r/Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

I've been car shopping and trying to compare different models and different trims. It seems like the whole system is made to make you throw up your hands at the whole situation! Ford doesn't seem to include either horsepower or fuel economy information anywhere. Every time I go to Tesla's website it reminds me why they're growing so quickly. Key stats are all right there. Everything is included so you don't have to figure out which of the 5 or 6 trims of every vehicle has what you actually want. Compare that to trying to figure out anything about the Escape PHEV it's virtually impossible. Other than 37 miles of electric range that's the only thing they seem to want to tell you. How much HP does it have? No idea. What's the gas fuel economy, who knows? Which gasoline escape trim is it most comparable to? Good luck figuring that out! Don't get me started on the Bronco Sport.

External websites like C&D, CR, Edmunds etc are fine at helping you narrow down rough vehicles to consider and which ones are good or not, but struggling to find a good way to really compare the features and specs I actually want and care about and how much they're going to make me pay to get them (want heated seats, that'll be $7k more because only on the "platinum trim" etc.)

It's almost like the whole system is set up to make you get frustrated, throw up your hands and go "fine just give me that one."