[osidak]

vag-com can be purchased from ross-tech.com

uwe is a bit of an arse but he does know his stuff so I tend to over look his flaws. Scangauge is really rather cool but it will just give you the generic obdII codes and not the factory specific codes

Also vag will allow you to recode modules where as any other tool is mainly a scan and clear.

If you have a 2004 or newer car you need to go with the cables that support CAN for total functionality - if you have older and you want to save some money then get a HexKey or USBKey cable. Of course if you upgrade to another Audi or VW then you will need to upgrade the cable as well.

Another suggestion is get on TDIClub and see if someone local to you have a cable. Most people that do are happy to allow you to borrow or let you come over and use it