U280 Car Scanner Reader (VW)... Anybody know if these are worth buying???

[Seanl]

I have one as well, and well worth it imo. The upside with the handheld over the ebay cable and 409.1 light version is like me, you can keep it in your glove box and its there in case of any eventuality. 

[Deano2711]

Vagcom cable is great when you can get the bloody thing to work. I gave up on mine and bought the hand held instead 

[mcgee9t2]

i have one, was thinking of getting vag com but thought it was more expensive than that does what its supposed to so i dont mind, might get vagcom next month.

[tshirt2k]

£10 Vag com leads are pointless really. Can't do anything of much use really.

[Ant1981]

If you just want to know what your fault codes are, vag com is a waste of time, just get a basic hand held reader.

Vag com is only useful if you want to dive deeper into reading things, which isn't necessarily going to help you out.

[VW BUSH]

http://www.talktomycar.co.uk/products/codereaders/codereaders.htm

I have one from here bought a few years ago, still going strong.
My dad has a more advanced one for £200 which allows you to quite a bit more on all cars, both have been kicked around the garage and dunked in the oil pan and survived

[Screech16v]

I have the u281 ,its pretty basic but well worth the money,the only problem is its making me fat,cause i will plug it into anybodies car for a sausage and cheese  sandwich 

[thatwillis]

i will plug it into anybodies car for a sausage and cheese  sandwich 

sl*t... 

[TurboBeast]

I have both VAGCOM and one of these handheld readers VAGCOM is ace for proper diagnoses and delving deep but this is great to keep in the car at all times incase a light pops on and you wanna quickly see if it's safe to keep driving or if you're gonna end up in limp mode/garaged.