CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market trading After-hours trading Winners/losers/actives Bonds Currencies Commodities Money Magazine Retirement Mutual Funds Taxes Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Loan Center Best Places to Live Calculators Mortgage Rates Personal tech Big Tech blog Techland blog Sectors and stocks Fortune 500 techs Tech Talk 100 best places to launch Ultimate resource guide Small biz makeovers FSB 100 Ask & Answer Fortune 500 Technology Investing Management Rankings Main Create portfolio Edit portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Car options: Value added, or not

The right options make your car safer and more valuable. The wrong ones just make it more expensive.

Rear-seat DVD systems
The redesigned 2008 Chrysler Town & Country, shown here, will have two separate DVD screens, allowing second and third row occupants each to have their choice of entertainment.
Buy it later
Rear-seat DVD systems
Let's say you're in the market for a Honda Odyssey minivan. It's an excellent choice for families, so long as you steer clear of the DVD option. Honda charges $1,300 for a ceiling-mounted movie player, a fold-down nine-inch screen and a pair of wireless headphones. All for the luxury of having the screen fold back up into the headliner once the brood is done watching Shrek 5.

A nine-inch portable DVD player bought at Best Buy costs about $180. Throw in two pairs of headphones and the price creeps up to $200. And like the portable GPS unit, you can take this handheld movie theater with you wherever you go.

The Verdict: Save the $1,000 and go for the portable. Then you can buy all the DVDs the kids want.


Stability control

Side airbags

Run-flats

Bluetooth

Rearview camera

Navigation

DVD
Hybrid vs. diesel vs. flex-fuel Which will do the most for the environment, fuel supplies and your bank account. (more)
Aura Green Line: GM's hybrid cost cutter Saturn's hybrid sedan costs less than other hybrid cars, but it's not worth as much either. (more)
Honda readies sleek hydrogen car for sale With the new FCX, Honda will take the next step in taking hydrogen powered cars beyond the laboratory. (more)
© 2008 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2008 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. All Times are ET.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Hemscott.
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.