Factual/Unbiased Car Reviews

[SanDiegoTim]

Anyone got a good source? Sites like Edmunds, Kelly Blue, etc. are somewhat less than useful. I'm trying to compare a 2010 Ford Escape with a 2010 Chevy Equinox. My son is in the market for a used one.

[lazybratsche]

Consumer Reports is the other big name in car reviews, but they're not going to tell you much you haven't seen from Edmunds and similar sites.

[GreasyJack]

What kind of information are you looking for? Are you hoping for reliability/cost-of-ownership type stuff or things like new car reviews that talk about performance and ergonomics and the like?

If the former, quantifying reliability is such an imprecise science I think it really pays to look at a bunch of different sources. Every one of them calculates things a little differently and draws from different data sources, and the ratings on the same cars can be quite different. I think the best resource for this is the Consumer Reports annual used car guide (which you can buy from them or get from the library), but I wouldn't consider it definitive.

If the latter, I really personally don't put too much stock in "professional" car reviewers. The only thing they're really good for is giving you some ideas about what you should be looking for while you're doing test drives. Just googling for "(year, make, model) reviews" should give you a good variety of them.

[Gary T]

Car and Driver magazine is not afraid to be critical of the cars they test. Not everything they bitch about matters to everybody, but they stand out from the other car mags in not sounding like company shills.

[DrDeth]

I second Consumer Reports.

Note that in the case of a 2010 car, buying new is as good as buying used, unless you get a deal from a Private Party.

[Chefguy]

Intellichoice used to do a good job.