Got in trouble for recommending acuramdx.org!

Edmunds Serves a Purpose

I agree with TheWorm. Edmunds has some utility.

Edmunds' Townhall is a good place for those shopping for a new vehicle. It's easier when cross-shopping, say, five or so vehicles to get your answers there, than to find and frequent the enthusiast/owner oriented sites like this one, or bimmer.org, mbnz.org, audiworld.com, etc. There's a lot more posts in the "dedicated" topics from folks who aren't enthused about the vehicle you may be considering. Not very constructive if you already own the vehicle, but helpful if you're still looking.

Edmunds has "Owner's Clubs" for non-shopping owners, but that's when their utility starts going away. That's when enthusiast sites like this one just destroy what's generally available on Edmunds.

The software is terrible, I don't care if it's used in some high-traffic sites. The search facility is a joke and has been since they converted to WebX many moons ago. Back then the standard response from the hosts was that it was something they were working on. Well, it's now been -- what, over a year, and the search is virtually useless.

Edmunds is moderated with a fairly heavy hand, and they are sensitive to folks they feel may be encouraging people to leave them for other sites. I don't totally blame them, though they shouldn't be rude about it.

I usually am able to make references to this site by using it as an answer to a question, as opposed to "c'mon boys and girls, let's ditch this lousy software for acuramdx.org." E.g. if someone is asking about installation of running boards, what better way to help them than to point to one of the threads here, complete with detailed instructions and pictures to boot! Today someone asked about how the Redrock looked. I searched on this site for an answer, but found that Roger's pictures were much more detailed on his own site and instead gave a link to that one since it was a better answer (Edmunds software makes it difficult to post more than one URL in a message).

I agree

Edmunds was where I did the vast majority of my research for my last three vehicle purchases. It is their area on Jeep Grand Cherokees where I realized the severe reliability problems they are having which allowed me to cross it off my short list.

The MDX section was a strong reason for my selection of the MDX. The owners were enthusiastic and allowed me to have a good feel for the dealer reactions during the purchasing process.

Heavy handed is exactly how they moderate the site. What I do find interesting is they will let people duke it out for pages, with attacks, etc., which is really annoying to scroll through when you are trying to find useful information (take a gander through their 4 Runner section with the childish fights about when the new 2003 will be in dealers).

Their section on "real world trade in values" is very helpful with a couple of dealers who seem to have a good sense of humor and helped me a lot on my last deal.

But now that I have found this site, I will use Edmunds less and less and strive to become a member who adds value and maybe a little humor to this site.

MIKEinTN