Some of the newer vehicles in my fleet need SW updates, (from TSBs and the like) and I dislike paying the dealership to do so. I started looking around on Facebook Marketplace/eBay/Craigslist and the usual forum suspects, but found that they were far, far too rich for my blood. This led me to look for professional scan tools, but even used, these appeared to be way too expensive.
Then, I found this listing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/295377382009
A bit of googling seems to indicate that this is a re-branded Bosch Evolve diagnostic tool, and it comes with a J2534 VCI. The price for both was less than any single VCI I could find, so I took a chance.
It showed up earlier this week. The tablet works, and is able to read pretty complex data off of CAN, live. It was also able to pull up wiring diagrams for various stuff that I clicked on at random. After fooling around with it tonight, the VCI also talks to my laptop, and appears to work with GM SPS, so I should be able to use it to re-program and update SW using GM's tool. For comparision, the GM MDI2 is a 6 month lead time from ACDelco and costs $800.
Some possible drawbacks- it appears to upload a vehicle report every time I start a new session. I reached out to the seller, and they (a larger collision repair chain with locations in a bunch of states) said they would "sever" my tablet's connection to their shop so it won't upload anymore, but I've got no way to do it from my end. I also don't know what will happen when the current subscription runs out- but since I bought it most for the VCI, I'm not too worried about it. The seller was pleasant to talk to and very responsive, and it seems to be a pretty good deal.
