E53 + CARLY?
 

So Carly markets itself as being the single piece of software that any bmw owner should ever need promising a fast, seamless experience and being able to perform any task from diagnostics, to coding, to adaptations etc etc.

Being that its android based and I'm running an Xtrons android head unit it seems like a no brainer to pick up.

Except, we all know how fiddly these solutions can really be and just how little of what software promises, actually works with our beloved E53s. I'm heavily considering picking up Carly in either a black friday sale or using a discounted link from some random youtuber thats shilling them, but before I pull the trigger I really want to know if anyone has had any experience with Carly and an E53 (3.0d in particular)

I would have bought already but they went to subscription and the e53 is fairly limited in functions compared with the new cars but for$100 ish probably still the best bet for basic coding like allow rolling up windows with the fob or set which key sets the doors to auto lock and which speed for example.

Feedback is that it does exactly as claimed and they have a list of exactly which coding options are available on the e53 chassis

Sorry, no specific info as it pertains to an e53 diesel, but have used it on our e70 diesel. It's a good tool. But like any tool, it can't do all jobs and another tool will be needed for those jobs. Check the list of codings offered if interested in that. I do find some of them don't take after trying to code but for the most part works as advertised. Carly is much faster at scanning than three foxwell 520 pro, but doesn't always pull all stored codes. It's obviously much more convenient than pulling out the laptop with inpa, but not as capable.

I would not have gotten it were it subscription based when I bought. I'm grandfathered in fortunately. It has gotten MUCH better in terms of usability. I have used it on an Android head unit too with no issues. Not sure if they still charge for piecemeal individual things (battery registration, dpf regen, etc) but don't think they do. It's hard for me to check because I have a grandfathered in app so it behave a little differently to those with a subscription I imagine.