Car&Driver a while back mentioned something sortof like that, but it was for a PDA not a laptop. Look back to maybe September in their archived articles. I think it was a long-term test of some car...

Saabs have the same kind of deal... Tech-II with the Saab software goodies is a few thousand$$. The AutoZoned guys can read codes & probably reset lights, but they can't reprogram the alarms or locks or stuff like that. This PDA thing is probably kinda like the $200 OBD readers you can get at autoparts stores.