally, I wouldn't turn the seatbelt warning off, you may become an easy target for our esteemed law enforcement establishment.

I was just about to order the premium, thank you for this review.

Regardles not working/working functions...... You have the right to return the product (scanner dongle) and you will receive your money back. Regarding the license, you must read the General Terms and Conditions before signing the contract. And again, regarding the extension of the license, i.e. the "infinite" payment of the annual license, this is how Germany works (And most of EU/Europe). You make a contract for electricity, telephone, and I don't know what else, and if you don't contact that specific company/provider with a written cancellation of the contract before the contract expires, the contract is automatically extended according to what is written in the General Terms and Conditions... of course 90% of people don't read the General Terms and Conditions before signing the contract and then they are surprised. I personally work in tool rental, I have certain AGB and I ask each client if they want to quote the General Terms and Conditions... NOBODY does. Of course, when problems come, I just say that it says so in the General Terms and Conditions, which they didn't want to read before signing the rental agreement.

you have to remember that all the information on the car might be on the car but the manufacturer may make that information on a proprietary protocol for their diagnostic scan tools to detect and not the ISO/ASME/JIS standard communication protocols that 3rd party scan tools can freely use without paying licensing fees

I have the Carly BMW/Mini and all brands,I had a new battery put in by Halfords under warranty,It was the same battery as before,I registered it using Carly,I just don’t know if it has registered my battery change,I won’t be resubscribing next year,I will stick to my Autophix and Topdon.

I bought the Carly based on a sponsorship of Legit Street Cars. Everything stated in this video is spot on. Do not buy Carly. I regret the loss of $85 and am sweating whether or not I get dinged for a renewal in a year. I am considering filing a complaint with the (US) FTC.

I completely forgot about the renewal, which I believe to be part of the scam. They charged me $170.

In both cars, Carly said your battery voltage is low. Typically, when doing ECU coding you want to have a battery tender connected to keep the voltage high. Running the car to use the alternator to boost the battery voltage isn't the typical solution. You may want to give a battery tender / charger a try, or replace the battery.

Thanks for this very in depth video. I will definitely be avoiding Carly.

Imo I’m sure the contract is against U.K. consumer law, as to tryin to charge next year easy way is change your bank card and make sure the old one is cancelled.

This thing is crap. I have one, and I recently coded my old Seat Altea XL to have daytime running lights. However... I want to code them back off again, and now the option to code them is gone. I can't do it. So I can't reverse that coding. Great.

It's a SCAM!!!

I used Carly to read, change and reset codes on my BMW X5 50i 2014. It found a lot of code issues that the mechanic didn't. Each time i changed car codes or reset things new, different ghost errors popped up. I tried contact support about it. They gave me some generic options to reset it but they didn't work in the end and the service was so bad I gave up dealing with them. Tossed the unit out and had had the mechanic reset the car. Problems fixed.

At least if you buy an ordinary standard type OBD2 device you actually own it without any licence that needs renewal.

Oh when I bought it 2 or 3 years ago they had the option where you can buy the dongle without subscription, but they said it was not returnable. If you get dongle as part of subscription then it was returnable. But since then they updated a few things as I think people realise the bullshit and they want to protect themselves. In the beginning wothout subscription I could read basic codes and see code description....now you can only see what is wrong, but no codes.....they force you to get subscription for your car or all cars to see basic codes.

With the mirror dipping. Typically this will be the near side mirror, and you cannot have the switch you’d normally use to move the mirror, positioned on that particular mirror, as your switch will take priority over the the code. This was the case with my Mercedes.

I bought one of these just over a month ago how do I cancel auto renewal

Thank you!

The usual mirror to turn down is the one opposite to the driver's seat side. Check doing it with the left mirror. It's for seeing the curb when you parallel park. I'm assuming that you Brits park against the left curb and need the left mirror to point down.

