Is it worth getting a Carly?

G

Gilbster

Member
Hi everyone. I was considering buying a Carly to register a new battery on my E89 and for general code reading/clearing.
I've read mixed reviews from 'excellent' to 'downright crap'. Does anyone here have views on the product? Good or bad, I'd be interested to hear before forking out £79 for the adapter and a further £79 for the yearly subscription.

Cheers
 
Hi. When I bought my E86 I thought I’d get the Carly. I used it at the beginning and it was excellent to change the setup of the car. Now everything is as it should be I don’t tend to use it that much. Maybe 10 times from new. If you’re near Romford you’re welcome to have a go.
 
Hi Woodrow,
thanks for the reply. And thanks for the offer. I'm in Cambridge but if I'm ever heading Romford way, I'[[ get in touch.
Thanks again,

G
 
Carly is very easy to use and can do most of the basic level user coding ..3 winks rather than 5 etc etc

As someone else says..once you’ve done a few days of coding the novelty wears off.

There are other tools that are more powerful to use than Carly and don’t have repeating licence fees but they are not as user friendly..

I’ve tried Carly, Carista and now use Bimmergeeks Protool..the one issue is that it only works with Android ..I use it with a simple DCAN wired connector to the OBD port and you need a USB to OTP android connection..it supports some wi-fi and Bluetooth adapters..

If you look at the pc factory tools as 100% capable and 100% difficult then Carly is about 10% and 10%..Protool is about 70% and 70%

If you need just a simple twiddle then find a pal with Carly..

Having a tool with diagnostic capability is probably more important on longer trips as when these babies ping an error it’s very difficult to work them out without a good diagnostic tool...all IMHO..
 
Almost exactly a year ago - soon after I got my Z4 - I bought one and within 2-3 weeks I'd covered all the possible tweaks that were interesting and run diagnostics etc. Since then it was useful to register a new battery a couple of months back but that's all. I didn't renew my membership when it came up last week - I'll wait and see if a need emerges and resubscribe if it seems worthwhile.
But I rather suspect that it will sit gathering dust... :tumbleweed:
 
Hi Pbondar and Colin E,
Great to know thanks! Since my battery ran flat (and since I spotted a pool of water in the boot), all manner of problems have started to appear including lack of power steering, the AC not working, service light comes on. I need something to register a new battery and to confirm whether these are real problems or coincidences with having issues with the battery and watery boot.
Thanks again!
G
 
Colin_E said:
Almost exactly a year ago - soon after I got my Z4 - I bought one and within 2-3 weeks I'd covered all the possible tweaks that were interesting and run diagnostics etc. Since then it was useful to register a new battery a couple of months back but that's all. I didn't renew my membership when it came up last week - I'll wait and see if a need emerges and resubscribe if it seems worthwhile.
But I rather suspect that it will sit gathering dust... :tumbleweed:
Click to expand...

We bought a "full" renewal off eBay, cost about $5 and transferred the files to our Android phone. Its a less costly option than renewing or purchasing the annual subscription. And agree the Carly is very simple to use, but the Lite version you get with the adaptor allows you to scan, diagnose and clear only.
 
Gilbster said:
Hi Pbondar and Colin E,
Great to know thanks! Since my battery ran flat (and since I spotted a pool of water in the boot), all manner of problems have started to appear including lack of power steering, the AC not working, service light comes on. I need something to register a new battery and to confirm whether these are real problems or coincidences with having issues with the battery and watery boot.
Thanks again!
G
Click to expand...

99% of ‘issues’ that seem to appear post flat/drained battery are caused by said battery..

So Carly / others can do a reset on most Issues but sometimes for example the electronic parking brake bricks itself and requires serious tools to reset it.

It’s really really bad. news on E89s allowing the battery to go flat..

In addition to causing all manner of possible faults the battery itself is usually badly damaged and really needs to be replaced..
 
If its just code reading and clearing then the free version of "Torque" and a generic Bluetooth adaptor should do.
 
Out of all apps I think ProTool is by far the best. I wouldn't even consider Carly any more, it's more expensive and less capable than everything else.

There is a free app on the way which allows the reading and clearing of codes and battery registration just using a cheap ELM327, it's still in testing though. Once released this should be all most users need.
Jasonn said:
If its just code reading and clearing then the free version of "Torque" and a generic Bluetooth adaptor should do.
Click to expand...

Torque won't work on the majority of codes for reading or clearing. It only looks at generic codes and not manufacturer specific ones.
 
I was considering getting Carly but was put by the expensive subscription because I know that once I had used it to fiddle around with some coding it probably wouldn't get used much after that. So I went with Carista which I believes does most things that Carly can do but it's much cheaper since you can choose to subscribe just for a week at around a 10 GBP I think. So you only need to pay when you need to use it.

But as others have said I have heard from other sources too that Protool is probably the best but it's Android only and we don't have anything Android in the house.
 
Silverstar said:
I was considering getting Carly but was put by the expensive subscription because I know that once I had used it to fiddle around with some coding it probably wouldn't get used much after that. So I went with Carista which I believes does most things that Carly can do but it's much cheaper since you can choose to subscribe just for a week at around a 10 GBP I think. So you only need to pay when you need to use it.

But as others have said I have heard from other sources too that Protool is probably the best but it's Android only and we don't have anything Android in the house.
Click to expand...

We are IOS centric here..but just paid £85 for a waterproof robust Chinese Android phone with USB support and the standard DCAN cable!
 
I bought a carly adaptor 6 months ago and then realised they wanted fifty odd quid a year for the license so never bothered but this morning I found a couple on ebay for £2.99 which said lifetime subscription so I bought it, they sent a link to re install the carly app and hay presto it works :thumbsup:
 
Most of the reviews I've read on Trust Pilot seem to slate the Carly as daylight robbery, unreliable and hardly fit for purpose. Most of the comments on here are positive. I think I'll bite the bullet and change the battery, and then go from there.
Sincere thanks to all those who have answered my post.
Best wishes to you all,
Gilb

PS Thanks Jollyjoiner. Just seen your comment! :)
 
I have both INPA and ISTA, which are laptop solutions. If your definitely looking for a phone app type of solution, I'd go with the ProTool and a cheap ebay bluetooth OBD2 adapter.
 
javis20 said:
I have both INPA and ISTA, which are laptop solutions. If your definitely looking for a phone app type of solution, I'd go with the ProTool and a cheap ebay bluetooth OBD2 adapter.
Click to expand...

ProTool won't work with a cheap eBay bluetooth adapter.
 
R.E92 said:
javis20 said:
I have both INPA and ISTA, which are laptop solutions. If your definitely looking for a phone app type of solution, I'd go with the ProTool and a cheap ebay bluetooth OBD2 adapter.
Click to expand...


And Protool will not work on the E85 / E86 chassis either. But it will on the E89 and later Z4 chassis.
Click to expand...
 
BTZ461 said:
R.E92 said:
javis20 said:
I have both INPA and ISTA, which are laptop solutions. If your definitely looking for a phone app type of solution, I'd go with the ProTool and a cheap ebay bluetooth OBD2 adapter.
Click to expand...


And Protool will not work on the E85 / E86 chassis either. But it will on the E89 and later Z4 chassis.
Click to expand...

OP has an E89 hence the thread..
Click to expand...
 
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