Autoblog

That little red box contains a lot of electronic goodies that, until now, were only available as options on newer vehicles. Plug that plastic rectangle into your car's diagnostics port and CarShield puts you in touch with your car like never before.

Like most simple telematic systems, it contains cellular capabilities, GPS and Bluetooth. Those technologies allow car owners to open locked car doors with a Bluetooth mobile phone and track where there car is, has been or is going. Got a teen driver? If the little brat ventures outside your pre-determined boundaries, the CarShield will send you a text message to let you know.

Perhaps more useful to the general population, though, are CarShields diagnostic features. It monitors your car's health, and alerts you via text message if your battery is getting weak, if your tires are low or, in some cars, if you need an oil change.

Ever been sitting in a cafe in, say, Paris, and wanted to impress your new French friends by starting your car back in the States remotely? No, neither have we, but if the opportunity ever arises, Autopage can make it happen.

We poke fun, but Autopage's new C3 system is actually pretty cool and won the 2008 CES Best of Innovations Award. After installing several of Autopage's various modules in your car, you are, virtually, Michael Knight. Using your most any smart phone, you can not only remotely start your car from anywhere you have service, you can also roll windows up or down, disable the starter and open your trunk.

But those are not the coolest things it can do. If your car moves more than 25 feet without your permission (stolen, towed, rolled into a lake after you forgot the parking brake, etc.) you will be notified via text message that sumthin's up. Then you can invoke yet another feature: GPS tracking via your mobile. C3 shows you a map updated every 5 minutes of your car's direction of travel so you can help the fuzz track down the perp who stole your ride. Or you can use it to keep dibs on your teenager who's headed to Vegas instead of the movie theater.

Speaking of teenagers, C3 will also alert you via text message if the car exceeds a set speed limit. So next time Junior takes the Camry over 90 again, you'll know it. Then you can lock the doors, disable the starter and know exactly where he is.

We didn't get a price on the entire system (it can't be cheap), but service plans (you didn't think all those fun things were free, did you?) range from $150 a year for a limited number of uses, to $250 a year for unlimited use.