Top Gear, too british???

NiSmO

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mike65

Eh? Okay I'll treat this seriously. Top Gear is a UK motoring programme designed primarily for a UK audience, dispite the fact the home grown industry is largely decimated there is naturally a back-wash of nostagic patriotism for the good old/bad old days. Thats said the best of British cars are now very good - just very specialised too. As for knocking Johnny Foreigner they would'nt be the only ones to give Mercedes a trashing. The Stuggart outfit are not the company of old. BMW are BMW and they only get slated for cars like the 1 series (entirly rightly!).

Top Gear has no need to curry favour its always spoken as its found. Clarkson was persona non-gratia with Renault and Vauxhall after pointing out cars like the Vectra were tedious and mediocre.

Mike.

Wishbone Ash

The primary purpose of most TV programmes is to catch the largest possible share of audience. Top Gear probably do that with their format - why change it regardless of whether it is correct or not? As Mike has said UK programme for UK audience. I'm sure Japanese car shows promote Japanese cars, German shows - German cars etc.

NiSmO

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Tipsy Mac

They regularly slate some British cars for rubbish build quality, a while back Land Rover would not give a vehicle to them to test if Clarkson was the one going to test

Anan1

NiSmO wrote:

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As Wishbone Ash said, the primary purpose of most TV programmes is to catch the largest possible share of audience. Quite simply, there are more viewers in controversy.

LundiMardi

i've never seen em slate BMW or Mercs, quite the opposite in fact.

NiSmO

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LundiMardi

well yeah, they might slate certain models of each manufacturer, but they do that with ALL different manufacturers... so in a sense, they slate all models, but i wouldn't say they slate bmw's or mercs more so than any others. If ya get my meaning.

NiSmO

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Stephen

Given that Jaguar are owned by Ford, they're not exactly British any more are they?

mike65

check this list Clearly someone really has no life.

Mike.

overdriver

Like the sig, Lundi! You for got the " You!!! You, boy!!!" bit...


I have seen the presenters slag British cars off too. The new Mercs aren't as good as the old ones, so why should they say they are?

NiSmO

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mike65

Not you! The guy who compiled that page!!!!!!!

Mike.

gyppo

One comment I would make about Top Gear is their leaning towards the most exotic marques. Great if you are the likes of M Smurfit, R Branson, or so.

The amount of time they devote to real world affordable motoring is scant, to say the least.

NiSmO

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stevenmu

gyppo wrote:

One comment I would make about Top Gear is their leaning towards the most exotic marques. Great if you are the likes of M Smurfit, R Branson, or so.

The amount of time they devote to real world affordable motoring is scant, to say the least.

That's a large part of the attraction, for me at least. I can walk out my front door and drive a Polo or a Mondeo or whatever, but the chances of me ever getting inside a Koenigsegg CCX are slim to none. The closest I'll probably get is seeing one on TV.

elexes

have to say the only car ive not seen them give out about is the mondao (sp)

they give out about the ford gt often.

i think they give out about every car they review in some way shape or form

like the s2000 was there car of choise for 2 years cant rember what it is now but thats not exactly brittish

they do give out about bmw's a good bit but there right. if u look at the review of the new merc s class he couldnt stop raving about it .

byte

Doesn't Clarkson own a Ford GT?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

NiSmO wrote:

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Did YOU compile that page?

ninty9er

They slated the new 207 just because Peugeot closed up shop in the UK. I've seen other reviews that say the build quality, nuts n' bolts etc.... are much better than recent Peugeot standard

5uspect

Top gear really isn't supposed to be a serious nuts and bolts car review show, its just a bit of fun for people who like cars. Their reviews are often tongue in cheek and intentionally biased. They will review a BMW or a Merc based on the luxury image Merc and BMW in general claim to and what the revolutionary new development the manufacturer claims it to be and show that its just another over priced car all while slagging the crap out of it. When a car is good they will acknowledge it but they lean towards the negative sides to make us all feel a bit better not not being able to afford it.

And they do balance their british nostalgia with severe put downs of the british car industry. All this make for very enjoyable television and hopefully keeps the car manufacturers on their toes to some extent. However if I were looking for a sound car review i would carefully read between the lines. They can be fair and do for example acknowledge the landcruiser hilux as the worlds most indestructable vehicle. They even reccommended the Hyundai coupe while slagging off every other korean car ever made. The proper car buying info is rare tho and for the most part its just good fun.

