I have a basic code reader, 30$ or so i bought many years ago. this reader shows no message. The battery get disconnected almost daily since at some point the motor does not crank. nearby there is autozone, and interestingly they have a very similar reader and O'Reilly that based on the shape and size seems to be a more advanced one. Alternativelly i have an european/Mercedes shop that asked $250 per hour to check the car.
Our plan is driving 200Miles or so (have the overdue smog check done, the car has had starting issue since september) and then see if i can get a code number from the pcm possible from O'Reilly. I expect that most error messages get resetted when the battery is disconnected.

Thanks
Salvo