Davis Instruments 8226 CarChip Pro

by Davis

Product Features

• Monitor vehicle performance to save gas
• Stores up to 300 hours of trip details!
• Records time, date, distance, speed, events and up to 4 separate engine parameters!
• Records extreme acceleration and braking!
• View and reset engine diagnostic trouble codes!

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000SKQD9O
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,301 in Automotive (See Top 100 in Automotive)

Product Description

No comments are necessary this summer about the cost of gas! At 4 bucks or more you have to make sure your vehicle is in tip-top shape for the most economical performance. Did you know old spark plugs can reduce fuel economy by 30%? It gets worse... a bad oxygen sensor cuts it by 40%! And that relates to a lot of extra gas and money! With the CarChip Pro you'll have complete access to all your vehicles diagnostic data at your fingertips! Sort miles by type, business or personal miles, set thresholds for alarms, calculate gas mileage, log extreme acceleration and braking, speed, engine parameters, and a whole lot more! And as you know, extreme acceleration does not equal fuel economy! Find out who's driving your vehicle like a race car...and deal with it! If you have a new driver in the family, monitor their performance and let them gain additional privileges with a good driving record! You have the proof! No more taking your car in to see why your "check engine" light is on. The CarChip Pro will automatically provide the trouble codes and allow you to reset it! CarChip Pro includes storage for up to 300 hours of driving data! If you're unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident, it even records the last critical 20 seconds of operation! Includes USB cable, software and complete instructions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Hardware - So so software, February 11, 2010

By 

M. Magnus "magnus87" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Davis Instruments 8226 CarChip Pro

I bought this unit to diagnose an issue with one of my cars and to also serve as a training aid for my son who is a new driver. It works as described and proved to be very useful in troubleshooting my car. I would give the device 5 stars if the software were better but it needs work.
You review each trip as a separate graph. Also each graph only has one parameter on it such as speed. This limits the ability to use the software directly to analyze the data by comparing two measurements on the same time axis.
To do any real analysis, you have to export all of the data to excel which is not a simple process but instead involved cutting and pasting the numbers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Item!, February 24, 2008

By 

Joshua T. S. Blaha "World Explorer" (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Davis Instruments 8226 CarChip Pro

I had seen this product that a friend of mine had for a long time. I was excited to get one when I got a car that would meet the qualifications. I just bought this this last month. I have traveled over 1000 miles already with it and is works beautifully. It has a LOT of potential for car up-keeping, but it also already does more than I thought it could. It is great for keeping up mileage, MPG usage, self-troubleshooting, breaking bad driving habits, and much more. I highly recommend this product and will get another one for the rest of the cars that I get.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent unit for improving driving habits, April 28, 2008

By 

Careful Driver (Seatle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Davis Instruments 8226 CarChip Pro

First, the unit has been replaced with a newer version called the CarChip Pro (which is what I got). While the first unit I got was faulty, they shipped a replacement immediately - an A+ for their customer service.

I got it for a series of uses. I am considering switching over to an electric vehicle for our commuting use (best alternative with high gas prices, oil wars, climate change, etc), so I first wanted to really dig down into our typical driving so that I can figure out the right choice for us.

It is a "plug and play" unit and the software is extremely easy to use. Literally, just plug it into the OBD-II port. Pull it out and plug it to your computer and press a button to download the data into the CarChip software. Then plug it back into the vehicle.

Saving the trip data to a CSV file is relatively easy for a single trip. But to do it for several isn't - one has to keep repeating this for every trip. Bummer.

I created an Excel file with some formulas for deeper analysis. I found that on our city commute trips we use engine power for only 40-50% of our trip duration (the rest is either idling or coasting) - we are excellent candidates for commuting using electric mode only (either an electric vehicle or electric mode only in a plugin hybrid)!! To put in another way, we are wasting gas for at least half of our trips.

My area is hilly with plenty of slopes - some steep but most are mild. So I now tried "saving gas" driving techniques in our compact manual shift car (2002 VW Golf). Been doing that for about 4 weeks now since my last fill up. And no, I am not driving like a "little old lady" - just preserving momentum well and using gas judiciously. I've logged my driving over the last month (Apr 2008) and got 37 MPG!! That is significantly over the 23-24 MPG I got before I changed my driving style - a 50% gain. So I expect to recover my cost in just a couple of months.

So after a few months my need for the CarChip is almost nil, right? Well, not really. While one can continue to use it to monitor car usage, mileage, etc, it can also be used to get an insight into the computer error codes and take action before it becomes too bad.

The unit retains the last 20 seconds of speed data in case of an accident. So it can be used to advantage. However, I am not aware of the validity of the data from a legal perspective, a good lawyer should be able to use it to "win the case".

The unit also captures hard/extreme braking and acceleration. While hard/extreme braking is required in certain circumstances, it should be minimal/none for a good driver. Both are not good for gas mileage as well. This information can be used to improve driving style. Since my older one will be of legal driving age in a couple of years, I plan to have this unit in his vehicle for the first few years to help him improve his driving habits.

While it is a no-brainer for fleets, it is good for the average family too.