Clarkson does own a Ford GT and even tho he loves it has since slagged its fordness. I missed most of the 207 review but the conclusion I saw was that they would love to hate it because Peugeot shut shop in the UK but they hated it awyway cos it was too heavy and not as good as the 206. I'd take that with a pinch of salt tho.

dubtom

God I despise Clarkson, I agree with 5uspect, it's a tv show, and I wouldn't seriously base any car buying decision on their reviews. Anyone who does is a fool in my opinion as anyone who disagree's with Clarkson on the show is slagged off about their hair or the fact that they have a beard,it's about as serious as that.The track part I enjoy, but it's about as usefull to a buyer of a luxery/sports car as a caravan,99.9% of people will never get the chance to drive a car like they do, and lets face it, if you spend 100K on a car would you want to thrash it on a track.

5uspect

dubtom wrote:

God I despise Clarkson

Ah Clarkson is pretty funny if you don't take him seriously. He's a big gobsh!te and he doesn't deny it. I quite like his clown like behaviour.

AJ!

Top Gear really do like their English cars:rolleyes:

Watch any Aston Martin review they have done. There was an episode where Clarkson and Steve Coogan tested the Ferrari 575M GTC and the Aston Martin Vanquish S against eachother. They both came to a decision that if they could they would go for the Aston because it was not as good as the Ferrari They admitted the Ferrari was the better car but they liked the Aston more because it was British. You can bet money that they wouldn't like the car if it had BMW badges on it!

mike65

Aston Martin = Character (y'know the "I own an Alfa cos its got..." logic).

Mike.

Wishbone Ash

NiSmO wrote:

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NiSmO - I think Mike65 meant that the person who compiled the Top Gear list in the link has no life (not you!).


Edit - Apologies I didn't realise this was already clarified!

Creamy Goodness

no they decided on the aston because it would be easier to drive on streets, they said if it was on the track the ferrari won hands down.

and tbh is the GAA too irish? :rolleyes:

overdriver

AJ! wrote:

Top Gear really do like their English cars:rolleyes:

Watch any Aston Martin review they have done. There was an episode where Clarkson and Steve Coogan tested the Ferrari 575M GTC and the Aston Martin Vanquish S against eachother. They both came to a decision that if they could they would go for the Aston because it was not as good as the Ferrari They admitted the Ferrari was the better car but they liked the Aston more because it was British. You can bet money that they wouldn't like the car if it had BMW badges on it!

]


They also said they were "bored with Ferrari".
Fair enough. It's a light-hearted show, not a serious petrolheads review show. I love the ones where they buy bangers and do challenges. It's like my daily life...

TempestSabre

overdriver wrote:

...It's a light-hearted show, not a serious petrolheads review show....

Thats it entirely. It a bit of a Lads tabloid show now. I prefered the old format, but then I'm a petrolhead.

5uspect

TempestSabre wrote:

Thats it entirely. It a bit of a Lads tabloid show now. I prefered the old format, but then I'm a petrolhead.

Are they still doing the fifth gear show?

mike65

Fifth Gear is back in the Autumn.

Mike.

5uspect

well then we have the old format in fifth gear and and fun and mindless mayhem in top gear - whats the problem?:)

Nukem

Ya gets my goat up bout the british cars being fantastic....etc.....
Their mostly crap. Not even that when they go on about something, for example that bridge in France,they went onto say a british engineer designed it. Who cares:rolleyes:

NiSmO

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mike65

Not to get side-tracked but the Irish are legendary for finding a link back to the old sod.

Mike.

Wishbone Ash

NiSmO wrote:

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If that annoys you, you should really be asking yourself why you are watching a British television show, on a British TV channel with British presenters.:rolleyes:

Gatster

Surely they went to the bridge because of it being a pinnacle of engineering, like the cars they were in?
The Millau Viaduct was co-designed by the architect Norman Foster, who happens to be British, but engineered by a Frenchman. It wouldn't matter if they were from Guatamala, it's still a genius achievement. Don't remember Clarkson linking anything British to say the F430, or the E60 M5, or the M3 CSL, all of which he loved.

Dave147

Well what it comes down to is if you don't like what they're saying about certain cars then don't watch it. Personally I find the show amazingly amusing and believe it or not quite insightful, I find all the reviews are entertaining and enjoy them taking the piss out of the merc's bmw 1 series and rovers, it's all a great laugh.

If I want to go out (or anyone else for that matter) and buy a new car, I'm not going to pivot my decision on whether James May like it or not, I'm going to go drive the car and make up my own mind. But Top Gear will give you an idea of what these cars are like while you sit in your living room and relax.

Ok maybe they do love aston martin a bit too much, but for gods sake if we had a car company in Ireland we'd all be dying to love whatever they manufactured, just like we all love Gaelic Football (not me) because it's IRISH! Imo.

I completely disagree with the comment that he slates German cars for being "German". What about the Audi A4 Cabriolet or the Audi A8 4 litre diesel. They got great reviews, what about the Porsche GT, and all the other Porsches.

Love the show, Clarkson has me in stitches for 2 hours a day, wouldn't change a thing. Anyone who disagree's with me, don't watch it!