My mom is looking for a new grill; she currently favors the $270 Coleman 5100 Series from Lowe's, based on the recent article in Consumer Reports? Any opinions on the grill or discount options? I do know about the 10% off coupons.

Waddle's dealpass post here could get you another 20 percent discount at Lowes with a little bit of work.

You could sign up for one of the programs and just get $250-275 in GCs at Lowe's and then cancel. May or may not be worth the effort unless your interested in some of the other GCs. It's one of those sign up type of programs that you need to cancel after 30 days.

hope that helps

Money aside, I have found the Weber line to be the best and most affordable of the top of the lines.

CR has not steered me wrong over many purchases; if they rank it highly after all the testing they do, I'm in. YMMV of course.

I will second the recommendation of the Weber. I have a Genesis Silver B ($550 for me, but now $450 is the going price) that is now 4-5 years old. It continues to work flawlessly. I've never had to replace a single part on it, and we use it year round. Since we're in MA, that means I usually have to shovel the snow off the deck to get at the grill.

I had owned several other lower priced gas grills before, like those by Char-broil. None of them every had an igniter that worked more than a year, and the Char-broils I had all needed new burners every 2-3 years (if you cleaned them, all you had was rust on the inside).

Now, Char-broil and others make more expensive grills, but I won't give them another chance at my money.

I will note that Weber has made some changes in the Genesis Silver B since I got mine, like the plastic handle. I don't know if I like them. I will note that mine has plastic-wood for shelves and such.

Also, FWIW, I generally didn't like the design of the Silver A ($350), and I didn't think the Genesis Gold was worth the extra money (I don't need a side burner).

As for CR's reviews...

I will also note that I'm an avid reader of CR - I generally go through cover-to-cover in 2-3 days. I really like their research and the way they lay out various options/choices. BUT, I often find they come to the wrong conclusions or look at the wrong products in those areas which I consider myself well-versed in. And their prices are generally misleading.

Take for instance, the very latest issue. It has an excellent article on buying bikes. I loved everything in it and agreed with most of what they said. It just happens that I bought a new bike (first time in 24 years!) just a month ago. I happen to have a neighbor whose son worked in a local bike shop for two summers, and who competes on mountain bike races. So, I got a large amount of very good advice from someone in the know. As it happens, the article in CR matches that advice rather nicely.

I bought a Trek 7200 (hybrid/rec). I had been considering a Trek Navigator 200 (comfort/rec). Neither of these bikes is listed in CR's report. They list the Navigator 100, and give the list price. My local bike shop had it for less - in fact, my 7200 cost less than what they paid for their N100.

That they completely skipped the Trek hybird/rec line in their reviews simply means that they had to have some sort of cut off of what model's they will review. But sometimes they highlight the wrong models for the wrong reasons.

OTOH, in areas I know little about, I go generally tend to go with a "CR Best Buy".

I prefer to wait out the summer for Target's clearance on grills. I got one last year for $40. Nice Sunbeam with side burner. They usually hit clearance in July (in time to replace the summer stuff with back to school).