Buying guides
Which one, for the job you actually have
A hub compares everything in a family. A guide answers one question — a budget, a first set of tools for someone servicing their own car for the first time, the three things that turn a driveway into a place you can work — with a ranked shortlist and a reason for the order.
- Getting started
The first four tools, and the order they earn their place
Four tools cover a wheel change and an oil service, in the order they become useful — and the two that are never bought separately.
- Diagnostics
The first diagnostic tool: reader, dongle or scanner
Three price tiers, three genuinely different capabilities — and the question that decides which one you need before you spend anything.
- Buying
Jump starter or charger: rescue, or prevention
One gets a flat car running; the other stops it going flat. Which you need depends on how often the car moves, not on how much you spend.
- Buying
Jack, stands or ramps: what each one is for
Three ways to get a car off the ground, and the one rule that decides which combination is defensible for the job in front of you.
- Servicing
An oil change: the four tools, and the method question
Drain or extract, which filter wrench your car needs, and the container detail that keeps the job off your driveway.
- Servicing
Brake tools: what the job needs, and where this site stops
Press or rewind, pressure or vacuum bleeding, and the electronic parking brake that no mechanical tool can retract.
- Buying
Tire tools: the gauge, the pump and the get-you-home kit
What each of the three does, why the inflator gauge is not the one to trust, and the repair limit every maker states.
- Bodywork
Bodywork at home: what is worth attempting
Paint correction, headlight restoration and dent removal — what each needs, and the honest limits of all three.
- Getting started
In the boot: five things worth the space
The small kit that covers the roadside problems you can actually solve, and the two that live indoors instead.
- Buying
Suspension: the tools, and the one that stores energy
Separators, spring compressors and the ratings that matter — plus the reason this guide stops where the workshop manual starts.
- Buying
Air tools: cheap tools, expensive air
Pneumatic tools cost a fraction of their cordless equivalents and need a compressor that can feed them — the figure almost nobody publishes.
- Servicing
Before winter: four checks and the tools for them
The battery, the tires, the terminals and the lights — the checks that prevent a January failure, and what each needs.