Xccelerate - TV3 March 8th

CompleteCarGuy

Hi guys - bit of a shameless plug (sorry mods) but Paddy Comyn here (CompleteCar.ie / Irish Times) - and I am on a new series of Irish Car Show Xccelerate next Tuesday 8th March at 10.20pm for 6 weeks (after Champions League and before Vincent Browne).

I know you guys can be a tough (but fair) crowd but I am hoping you can give it a fair chance. We have no budget and we are reviewing very normal cars (Juke, Passat, X3, Hyundai ix20) but hopefully there will be something for everyone on it. I will be presenting along with the very beautiful Kirsteen O'Sullivan from TV3 and Alan Ennis. Anyway, I hope you guys give us a fair chance!

Paddy

Bodhan

Best of luck Paddy, I'll be watching

nogoodnamesleft

Kudos on launching an Irish motoring show.... however is this a relaunch of the same show that was on TV3 in the past.?There was a thread on here about it before.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055767730&highlight=Xccelerate

I remember watching it in disbelief as far as I remember one of the female presenters stalled one of the cars she was "reviewing" in the outakes at the end of the show :eek: . Based upon my own opinion some of the camera angles on the vehicles werent the best.

Once its a well rounded concise review about cars (no matter what price range they are) is should do well. However presenters should be selected on their interest in cars in general not just eye candy! Dunno if Kirsteen is a car nut but she is a looker.

What cars are your research team thinking of reviewing during the course of the series?

Is it going to be just a car review show or is it going to cover topics specific to Ireland e.g. the new problems associated with NCTS and VRTing cars, tax system?

Im sure you would have no shortage of topics suggested by other board members? :cool:

CompleteCarGuy

Yea it is the same show but this is a new approach. I know that it was criticised before. It isn't easy to balance having people who have knowledge but would be good enough to be on telly. I will be the weakest presenter of the three but I bring some car knowledge to the show. There will be feature items, I've a news background so there will be items on stolen cars etc. It will be three cars and a feature each show. There won't be any stunts or gimmicks because Top Gear really have that covered. Anyway, you guys will be the judge but I'm a boards user and respect your opinions.

Veloce

If you need any test drivers Paddy give me a shout

bonzos

Best of luck guys. your right to stick to reviewing the cars,just look at what top gear has turned into.... modifying cars into boats,planes etc....

johnos1984

I echo that. I've feck all to do come the summer and driving is my thing plus through a few forums I know some interesting people who may be able to give some advice to the show

CompleteCarGuy

What cars are your research team thinking of reviewing during the course of the series?


Nissan Juke, Volkswagen Passat, Skoda Yeti, Ford C Max, Renault Megane, Lotus Evora S, BMW X3, Nissan LEAF, Lexus CT200h, Peugeot 508 to name but a few

johnos1984

CompleteCarGuy wrote: »

What cars are your research team thinking of reviewing during the course of the series?


Nissan Juke, Volkswagen Passat, Skoda Yeti, Ford C Max, Renault Megane, Lotus Evora S, BMW X3, Nissan LEAF, Lexus CT200h, Peugeot 508 to name but a few

A nice range there I look forward to a proper car show if thats what it is

fletch

Looking forward to it myself! Much prefer car shows that are about cars...not the nonsense that Top Gear has turned into

thirtythirty

CompleteCarGuy wrote: »

Yea it is the same show but this is a new approach. I know that it was criticised before. It isn't easy to balance having people who have knowledge but would be good enough to be on telly. I will be the weakest presenter of the three but I bring some car knowledge to the show. There will be feature items, I've a news background so there will be items on stolen cars etc. It will be three cars and a feature each show. There won't be any stunts or gimmicks because Top Gear really have that covered. Anyway, you guys will be the judge but I'm a boards user and respect your opinions.

You know what might be useful, a 3 min "car control" piece each show. e.g. the do's and dont's - braking on a corner, checks when buying a car, maintenance, snow driving etc. Might be good for any women watching

Plug

Who else googled Kirsteen O'Sullivan?

Dilbert75

Best of luck with it Paddy. I really enjoyed the previous series - I thought both presenters did a good job and they never pretended it was going to be an Irish TG, so never tried to descend into that. Will be Sky +ing it straight away.

BTW - I have a ready-made crew for testing family cars....hint, hint....:D

The Recliner

Best of luck

I enjoyed the previous incarnation of the show and am looking forward to seeing it return

mickdw

I'll watch it..... the first night anyway!

CompleteCarGuy

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Best of luck with it Paddy. I really enjoyed the previous series - I thought both presenters did a good job and they never pretended it was going to be an Irish TG, so never tried to descend into that. Will be Sky +ing it straight away.

BTW - I have a ready-made crew for testing family cars....hint, hint....:D

Ha, I'll bear that in mind!

MetzgerMeister

Paddy,

A nice little idea would be to do a segment on the Motors section here on Boards. Have all the Motors people meet up and maybe have that as a segment with interviews etc.?

Just a thought!

CompleteCarGuy

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Well if you need anybody to do any performance driving I am available Best of luck with the new show.

Will do Lightning....

MetzgerMeister

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Well if you need anybody to do any performance driving I am available Best of luck with the new show.

Lightning = Stig's Irish cousin

CompleteCarGuy

einheisserschre wrote: »

Paddy,

A nice little idea would be to do a segment on the Motors section here on Boards. Have all the Motors people meet up and maybe have that as a segment with interviews etc.?

Just a thought!

It is a good idea alright. I'm just a presenter so only have a wee bit of influence but Boards is very important. Anyway, we will see what happens. In Ireland it's always hard to complete with the international media in shows like this.

Fair play, great to hear of this, normal cars for THe normal motorist, I'll defo tune in, thanks for the heads up Paddy.

ofcork

I second that,sick of top gear at this stage too much messing not enough reviewing.