I also purchased this a few years ago and ended up sending it back. because they advertised it as working on All cars but it didnt work on any of my 3 cars. They also didnt have a return policy because they are hoping and preying on people doing a 1 year plan. would be interesting to see how many Subscribers renew there subscription

They basically keep taking your money each year and ignore emails. I’m currently trying to stop a third payment of £145.89 through my bank. May have to resort to legal action against them.

Thank kip. I will stay clear from them things as I am one of them people if I plugged into my car it would probably screw everything up. The car will never run again or cost me hundreds pounds to get it back up and running. again.

I belive you can prevent a y payment leaving your bank by getting in touch with your bank directly. Just ask them and they should be able to explain it to you.

You should never code a car with the engine running unless you’re prompted to do so. Always use a battery charger when any device is plugged into the obd2 they draw a surprising amount of current.

Carly is useless if you don't subscribe. Mine said mirror dipping is possible on my BMW F10 and did coding, but mirror didn't work. What they don't tell you if your car doesn't have the mirror tilting option installed that coding is useless. Code clearing is also useless. It said it cleared code, but two days later without driving the car codes are back. On my dads 2003 W203 Merc it read the ecu once after multiple tries, after that it failed. Even tried their support and useless. After months of back and forth eventually they said the car is not compatible at this moment....wtf. On all the American youtubers using Carly seems to work or they don't tell you as videos are sponsered, but I get feeling this product is more for American specced European car..... European specced cars as we get in South Africa it just doesn't work. Luckily I used Google Pay for lisence so I stopped renewal on Google Pay.

have you tried changing the position of the wing mirror adjustment joystick so you are trying to adjust the left mirror as that is normally the position that it needs to be in to enable it as it should let you only use it when you want to.

In your opinion what is a good DIY scanner

Should i cancel my order before it arrives? Recommend another model for Mercedes B200 range

You are much better off with an OBD11 Pro device... much better control and access to the cars systems

Thanks for this!! I was literally just about to buy one today - can you recommend any alternatives that are any good??

I was going to buy one until I saw your review. Now going with something else, thanks

Do a chargeback to their payment processor.

I’ve just ordered mine few days ago now I regret. I’ve purchased by Klarna so will they still be able to renew automatically from Klarna? I’ve did big mistake not reading their terms and conditions. One year subscription I’ve already paid so I’ve lost this money but I don’t want to renew next year. How can I cancel auto renew please advise.

I would totslly disagree with having the wing mirror or mirrors automatically adjusting after having a car for 2 years before it was written off in July. it was one thing that I went into the user settings to switch off immediately upon reversing down my grandparents drive which is pretty steep to be fair, but the centre mirror pointing straight at the pavement on my side of the road, my seating plus height means I could see the roof instead of out of the back window. the mirrors only pointing at the pavement my side of the road. a police officer on the pavement on the other side of the road, and 2 pedestrians, and all I could see was their toes when looking at the reversing camera. so I for one would disagree with the mirrors pointing down every time you select reverse, whereas keeping them at normal driving height you can see a lot more especially on my grandparents drive. for parking bays not quite as bad, but still makes pedestrians invisable. so no I would say far better adjusting the mirrors yourself. I was looking at iCarly earlier this year when you done the other OBDII testing, but came to the same decission to exclude it from my search list pretty quickly, think I didn't like the subscription on it, as like you said at the end, I would just need it to find the fault, and then put it safe in the car for whenever I would need it next, not like a garage mechanic who would need it once a month or maybe more often. the problem I find with OBDII readers even as someone trained in vehicle maintenance is the description is too vague, that is not someone who has no experience. they obriviate the obriviation several time over it seems. ok so to stop Joe Bloggs from wanting the windscreen washers to go off everytime someone pressed the horn!! but then leaves nothing for those that are trained in basic maintenance.

when a company tries to deceive me before I'm even a customer I take that as sign not to become a customer.

