scanners, Tech 2 or gerneric?

Are there any scanners out there that will allow me to do all the things a Tech 2 will and still be able to use it on other vehicles. I'm in the market for a scanner, I mostly only work on GM but if there is no real benifit to having a Tech 2 vs. a Snap On or OTC, I would rather have one that I can Buy cards to work on other makes also. Are the programs that dealers load on your vehicle via A Tech 2 only available to dealers? I've used several scanners but haven't become real familiar with all of them yet. thanks, Travis

A scanner thet will do live testing and can access abs and air bag codes as well as do software updates and has a graph available are expensive there are are multitude of performance levels to choose from, just as many providers. none are under 3,500.

If you do lots of GMs,the Tech 2 the choice and the Tech 2 will program and unlock radios too,2000 and up.You do not want anything made by SPX which owns OTC,do not stand behind their equipment at all.Plus SPX is Greedy and this is true!They screwed my father's family,denied my grandmother Rose retirement money which was my grandfather's.They denied it because he worked for them for 19 1/2 years.My grandfather whom I never met,died in 1968 of a heart attack worked for SPX for 19 1/2 years and my grandmother received his 20 year pin.I boycott anything made by SPX since this happened

By softare update do you mean updating the scanner or updating the vehicle? I'm just interested in which one will allow me to do the most to my vehicle. I don't want to spend a few thousand on 1 to decide later I need to sell it and buy a better one. That usually ends up costing more in the long run.

The Tech 2 will work on all GMs.Most aftermarket scan tools will not read any ABS or airbag codes.Vetronix is another choice,better than OTC and Snap On and they make the Tech 2

At our shop, we have a Tech-2, Snap-on modis, and 2 OTC genisys. The only real benefit to the Tech-2 is the SPS programming. There are a couple small things like seeing what modules are "awake" which is nice for finding parasitic draws sometimes. You can also command anything that the computer can (honk the horn, turn headlights on/off, open the trunk, etc) On GM vehicles, I usually reach for the Tech-2, just because I know I wont have to mess around with changing the keys out (and snap-on may have an auto-key thing like the genisys has, we just never looked into it). If I then find I need/want graphing I'll go back and get the modis or Genisys. The only benefit to the Genisys is the low cost and an auto-key thing that changes the keys electronically. The modis also has a built-in lab scope, which may be a benefit for you if you don't have a stand-alone unit.

Matco also has a newer scan tool with all the functions of the modis, except it's got a touch screen and you plug a small adapter (which doubles as a code reader/clearer into the OBD port and then the main scan tool is cordless. They can out with that about 2 weeks after we got out modis (it's about $2000 less than the modis), otherwise we definately would have bought the Matco one. It's part number INT5000 on matcotools.com if you're interested.

The Tech 2 has a better missfire gragh and you can see which cylinder is missfiring.There is one drawback with the Modis including the Lotis,very,very slow at start up.I know a transmission shop that has a Lotis,they do not like the the very,very slow start up with it.The Tech 2 will also program key fobs,2000 and up

Great info guys, I appreciate all the help.