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!
In terms of an actual good review of long-time ownership you’re better off reading owner groups like forums/subreddits etc. Some reviewers will revisit long running models but it usually gets less attention. If you want a view into long-term ownership you have to get it from someone who’s owned it long-term
I think there’s useful information to be gleaned from owner groups and forums. But I also think a person needs to be careful.
Ownership bias is very real. And I think you tend to actually get more of the extremes. i.e. people who are there to go on about how much they just love their vehicle. Or conversely just how much their experience was the worst ever.
Likewise… the vast majority of people don’t have any significant time with comparable models.
You gotta look into maintenance threads and buyers guides. Less opinion pieces and more gleaning from what people are dealing with. Anyone’s gonna try to sell you if you ask for an opinion.
Look through an e46 forum everyone will tell you they’re reliable if you replace every piece of rubber and plastic every 5 years. Which is partially true but that’s a ton of maintenance itself. You’ll know you’ll be dealing with cooling issues, and there’s a million threads on subframe issues etc.
The biggest problem with that approach is that people who have had major issues and dissatisfaction probably don’t own the vehicle anymore and thus won’t be found in these groups. I don’t disagree it’s a good place to get feedback, but just be aware of the inherent survivorship bias.
Every cars I’ve owned the past 30 years have all had strong forum (now reddit) communities. These have people/groups are a treasure trove of information and sadly older indexable/searchable formats are getting less frequented (old school forums), for non searchable formats such as tic tok and you tube.
Meh, I find forums are still pretty honest that way.
This. Forums are the best. The issue is, if the car doesn’t have an enthusiast following, info is non-existent.
I feel like the bias can also go the other way. People who’ve had a bad experience are more likely to complain on the forums and if it ain’t broke people aren’t posting about it.
Forum posters are already an extreme minority.
It seems like for every honest person you get on a forum, you get 10 “best car I ever had, never had any problems and I put 500k on it”.
And for everyone of of those you get a “I’VE HAD NO ISSUES WHATSOEVER. 17,000 MILES ON THE ODOMETER.” Like yeah. It’s not supposed to have any problems at 17,000 miles, even for a poopsmear brand like Jaguar or Alfa.
Forums are just a data point among many. You need to sift through all the garbage and see what passes the sniff test.
My favorite is “just passed the 6 month mark! Still running great and looks new!”
"Just brought her home! Can’t wait to live my best life dailying this beauty!
PS: Will someone explain how to shift this thing?
Anyway, five stars for sure!