I know a lot of you are not fans of CarPoint, particularly the reviews, but there is a new version with a couple of features that sound pretty good.<p>"The new Personal Auto Page feature of MSN CarPoint allows consumers to create profiles of each vehicle they own by supplying detailed information about their cars, including actual and estimated driving mileage. In return, consumers receive automated e-mail notification about upcoming scheduled maintenance and auto manufacturer recalls specific to their cars."<p>It will be interesting to see if the recall notices are up to date or if it is the outdated information provided for free by alldata.com. <p>"The program contains a tool to automatically track their cars' Kelley Blue Book values." <p>That could also be interesting, if not a little disappointing.<p>Kyle<br>Not affiliated with Microsoft or MSN<br><ul><li><a href="http://carpoint.msn.com/">CarPoint</a></li></ul>

I just checked it out, and the recall info is not very useful. First of all, the Personal Auto Page doesn't let you distinguish between a 1.8 and a 2.8, nor does it allow you to list things like Quattro, auto vs. manual, etc. The only recalls listed for the '97 are for the static discharge of the airbag, and faulty locking mechanism on the rear seatbelt (only affects 12 units).<p>As for the Blue Book value, it gives a very broad range - $17K to $25K in one place, and $25K to $32K in another place. Again, there is no distinction between models. You have to go to the Kelley Blue Book site to get the value based on your equipment. I don't know why two different price ranges are listed. Perhaps the first was taking my high mileage (22K/yr) into account.<p>One feature that may be useful once the warranty runs out is the service checklist. It list everything to be performed at each of the service intervals, along with estimated parts and labor costs. I have not compared the list to the maintenance manual. It does not say what labor rate the labor charges are based on, but they seem a little low. It says $13 labor for an oil change. My dealer charges a full hour ($72). Needless to say I won't be getting my oil changed there after the warranty runs out.<p>Kyle