Hey Everybody,

The "battery" symbol recently appeared on my dash. Then the "car on lift" symbol appeared shortly after. The MINI dealer said that the likely culprit is the battery and that it needs to be changed.

When I commented that I would just run over to Autozone to get a new battery, the service manager said "Not so fast..." He stated that the battery needs to be "registered". I thought that he was full of it until I started doing some research and discovered that this might be legitimate. He stated that the battery is about $225 PLUS the labor to replace/register is $195 PLUS tax. I HAD A COW!!!

So I have been trying to figure out a way around the dealership. I will likely go to Pep Boys and purchase a Bosch AGM battery. In regards to registration, I am looking at the Carly WiFi module($82) and Carly app($45) and in-app purchase for battery registration($9.99) to do the registration for a total of $128. Yes the savings is not huge until I have to change the battery in another 3-4 years (Florida is very hot), and I can also do some cool coding for the car using the Carly products.

I have seen several posts about this subject on various websites, but I see nothing totally conclusive.

Does anybody have any experience with the Carly WiFi module and app? I have looked at the reviews and they are not so good. But I am an engineer by profession and I am a good problem solver. I am confident that I can get around some of the snags. I just want to know whether or not the Carly products will do the job.

TIA,
--Neal