What's the most hackable car from a bus perspective?

January 2, 2009 10:15 AM

What's the most hackable car out there?

I'm considering purchasing a new automobile. I'm looking at last and current model year only. I am not concerned with things like performance or reliability but those would be pluses. Price is not necessarily an object. When I talk about "hackability", I am thinking about doing things like building an in-car system that not only does the standard "CarPC" stuff e.g. play music, movies, GPS, weather, etc., but also interacting with the car's bus in new and interesting ways (e.g. pulling more statistics that can normally be gotten from the OBD port). I looked briefly into purchasing a BMW, but it seems as if the MOST bus is less than desirable for hackability. What i'm essentially looking for is a great platform that I can do totally crazy shit to.

Any bright ideas?

posted by arimathea to technology (3 comments total)

I don't have a complete answer, but if you're interested in pulling stats from the ODB-II port, this might be a good place to start:

http://www.scangauge.com/

We bought one based on a prior AskMe and use if for gas mileage, but I can get horsepower, coolant temperature, air temperature, throttle position, engine load, etc. You might already know how to do this, but if not, this could be a valued resource.
posted by JMOZ at 10:47 AM on January 2, 2009

Nissan GTR.
posted by The World Famous at 10:51 AM on January 2, 2009

Honda Civic.

Acura Integra.

At least, these are the ones I see riced out most frequently.

I truly and deeply love my Subaru Impreza. It's like a physical longing, even, when I haven't driven her for a couple days.

All of these are going to have OBD-II, with several proprietary extensions. OBD-II is your best bet for finding after-market electronics, since most other buses aren't well-understood (or well-supported). OBD-II is the only thing guaranteed to be in every new car in America, so it's what most tools are going to target.

Also, previously.
posted by Netzapper at 12:20 PM on January 2, 2009