I just bought a Carly for my mk5 golf gti to try and code things in like the dipping mirrors, DRL’s etc and it says that it’s coded the things I’ve opted for but none of the functions are working. Utter rubbish. And I bought the premium package! Trying to get a refund 🙄

I'm going nowhere near this. Thanks for the vid. Other reviews are mirroring similar concerns.

Hello, why when Carly is doing the car scan, do I get warnings about the anti-skid system?...I have a Renault Captur

Hey this Carly thing is the gift that keeps on giving. Why i would trust a $100 dongle/app to mess around with my cars programming says a lot about my intelligence level. I noticed on the Mini Cooper I tried a couple of things on, like seat belt warning and ability to start it without pressing the brake, I can no longer shut off the car completely with the stop start button on the dash anymore. This car has comfort access so you dont have to put the key in the dock on the dash, just have it in your pocket. Now the only way to turn off the car is to put the key in the dock and then remove it. Did you happen to notice there is no contry of origin anywhere on this product? There is no way this thing is from Germany.

It’s a piece of shit and they won’t let me return it (unused).

Just stopped me buying this appreciate that! 👍

Any follow up on this? Is BimmerCode any better?

I made a mistake purchasing the Carly. I came to KZfaq and read the comments. Carly wouldn’t refund me even though the scanner was over a week from being shipped from Germany to US. DHL delivered via USPS. I met the mailman and refused acceptance. USPS returned it to Carly. Luckily I had purchased via PayPal. I filed a dispute and 3 weeks later I got a full refund! Thank you to KZfaq for saving me $145. I was not aware when I purchased it that it only works with 1 car, instead of any car. This is a total CON!!!😢

can you give me advice to what obd to get to do stuf like that for my audi a6 c6

I'm so glad i watched this video, its actually abysmal. shockingly Bad

Please keep us informed if you get your money back please.

I believe I saw it awhile back on an automotive KZfaq video by legit street cars and samcrac. I know better than to buy a paid promotion, I believe it's more likely now that I can be a Laird or Lady in Scotland(Established Titles) than Carly being able to code my 3 Mini Coopers lol or even just connect at all to my Dodge truck. I also tried to get rid of seat belt chimes, tilt mirrors etc., nothing. But the whole reason for buying was to reset adaptations after a timing chain replacement, just says my engine isn't supported lol . Your channel is fun, subscribed! Oh I'm not hoarding Mini Coopers, I buy broken ones fix them and sell for a profit. Should have just bit the bullet and bought an Autel or Launch etc, no one pays more than a skinflint. Cheers!

Simple ways to get your money back. OPEN A CHARGEBACK WITH YOUR BANK 😉

What a shame, it sounded like it was a good device. Disappointed to have this advertised on the late brake show.

I got Buyers remorse now 😅😅😅😅😅😅

unfortunately i orderd from them 2 hours ago !! didnt get the scanner yet and they wont accept to refund me !! what the heck ?? affter understanding that there is nothing to do with this scanner without subscription i thought to myself ok let me just cancel my order than what wrong with those people ?!

Mirror dip doesn’t work on my Skoda either. Waste of money in my opinion.

Yup I got caught 4 years ago. Paid for the scanner and paid for software and now I have a useless piece of hardware that I cannot use. Don't buy this product. Its a con!!!

I refuse to buy any subscription software . Ever. Can't tell me what the renewal is and you have to call to cancel . Don't put up with this stuff.

Funny how influencers haven't been promoting Carly for months. I wonder why

You were way to friendly :D

You can't code with engine running

Why didnt you run the car to charge the battery above 12.5v ??

Any luck with returns process?

I am very sorry for you kip 😢

@kiphakes did you get your money back?

I hope Carly is losing a shed load of money due to their crap business practices! Hopefully they'll be out of business very soon. Only give your money to businesses with integrity.

DON'T JUST DON'T BUY IT

Works only on German cars (vw.bmw.audi.merc,s).

"don't think it'll make too much difference"... what if that's the reason you didn't get on with the app?

remember every car is unike. so they cant say on the page what it can do on YOUR car :)