Any favorite car review sites ?

We have been researching another car for the better half and I was wondering what car review sites you all have found to be useful. I have been looking at edmunds, car and driver and autotrader simply because they came up toward the top of the google search.

Also, If you have any experience (good or bad) with Ford Explorer, Chevy Traverse or Hyundai Veracruz, please chime in as those are what we are looking at because of necessary cargo space.

She now has a '99 Explorer now which has been a pretty good vehicle, no major issues. Drove the 2009 Explorer and it felt about the same in its ride as the '99. Ford has not made many changes to the interior of this car in the last 10 years, either. Drove the Veracruz and it felt like a much better ride than the Explorer. Many more "features" on the Veracruz than the Ford. With incentives, the Ford was about $7k cheaper (but with less features) before starting the haggling on either car. Haven't driven the Traverse yet. When previously shopping vehicles in '99, test driving a Jeep it felt "truck like" compared to the ride of the Explorer, we both immediately mentioned how this time around the Explorer was the "truck" ride compared to the Veracruz.

carsurvey.org

We just upgraded our Escape from from a 2001 to 2008, they are nice too, if you don't need the room. They are 4 door and we have been getting around 21-23MPG hwy/city. One nice thing, they are Front Wheel drive normally and the rear wheels kick in when needed. Much better in the snow around this area. We had 2 Jeep Cherokees and they did ride like trucks (I think the solid axle suspension compared to the independent like the escape and I think the explorer too.)

Not sure if you looked at teh Ford Edge or not.

http://www.edmunds.com
http://www.kbb.com

I like this site. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/category/reviews/ Chris

In addition to the traditional car review sites, I would look for forums dedicated to the car you are interested in. Then you can get information from people that actually own/drive the vehicles.

Spend a little money on a 1 year subscription to Consumer Reports if you haven't already. I don't receive the magazines I just use the .com. From what I have seen on there, it will be a long time before I buy from the Big 3 ever again.

From what I have seen:

Hyundai Veracruz received a 75 overall
Ford Explorer received a 58 overall
and Chevy Traverse is currently being tested by them

Never heard of the Traverse. Then again since my Trailblazer is a piece of crap I haven't really looked at any GM products since the first year I was stuck in that piece of crap....
(My Trailblazer has been in and out of the shop every year since the year I bought it. Half of the repairs weren't even covered under their 3/36 warranty. Kind of amazing when you have normal wear and tear items going before 36,000 on it.)
I'll place a bet that after CR finishes reviewing the Traverse that it will come in lower than the Veracruz.

If you are considering the Traverse...look at the Saturn Outlook, it received a 75 from CR and the Traverse is very similar to it.

I don't trust many other review sites other than CR anymore. I use edmunds and Autosite quite a bit for pricing but I depend on CR for reviews. For an extra fee you can also subscribe for "Bottom Line Price" from CR. Reason for my opinion on CR...when you go to their site, you won't see any advertisements.

Good luck with your shopping. Look at carsdirect.com also.

CR has no advertisements because they aren't funded by the car industry like almost all the other car review sites. CR can be brutal at times, but that is what you want if it is the truth.

About the only thing I enjoy on PBS is MotorWeek.
Check out their site:
http://www.mpt.org/motorweek/search.shtml

In 2005 I got my wife a Hyundai XG350 & she loves it. And you can't beat the 5 year/60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper and 10 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranties.

spc wrote:In 2005 I got my wife a Hyundai XG350 & she loves it.

What kind of fuel mileage do you get with that.
I thought about buying a Sonata a couple of years ago but I rented one for a business trip to Virginia and the Sonata that I had rented only got 22mpg on the trip. So needless to say I did not buy one.

BugsyR wrote:Then again since my Trailblazer is a piece of crap.........

Boy, GM really F***ed up that vehicle...........someone I used to work with had the same issues. That thing was in the shop more than in their driveway

I bought my wife an ' 00 Jimmy to replace her ' 91 S-10 Blazer...........long story short, I should have kept the Blazer!!!

Ditto the recommendation on Consumer Reports. They publish an annual auto issue in April, but I saw a good sized CR auto summary in the bookstore a few weeks ago so you don't have to wait for April. I have found CR's evaluations to be quite accurate for the cars I have owned myself. The reliability (frequency of repair) charts are based on a reader survey mailed out annually, so you are getting the real scoop from people just like you.

you should be able to get all consumer reports articles in PDF format online if you have userid and password via your library card. Check with your local library. Here's the link I use for my library.

http://midhudson.org/databases/

Myself... I'll probably never buy a new car again. I prefer to buy CPO (Certified Pre-Owned) LUXURY vehicles. The key here is LUXURY. The luxury brands (Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes, Lexus, Lincoln, Infiniti, Saab, Volvo) extend the bumper to bumper, roadside assistance... through 100K miles or 6 years from the original in service date (whichever comes first) for CPO vehicles.

Here's my approach:

• Purchase cars that are coming off a 24 or 36 month lease:
• 36~48 months/100K miles left on the bumper to bumper CPO warranty
• leased cars have a limited number of miles on them
• leased cars are generally better taken care of since the lessee must pay for every tiny problem/ding... upon return
• price of the car depreciates the fastest during this period (first couple of years). My preference is for the American/European brands as they depreciate faster than the Japanese brands (YES! I actually buy cars that lose value faster ... it's to my benefit in this case).

I drive the cars and put loads of miles on them until they are about to run out of warranty at which point I'll trade in for another luxury CPO vehicle.

I just went through this for my wife's car... You might want to check out the Volvo XC90.

gambler wrote:

spc wrote:In 2005 I got my wife a Hyundai XG350 & she loves it.

What kind of fuel mileage do you get with that.
I thought about buying a Sonata a couple of years ago but I rented one for a business trip to Virginia and the Sonata that I had rented only got 22mpg on the trip. So needless to say I did not buy one.

Keep in mind that rental cars are generally late model/new. All cars will go through a break in period and settle into their "normal" fuel economy at about 10~15K miles. It's not unusual to see that fuel economy improve 25~30% in the first year.

eelhc wrote:

gambler wrote:

spc wrote:In 2005 I got my wife a Hyundai XG350 & she loves it.

What kind of fuel mileage do you get with that.
I thought about buying a Sonata a couple of years ago but I rented one for a business trip to Virginia and the Sonata that I had rented only got 22mpg on the trip. So needless to say I did not buy one.

Keep in mind that rental cars are generally late model/new. All cars will go through a break in period and settle into their "normal" fuel economy at about 10~15K miles. It's not unusual to see that fuel economy improve 25~30% in the first year.

The wife averages about 25 MPG. More city driving than highway, 60/40.