I am finally going to get myself a Digital Multi-Meter for various automotive and home uses. I am not a do everything myself mechanic, but for simple stereo installs, and other miscelleneous SIMPLE auto trouble-shooting on newer OBDII cars, it would come in handy. I am tired of borrowing them from other people.

My question to you all is what should I get? I know at work we use Fluke equipment. When I looked over equipment at Sears, they were obviously more expensive then the Sears brand DMMs. Is the fluke equipment worth the extra cost over other brands considering I will use it infrequently? For the uses I mentioned, are there any particular features I should upgrade to over a basic DMM that does current, resistance, and DC & AC voltage? Is it woth the money to get one which will also measure frequency or has a crude oscilloscope functionality? Or are those extra features not really something you would ever need while working on a car or in the home? As I continue to do more work on my own, I may kick myself later that I did not upgrade to a unit with usefull features, but I also dont want to walk out of the store with a $150+ piece of equipment that will likely only get used 3-4 times a year.

Thanks,

 

For occasional auto use a simple volts, resistance, amps, meter is all you'll ever need. Fluke is expensive because it's accuracy is high, and they're very well made.
One accessory that's nice to have is the inductance type amp probe. The end goes around the wires similar to a timing light, so you don't have to break the circuit.