When I bought my current car, it came with an owners manual--for free!!

I can grab any data I want from the OBD port. The hardware was cheap, the software to use it is, again, free.

I'm not excited about this brave new world where you have to pay a subscription fee to plug a cable into a device you own and interact with it, and even less excited there are people here defending the idea.

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itsrobreally 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You may not be aware but there are a lot of proprietary PIDs on your OBD2 bus you can't interpret without specialized software - you can get like oil pressure and temperature, but not say, shift points or anything the manufacturer doesn't think you should see. True right to repair would mean all of the PIDs get documented and there is a marketplace where I can purchase software or documentation without having to be a certified brand X mechanic.

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loopies 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

What you want is the service manual. Owner manual should be implicit. OBD port can work for some cars, for some of the data. But other cars do have specialized gear they require to either access either reset some stuff in some of the car's computers.

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somehnguy 13 minutes ago | parent [-]

Yeah the owners and service manuals are two very very different things. You won't be performing much maintenance with the owners manual besides the absolute basics, like checking your oil.

The cheap OBD2 readers lack the vast majority of data and tools you would want to use for service as well.

There are aftermarket options but most manufacturers want you to subscribe to their service tools - often charged per monthly plus an additional a fee per VIN it touches. These cost in the hundreds to thousands. It can be pretty frustrating as a shadetree mechanic.

	▲	lazide 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Notably, some vehicles like the Toyota Highlander you can’t even figure out when you need to change the spark plugs, let alone what kind of spark plugs you need from the owners manual. Theoretically, they are to be replaced at 120k miles (!!) but they won’t even tell you that in the owners manual. Insane.