Worth the money?

Though the Equus 3100 engine reader is one of the most popular models currently for OBDII and CAN diagnostics, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s one of the best. Here we aim to see if the devices popularity is warranted and that this OBD II scan tool is actually worth the money. The Innova Equus 3100 is in the mid-price range so we expect a solid performance and good feature set compared to the entry level devices such as the Elmscan 5 or even the 3100′s little brother, the Equus 3030.

Our review roundup below looks at actual Equus 3100 custmomer reviews to see if real auto enthusiasts, mechanics and motorists are won over by the Equus 3100 auto scanner. A quick glance at the overall rating for the Equus 3100 shows that they are…

Skip this and save 56% on the Equus 3100 or see full specs…

Equus 3100 Innova

From a total of 189 user reviews (at the time of writing) the Innova Equus 3100 has an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. 120 of these awarded the top 5 star rating while another 45 gave 4 stars. This equals 87% of users giving above 4 stars which is impressive for any device and signals a high level of customer satisfaction. It seems Innova are onto a good product here so let’s see what the reviewers had to say.

The main things that people liked most about the Equus 3100 were a combination of the ease of use, the number of features that the device contains including the LED display and the fact that it finds engine trouble quickly (some OBDII scan tools are known to be a little slow). This is summed up well by this Equus 3100 customer:

“I am a professional Technician. This little handy dandy tool is fast, easy, and gets to the point of the problem with little to no issues…”

As the number of 5 star ratings suggest, the quote above is one of many singing this engine reader’s praises…

“Paid for itself on first use…”

“Equus 3100 – Must have and easy to use! I am very pleased to give this unit five stars…”

“Fantastic Product – Saved me money…”

“Comprehensive and convenient OBD2 code reader…”

“Awesome tool…”

We could go on and on listing review quotes like the above as there are so many of them, however there were a few customer that were not so impressed by their Innova 3100. One person was a little underwhelmed and maybe had too high expectations for the Equus 3100…

“It gives the codes, but if you want a freeze frame or a PC printout, you will need to register at the company’s website…”

Another user that rated a lower score was not particularly happy with the quality of the case:

“Reader good, case is not – I like to protect the equipment I get but the case is just an empty plastic box…”

However one thing we noticed with the Equus 3100 review roundup was that negative comments were not often negative towards the product itself and people that rated below 4 stars typically summed the 3100 up like these below…

“Good Product – better choices available…”

“Does what it’s supposed to…”

“This product works fine to read vehicle trouble codes. It will not read trouble codes for the ABS brake system…”

Overall the Equus 3100 is rated highly for use with OBDII engine light trouble and CAN diagnostics, the reviews give a majority thumbs up for the speed and ease of the device however very few products are perfect and the Equus 3100 is marked down for the low quality storage case and lack of storing engine parameters.

To see more Equus 3100 reviews, click the link below.

Customer Rating:

4.4 out of 5 stars – See up-to-date rating, full user reviews plus save $107 on the Equus 3100 OBDII scanner…

Equus 3100 Features

- This powerful OBD2 tool quickly reveals the cause of “Check Engine” light warnings on any foreign or domestic 1996 and newer car, light truck or SUV.
- Features a patented all-in-one screen and LED display for quick State Emissions readiness check and drive cycle verification.
- Automatically refreshes data every 30 seconds when connected to the vehicle, making it easy to verify repair completion.
- Battery backup memory provides off-car review and analysis.
- Comes with access to innova.com RepairSolutions which gives trouble code definitions, a full diagnostic report, probable causes, most likely fixes, and more.

[The quotes used above are from real users of the Equus 3100 scanner - Source]

A more serious auto scanner...

While the Autel Maxiscan MS300 and ElmScan 5 engine scanners are the biggest sellers in the auto scanner world, they are both relatively basic, entry level scanners. The Actron CP9580 is a much more serious device and could really be considered the best selling advanced scan tool.

The Actron CP9580 is more of a choice for real motor enthusiasts. Those maybe in the profession as a mechanic or somebody who really loves their cars and wants to be able to check engine trouble with a trilingual OBD II, CAN and ABS device.

Save 51% on the Actron CP9580 or see full specs here…

Actron CP9580

The majority of users found their experience with the Actron CP9580 a very good one. Though this currently costs about $100 more than the MS300 and Elmscan, it does considerably more than those models and is still very good value when you consider your alternative is paying a mechanic hundreds of dollars just to turn off your engine warning light let alone fix it.

44 out of 58 reviewers of the Actron CP9580 awarded the auto scanner 4 or 5 stars (30 gave 5 stars) and only 14 gave 3 or below. This gave an average of 4.1 stars out of 5 and an overall ‘satisfied’ rating. Let’s see what people thought of the Actron CP9580 in their reviews…

Actron CP9580 – The Good

“Best DIY Scanner on the Market…”

“Paid for Itself in One Use…”

“This scanner is head and shoulders above it’s competition…”

“Definitely worth the $$$…”

“This worked perfectly as advertised…”

“A great scan tool for late model cars!”

“Excellent…”

Actron CP9580 - The Not So Good

“I hope Actron actually tests the next version of their driver software before releasing it…”

“Good stand-alone, but forget PC connection…”

“Nice product if you do not need to connect to a PC or update with a new vehicle…”

As you can see the reason why some people awarded a 3 star rating is because they had trouble with the bundled Actron CP9580 software. Of course all electronic devices are prone to this as most people have different PC set-ups etc. It is best to check before making a purchase that both your computer is compatible with the device, the manufacturer has a good support service and that your particular model car can be scanned for OBD II, CAN or ABS (i.e. Post 1996 US).

In general people loved the advanced features, the backlit LCD display and the ease of use that the Actron CP9580 offered and used the device trouble free. Click the link below to read more user reviews of the Actron CP9580.

Customer Rating:

4.1 out of 5 stars – See complete ratings and all user reviews here…

Actron CP9580 Features

- Generic and manufacturer specific code definitions on screen and trilingual support.
- With CodeConnect quickly pinpoint and prioritize the solution not just the code, providing 3 million verified fixes specific to the vehicle’s make, model, year and engine.
- Compatible with OBD-II and CAN vehicles 1996 and newer and includes domestic ABS code coverage, record and playback data stream and on screen graphing.
- Custom data list for live data and graph live data.
- Additional advance features such as freeze frame data, drive cycle mode, state OBD check and print data support.

[The quotes used above are from real users of the Actron CP9580 auto scanner - Source]

We are here to cut through the chaf to find the best OBDII Scanner for your budget. We will find real user reviews to find all of the scanners on the market today as well as find out which models do what!

Please see our current OBDII scanner review roundups here…