I want to start doing more than just the mechanical work on my wife's car and my car, so I sent this email to Ross Tech:

"Good morning.

My car is a 2002 VW Jetta TDi. Despite a lot of recent engine work that I have done myself, the fuel economy continues (for about 1.5 years) to be down about 10%. I want to be able to check all of the engine and car systems to know what to attack next. Also, the remote functions of one of the key fobs do not work and I want to be able to check it out.

My wife's car is a 1997 Audi A4Q 2.8. The "check engine" light has been on for quite a while, and we have been told that it is probably due to the EGR passageway being blocked. I just worked on the car yesterday and found the passageway to be open--but the "check engine" light is still on. We also want to be able to check all systems in the car.

We have no laptop, VAG-COM software, cable or whatever is needed to do the diagnostics.

We have a limited budget. We are interested in understanding the lowest-cost alternative for being able to diagnose and make adjustments to both of our cars with the same set-up. What software is best for our situation? What cable(s) is (are) needed? What are the requirements for the laptop (we will need to find a used laptop that meets our needs)?

I have read a rather interesting series of posts in one of the enthusiast websites, and I want to do this right. But I need to be able to do it right for a reasonable overall cost. Any help you can provide is much appreciated.

Thank you."

The reply from someone at Ross Tech was that I would need to purchase either the KII-USB for $249+shipping or the HEX-USB+CAN for $349+shipping and would need a computer with windows operating system. No mention of the VCDS-Lite (which, from reading other posts in this forum, I thought might work). No mention of which cable is needed and source or sources of cable. And no mention about the computer requirements (like operating system needed, memory needs, graphics needs, etc).

Is anyone out there able to shed any light on my situation? I was hoping to be able to find an older laptop for a reasonable price and use it exclusively for work on our two cars (no internet, videos, games, etc), so as to be able to keep the total cost as low as possible. Can this even be done?