My current car was well-reviewed when new but had a cosmically stupid timing chain design that screws over the second or third owner. But most reviewers are targeting new-car buyers.
Thinking about that made me wonder if there are channels/creators specializing in reviews of cars that have significant mileage on them. Looking at relatively recent cars and asking “how did this model actually hold up? What design flaws should second-hand buyers watch out for?”
RCR kind of ends up doing that sometimes, but it’s not really their specific focus.
Thanks!
Consumer Reports updates their reliability ratings as cars age and their users report issues.
Consumer reports is terrible
How so?
Well, they were recommending the LG refrigerators as a good buy while LG was involved in a class action lawsuit for faulty refrigerator compressors.
They have given the same products made by the same manufacturer, but sold under different brands different ratings.
If what you consider important in a product isn’t what they consider important, then their recommendation may not be for you.
They also tend to favor appliances with a lot of “smart features” and rate them highly, even when they don’t actually do a good job at what they are supposed to do. As long as the smart features are easy to use, it seems to get a good rating.
I hear all that. What do you think about their takes on cars?
This was the flag to me the CR was either complete BS or at least should be taken with a grain of salt. Something like an 86 can get a different score than a BRZ despite being 99% there same car. That or a new MY that’s just a light exterior refresh suddenly getting better marks despite no drivetrain changes.
It was an old snow blower review that I first noticed the discrepancy. They scored the MTF higher than the Craftsman, despite the only difference being one was yellow and the other red. I worked in a repair shop at the same time. The parts list was the same and they had the same part numbers and same engine, same warranty. They were 100% the same machine, yet one was ranked higher than the other.
A other one they recommended was complete garbage. It had a carburetor you couldn’t order parts for. The manual recommended an engine sway over a carb rebuild. At that point it was cheaper just to replace the snowblower entirely.