Reading binary data might be a fun trick, but have you considered using something like ELM327 to handle the protocol (if the one used by the car is included, page 25 on datasheet)?
If you still dont know howto handle the protocol, use one of those USB ELM327 bricks and sniff the serial data when you connect it using some diagnostics software.
Protocol might be ISO 9141-2, ISO/DIS 14230-4 (KWP2000) which is supported by elm.