How we decide what to recommend
A car review steers a major purchase, so we hold it to a higher standard than a typical shopping site. The writer who reviews a car never signs off on its buying advice alone.
Why we hold this to a higher standard
Most product writing can be a little loose at the edges. An optimistic line about a blender costs a reader very little.
A car is different. A weak reliability call costs real money.
A rosy cost estimate can leave someone thousands of dollars out of pocket. It can steer a family toward a vehicle that strands them.
So we treat every buying-advice page as a Your-Money page. We build the process around catching a bad call before it reaches you, not correcting it afterward.
This policy is the full account of how that works. It covers how we source facts, who reviews them, how we stay independent, and what we do when we get something wrong.
The rule that shapes everything: the writer who reviews a car does not sign off on its buying advice alone. A reviewing expert checks it independently.
Our sourcing standard
Every factual claim on our pages has to trace to a source we can name and you can check. We do not build reviews from press releases.
Not from a confident forum post either. Fuel economy comes from the EPA.
Crash results and recalls come from NHTSA and IIHS. Dimensions, powertrain details, and warranty terms come from the manufacturer specification sheet.
Reliability framing draws on published dependability studies, not on anecdote.
We also match the source to the claim rather than trusting any single reference for everything. A crash-test body is authoritative about safety, not about resale value.
A fuel-economy database is authoritative about MPG, not about how a car drives. When a claim sits outside what a source can support, we go and find the reference that can, or we do not make the claim.
Our methodology page lays out this source-to-claim mapping in full.
How a recommendation is made
A recommendation is the end of a chain, not a first impression. Every step has to hold before the next.
The person who signs off is not the person who wrote it.
Verify the specs
Dimensions, powertrain, economy, and safety ratings are fixed against EPA, NHTSA, and IIHS before a word of opinion is written.
Drive and assess
A road tester checks how the car behaves against the numbers, on real roads and in real conditions.
Map the problems
The reliability record and the common owner-reported faults are documented before any rating is set.
Expert sign-off
An ASE-certified reviewer, who did not write the review, checks every buying-advice claim and dates the review before it goes live.
Author is never the sole reviewer
Drafting and approval stay separate. That separation is the backbone of this policy.
A writer can be enthusiastic, tired, or simply wrong. A second qualified pair of eyes catches what one set misses.
Here is what the reviewer confirms before a page publishes.
- Every spec traces to a source. No figure appears without a reference behind it.
- The problems are documented. Known faults are named, not buried.
- The rating matches the evidence. A cautious score where the record is mixed.
- The review is dated. A visible review date tells you how current it is.
Where we draw the line
We always
- Source every spec, economy, and safety figure to a named authority
- Document the common problems a model is known for
- Have an independent expert sign off buying advice
- Rate conservatively when the evidence is mixed
- Date reviews and note material changes
We never
- Sell reviews, ratings, or a place on a best-of list
- Let an affiliate link move a score or a ranking
- Publish a rating built on brand reputation alone
- Hide a known fault to keep a review flattering
- Pass off AI text as expert-reviewed human work
Independence and no sponsored ratings
We do not publish sponsored reviews or paid rankings. No manufacturer, dealer, or advertiser can buy a rating, a place on a list, or a softer verdict.
If that stance ever changes for a specific piece, it will be labelled clearly as sponsored. It will still pass the same independent expert review before it publishes.
Conflict of interest and affiliate disclosure
Some outbound links, such as car-care products or tools mentioned in our guides, are affiliate links. They may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
They never influence a rating, a ranking, or whether we recommend a car. Recommendations are decided on the evidence before any commercial consideration enters the picture.
Where a conflict could exist, we disclose it plainly rather than leave you to guess.
Authorship and the use of AI
Our reviews are written by people and reviewed by qualified experts. We may use software tools to help gather and organize data, the same way a writer uses a spreadsheet.
But the judgement, the driving impressions, and the sign-off are human. We do not publish machine-generated verdicts dressed up as expert opinion.
If a tool helped assemble the facts, a person still verified them and an expert still approved the advice.
Accuracy over speed
When a new model launches, the fastest sites publish first. We would rather be right than early.
If the safety ratings are not out yet, or the reliability picture is too new to judge, we say so and hold the verdict until the evidence exists. A confident rating built on thin data is worse than an honest gap.
Update cadence and review dates
Cars change. Prices move, trims are revised, and reliability records fill in over the years an owner keeps a car.
We revisit reviews on a regular cadence and after any material change, such as a new model year, a recall, or a shift in the reliability data. Each buying-advice page carries a visible review date so you can judge how current it is at a glance.
Corrections, and how to report an error
Accuracy matters most when money is on the line. If we get something wrong, we fix it quickly and note material changes.
Corrections to pricing, safety, or reliability facts are prioritized above all other work. If you spot an error, report it through our contact page with the page URL and, if you have it, a source we can check.
We would rather hear about a mistake from a reader than leave it live for the next buyer.
About our editorial policy
Does anyone pay to be rated well?
Who approves a review before it publishes?
How do I report a factual error?
Do you use AI to write reviews?
See who stands behind the advice
Every reviewer is named, with their credentials and the pages they sign off. That is how a Your-Money page should work.
Meet the expert team