If you were buying a code reader tool for more than a Prius

Is laptop-based okay? The next release of autoenginuity is supposed
to come out in about a week, which will hopefully fix a bunch of the
stuff I've found missing in 4.4, but aside from that it's reasonably
good at pulling out the manufacturer-specific stuff and costs about
an order of magnitude less than most of the high-end professional
tools. Mind you, I haven't tried any of the really nitty-gritty
specific functions like brake bleeding, and it doesn't have much in
the way of immobilizer support [but then again, who does except the
official OE?], but I've been a lot happier with this than I was with
the first scantool I bought [and you can search the archives for
which one that was..]
.
_H*

 

I just got an Autoxray AX2500-main reason was that it has capability to scan pre-96 cars (OBD-I) as well as OBDII. If you're lucky you can score a new one on ebay for under $100 like I did.

This article is not that great but does discuss the features of some of the models available:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguide...3733704-1272015