Overall an excellent guide for purchasing used cars. My only complaint are the hard-to-visually-scan graphics they use for rating reliability history and crash test results. A reference should be easier to scan without having to constantly refer back to a legend that is buried somewhere in the front of the book.

Consumer Reports provides a vital function in today’s uber-materialist culture. They report objectively about the many products we purchase. In so doing they cut through all of the hype, distortion, and outright lies of the marketers, ad-men, and other assorted hucksters who bombard us constantly.

This guide is a powerful tool for helping both the new and experienced car buyer with the difficult task of sorting out the lemons from the cream puffs. It provides detailed information on each car and then summarizes the best used car buys and the worst used car buys — for those with limited attention spans like me.

I could not recommend this guide more highly. It is an essential part of the decision making process of used car buyers.

Buying a used car? Buy the “Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Guide” first.

Rather than depend on the advice of semi-knowledgeable friends, a mechanic biased toward a car maker and not a specific vehicle, or by looking to see what your neighbor drives, you can depend on this.

I bought my last two cars using earlier guides.

In it, I found lists of “Good Bets,” which are cars the authors consider to perform well over the years. That is guiding my purchase. I won’t buy a car not listed there. I also found lists dividing reliable cars by price range, which cars have had recalls, unreliable models (by year), and detailed descriptions of the pros and cons of each vehicle.

That’s not all. There are also articles on safety, buying strategies, batteries, insurance, towing, depreciation, tires and child car seats.

It is not a complicated book. It is straight to the point, with minimal car jargon. Novices like myself are not overwhelmed by information I am not concerned with.

I am interested in safety, performance, cost of repair and related information. I found all of this here.

I fully recommend “Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Guide.” I am confident that because I have read it and will refer to it while I shop for an auto online, I am prepared to save money and to buy a better vehicle.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com