[Tatsfield]

All cars have nuts and bolts and no DIY owner would contemplate the maintenance of his vehicle without a set of spanners. Now all cars have computer controlled electrical systems and no DIY owner should be contemplating the maintenance of his vehicle without an electronic diagnostics capability and for Volvos that is the VIDA/DiCE.

Many of the posts on this forum would just not be made if the owners used VIDA to tell them what was wrong with their car. They might come on here to learn the best way of correcting the problem but identifying the problem shouldn't be confined to the old system of asking someone who had the same fault that he did because it may not be the same fault and finding out what it really is starts with carrying out your own diagnosis. The helpless plea of "What's wrong with my car" should only be being made when VIDA fails to identify the problem or when its diagnosis is ambiguous or unclear and then personal expertise can be sought.

It's not as if a DiCE cable with the associated VIDA software will cost very much and most owners will have a laptop upon which to run it. If not it doesn't require an expensive computer since it is old technology and will run on Windows 7. It doesn't need an internet connection so outdated operating systems will not be vulnerable to hacking over the internet. £100 will buy you the whole kit including the computer!

The first response helpful owners should be making when answering queries is "What does VIDA say about the fault?"