How much is Carly?

In recent years, more and more products for diagnostics of on-board data have entered the market. There is a wide selection from cheap to expensive products. There are also many different options and configurations for the functions. Today we’re going to focus specifically on Carly and tell you many of the features that you get with Carly. At the end we also have an insider tip for you, so stay tuned.

So how much is Carly? The prices for Carly are slightly variable. Depending on the version, you pay €21 to €80 per year for the app. You can get the associated OBD-2 adapter for €59.90 on the official Carly website. You only have to pay for it once and then you can call it your own. If you don’t want to pay anything in advance, you can also download the Carly Lite app. With her you already have some cool features and you can get used to Carly. You can then also choose between two subscriptions: For one type of vehicle (e.g. BMW) or an all-rounder subscription, which costs a little more, but that’s not the world either. You won’t have to pay any more before you can work hard and start coding.

In this article we have summarized a short crash course on coding for you. Have fun with it!

What actually is coding?

Coding is actually a lot easier than it sounds. If you needed a master’s degree in computer engineering for that, it wouldn’t be as popular by a long shot and we probably wouldn’t be here. But back to the topic. So no, coding has nothing to do with programming or anything like that. You somehow reprogram your car, but you don’t do it directly, the codes have already been written. You just choose the features you want. Pretty easy, right?

If that’s too theoretical for you, we want to, or of course we’ll give you a few examples directly from the Carly app. Here is a list of areas where you can code:

At this point, however, we would like to note that these areas are not the same for every car and can therefore differ. If you want a precise list of all supported car brands and the different models, we recommend visiting our website.

We would now like to address some of these points. This list is from a BMW X3 E83 and all subsequent items are from this car. However, most of these functions can also be encoded on all other BMW cars.

Blinking

The turn signal is one of those things that just really stands out on a car. It won’t necessarily change your driving experience, but it’s a really cool gimmick

For example, you can have a visual confirmation when unlocking and locking. Either you have the function on or off. Personally, I would prefer the activated variant. And you?

You can also have a signal given when all doors and the tailgate are closed. This avoids that annoying feeling of not having closed the door completely. Again, on or off?

Last but not least, there is a function from road traffic. You can choose how often the blinker should blink when tapping. Rather once or do you prefer 3 times?

window regulator

Who doesn’t know it: You want to open the windows with a short tap, but they don’t want to. Carly helps. You can set for each window whether the window should open by itself after a short tap or not. On or off?

But you can also do this via the central switch. Under the heading “Inching function central switch open/closed” you can set whether you want to control the windows via the central switch or not.

If necessary, the windows can also be operated with the door open. But there is also an option to turn off the feature.

The next function also connects to this point. Should the windows continue to roll down or up if the door is opened during the process? The only question then is: on or off?

A very helpful function is the window raising after ignition off. Should the window regulators stop immediately when the ignition is switched off, or should they be available for another 1 minute?

tailgate

With the “Tailgate when vehicle is locked” function, you can set whether or not the tailgate should remain locked when the vehicle is locked. You can choose between on and off again.

There are many different options to choose from when unlocking the tailgate. You can open the tailgate as usual with a single press of the unlock button, or with a double press. You can also choose whether it should open with a delay or directly.

If you want the tailgate to open with a delay, you can specify how long it should be. The possibilities are 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 or 1.6 seconds. Try out what you like the most.

Start/Stop Automatic

One of the most frequently used functions is the automatic start/stop. The function is environmentally friendly, but if you’re honest, the thing gets on your nerves after a while. Then I’d rather turn it off and speed down the Autobahn at 135 km/h instead of 140 and then also save CO2. You can leave the function on permanently or switch it off permanently.

home lights

Home Glow is a particularly useful feature. Here you can make very detailed settings. The point is that the light on the vehicle stays on for a while after you get out, so that you can get into the house safely at night

I would like to present you with two possibilities for this. After switching off the engine, you can choose whether the headlights should continue to shine for 40, 90, 150 or 240 seconds.

Another very cool feature is that you can choose which lamps should light your way. The choice is large: low beam, brake light, turn signal, high beam, dashboard, license plate light, fog light, front parking light, rear parking light.

cleaning

Yes, even when cleaning you can code something. In fact, you can actually do quite a lot. Who would have thought?

Should the rain sensor be on or off?

You can also decide how long the pause in the wiping intervals should be. You can choose between 3 or 5 seconds.

In addition, the wiping speed can be automatically reduced when stationary. So if you want, you can have the speed of the windscreen wipers automatically changed to the interval setting. On or off?

If you come home in the rain and want to get inside quickly, you can quickly pull out the key. If the windscreen wipers are still on the move, you can also set whether or not they should return to their home position after the ignition is switched off. Continue driving the windshield wipers on or off?

After cleaning the window, you can choose how long the wipe delay should be. You can choose from 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 seconds.

After the previous point, you can still choose how often the wipers should wipe. Do you prefer 1, 2, 3 or 4 times?

If you don’t like that, you can also deactivate automatic wiping. On or off?

The same can be done when cleaning the headlights. Should this be activated or deactivated?

Anyone who has voted for the activated variant can also set how often this should happen. You can choose between 3, 5, 7 or 9 times to clean the windshield.

Which features the Carly App still has in store

In addition to the countless options for coding your car, the Carly app also has many other features that go far beyond that. Since Carly also offers a Carly Lite app, you can take a look at everything that has been mentioned here for yourself for free.

Used car check

We’re starting with a tool that won’t directly help you with your own car, but even more so if you’re looking for one. With Carly’s used car check, you can have all data checked for accuracy and thus rule out odometer manipulation. It’s one of the safest ways to do that.

Vehicle diagnostics and “health”

Would you like a diagnosis? You become the X-ray assistant of your car. With the vehicle diagnosis you can get an exact picture of the condition of your vehicle. The evaluations are displayed clearly and in color for you. When evaluating the color green, everything is fine. If it shows orange, that’s not a cause for concern, but you shouldn’t just brush it off the table either. You should then have the problems looked at. When it turns red, the fun is over. Unfortunately, Carly doesn’t offer a “Repair now” button yet, so it’s time for a visit to the workshop. And as soon as possible.

Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF)

If you use a diesel engine, you can check the critical value of the DPF such as soot mass or ash mass. Since the DPF is intended to help reduce exhaust emissions, replacing the filter element is also relatively expensive at 3,000 euros. It therefore makes sense to monitor this area, as this can save a lot of money. With the Carly app you can request the regeneration of the DPF if necessary and also follow the process.

As you can see, the Carly app can help you in many areas. For comparison: coding a single function costs 10 to 40 euros in a workshop. The diagnosis is charged at an average of 30 to 35 euros. With 2 vehicle diagnoses and 10 functions, the annual costs amount to 300 euros. With Carly’s diagnosis, you can also save costs when visiting the workshop if you can carry out a simple analysis of the vehicle data and eliminate the problems as they arise.