I own 2 6500's, bought 1.5 and 1 year ago. I put aftermarket crank handles on both of them because the cute little paddle handles made me crazy.

1 of them has the sticking release button thing going on -- push the button to release, wind, no cranky, have to flick the metal tab manually with my thunbnail to get the gears to re-engage. This started happening within weeks of purchase, and regrettably very few fish.

The other one doesn't do this. It seems to work fine. I haven't put any big fish on them to really get a fee for the drag, so I'm not going to say anything about that.