"Buyer beware" no longer holds true if "beware of the product itself" is what is meant.
Many of today's products are way too complicated for the bulk of the buyers to be able to tell what's good or bad with respect to what's inside.
So .... what's a buyer to do? Shop predominately by manufacturer's reputation, hoping beyond hope that the complicated stuff inside is better taken care by that kind of manufacturer.
That's why I used to try to buy American - including simple American cars - as opposed to American cars with a lot of bling. Now a lot of the time I look to Europe for quality. Since the Japanese have also learned .... we like certain products from there, too.