If I'm going to seek alternative help to buy a new car, which one of these resources should I utilize?

I like Edmunds a lot, you can get lots of reviews on the cars you’re interested in and I think it is a pretty accurate over view of each make and model.
I liked my current cars review of ” maximum driver survival space.” Being an easily distracted type I need the highest rated driver survival space rating. lol

Consumer Reports sends a detailed survey to all its subscribers each year, asking what repairs were done on your car. So its reliability ratings are based on actual data from a very large sample. I don’t think you can find anything like that from any other source.

I’ve used Edmunds a few times and had very satisfactory experiences. I recommend them highly. Car fax is really good if you’re buying a used car, but since you mentioned new, I recommend Edmunds for basic pricing, and look at Consumer Reports as well for reviews.

Have fun!

Carfax is a by the VIN review of incidences of that specific car. Good for used cars!

Consumer Reports is best in my option for buying a new car with ZERO miles.

Don’t depend on Car Fax. Instead, take the car to a good body shop.

When I tried to have a new windshield installed on my used car and the people couldn’t get it to seal, they told me to take the car to a body shop. The body shop people said that something heavy such as a tree branch had fallen on the roof of the car and bent it up. The repair job was not a professional one, because they built it up with Bondo rather than junking the car or replacing the roof. The result was an uneven fit that took a lot of work and extra putty to replace the windshield.

You ought to plan to give the body shop what you’d pay Car Fax for looking over the car you’re thinking about. A good body shop can tell you far more than Car Fax ever could because they can find where the frame has been welded, whether the welds were good or bad, and all sorts of other inconsistencies.

I agree with @jaytkay – Consumer Reports or Road & Track (where they track a couple of years of their staff driving a car model and break down the maintenance costs, how it felt to drive it, how it performed, any problems they noticed or recalls).

Ask others in your town who the most reputable dealers are.. we’ve found a couple we trust and have purchased very good/reliable vehicles from them in the past.

Finally, when you test drive it take it to a friend who knows cars or even pay a mechanic to give it a once over and see if they see any glaring red flags like cheap tires (which you’ll immediately need to replace), dripping fluids (transmission or oil) or any signs that it’s been wrecked and rebuilt. (You can usually tell if it’s an original paint job or not. My hubby can.)