After I posted my review of the ScanGaugeII — a great OBD2 reader, but one that runs around $150, which isn’t realistic for a lot of people here in Pakistan — a few friends asked if there was something similar but cheaper. So I picked up a Chinese-made alternative: the VJOY car OBD2 monitor.
It’s a small, round digital gauge display — I actually really like the design, since it looks and feels like a proper RPM gauge rather than a generic plastic add-on. If your car doesn’t already have a built-in RPM meter, this is a nice way to add one along with a lot of other useful data.
What it actually shows
This little device packs in a genuinely impressive amount of real-time data for the price:
- Vehicle speed
- Engine RPM
- Water/coolant temperature
- Battery voltage
- Instantaneous fuel consumption
- Average fuel consumption
- Single-trip driving distance
- Total driving distance
- Driving time
- Turbo pressure
- Air/fuel ratio
- Oil temperature
The feature I like most: warning alerts
My favorite part of this device is the built-in alarm system. You can set custom thresholds, and it’ll actively warn you if:
- You go over a set speed limit
- Coolant temperature exceeds a safe range
- Battery voltage drops below a defined low point
These aren’t things most budget cars warn you about on their own, so having a device actively flagging them is genuinely useful, not just informational.
VJOY vs. ScanGauge: which one should you get?
If budget isn’t a concern and you want a more established, premium option, the ScanGauge is still the better build overall. But if you want most of the same real-time monitoring — RPM, temps, fuel data, and now proactive alerts — at a fraction of the price, the VJOY is a genuinely solid budget alternative.