Plug

Plug wrote: »

Who else googled Kirsteen O'Sullivan?

she's gorgeous, the sexy tv3 soccer lady, incredibly hot.

dr.fuzzenstein

Good luck with the show, will be tuning in and thanks for the heads up!
What other car show cares that much that it announces itself on Boards.:D

CompleteCarGuy

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Good luck with the show, will be tuning in and thanks for the heads up!
What other car show cares that much that it announces itself on Boards.:D

Ah I'm just a petrol head like the rest of you.

Absurdum

I dare you to say bad things about Octavias

CompleteCarGuy

Absurdum wrote: »

I dare you to say bad things about Octavias

We won't be doing any Octavias!

CompleteCarGuy

here is the line up -

Owen

Need any advice/demos of smart repairs I'm your man, pretty clued in on on car tech too. Best of luck, just don't speak like you're reading out a printed review, use natural day to day language, some of the old RTÉ shows are cringeworthy with reviewers using complicated words and descriptions you wouldn't hear, even after swallowing a dictionary.

johnos1984

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Need any advice/demos of smart repairs I'm your man, pretty clued in on on car tech too. Best of luck, just don't speak like you're reading out a printed review, use natural day to day language, some of the old RTÉ shows are cringeworthy with reviewers using complicated words and descriptions you wouldn't hear, even after swallowing a dictionary.

I remember the last show was it called Drive or Driven?
I thought it was rubbish tbh

Owen

Most of the poorly produced shows are like that. Amanda Stretton was one of the worst for it (And the guy on RTE who does nearly all their voiceovers that they put on Drive, numpty that he was). She was blathering on during Wrecks to Riches the other day about economy, insurance groups, power, handling - but she had no personality coming across. It was as if she was just reading an autocue, text book descriptions and all, and then trying to make that interesting, which never works. Personality and humour first, cars and testosterone second, boring information last - it works for Top Gear, it's starting to work for 5th Gear too.

johnos1984

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Personality and humour first, cars and testosterone second, boring information last - it works for Top Gear, it's starting to work for 5th Gear too.

Topgear was like that when it relaunched but now its gone very very scripted.
I can't remember the guy on RTE's one but he was rubbish and when he went off script he was even worse.
You need to have an interest in what your talking about, people see it when I talk about them (my poor girlfriend gets it especially bad) but they enjoy the twist I put on things at times so it hasn't become boring for them yet.........I hope

VolvoMan

johnos1984 wrote: »

I can't remember the guy on RTE's one but he was rubbish and when he went off script he was even worse.

Karl Tsigdinos.

By the way, if a car is truly sh1te, don't be afraid to say it. That's a big problem with the Irish motoring media where they just don't give a proper, unbiased review of a car.

johnos1984

VolvoMan wrote: »

Karl Tsigdinos.

By the way, if a car is truly sh1te, don't be afraid to say it. That's a big problem with the Irish motoring media where they just don't give a proper, unbiased review of a car.

Thats the guy. Couldn't think of his second name. His worst review I remember was that of the Dodge Ram :rolleyes:

I also echo the above, if a car is rubbish its rubbish and don't be afraid to say so.

colm_mcm

Paddy, is it true that ye have to submit the scripts to the manufacturer and they edit out the bits they don't like?

johnos1984

colm_mcm wrote: »

Paddy, is it true that ye have to submit the scripts to the manufacturer and they edit out the bits they don't like?

So a car programme cannot tell the truth

RandomAccess

johnos1984 wrote: »

So a car programme cannot tell the truth

Car Journalism can be tightly controlled, see this from Chris Harris.. Of Autocar and Evo Magazine
http://jalopnik.com/#!5760248/how-ferrari-spins

CompleteCarGuy

colm_mcm wrote: »

Paddy, is it true that ye have to submit the scripts to the manufacturer and they edit out the bits they don't like?

No, that is nonsense

Leonard Hofstadter

Can ye please not tell us that every car is wonderful? Pretty please?

We had the farcial situation back at the end of 2008 where the Irish Times (which if I'm not mistaken you contribute to) told us that the Mk2 Avensis was a five star car and the best in its class because of Toyota reliability even though only two weeks later the Mk3 went on sale and anyone with even the remotest interest knew it was already on sale right across Europe!

I have no proof of course but reading and listening to some of what Irish journalists say you'd swear they must be nice to a car or else they will get into trouble with the manufacturer and not be invited to a further press launch.

If everything is really good then that by definition means that all cars are the same i.e. there is nothing better than average out there.

Can we have some honesty and call a spade a spade please?

Don't be afraid to tell us that a car is not good, there are still lots of terrible cars out there!

Anyway best of luck with the programme, I do hope it is a success!

colm_mcm

Can you reveal if any cars got a bad review, or do ye only review good cars?

LIGHTNING

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Slightly OT but I stopped reading the Irish Times motoring section ages ago as it was in my view basically a big Toyota Advert. Practically every review was a Toyota or saying home good they were!

Declan Colley that wrote/writes in de paper (The Examiner :pac:) is like that for VAG products. Half the articles are about how he had a Golf years back and how they've come along way since you had to request a cigarette lighter as an option bla bla bla, utter drivel.

Barry walsh

My only word of warning with these shows is that the car that the programme recieves from the manufacturer/distributor is far from the one people actually buy. Most press cars in Ireland are not the bog spec version that you or I walk into the showroom to purchase.These vehicles are used to showcase manufacturers new technologies The veiwer is duped into thinking my new X will come with (insert new feature here) and when they go to the dealership they get sorry its only on the top spec that you get that feature. If the programme could please stick to the facts about this and state clearly what comes on what spec and clearly state what is standard and what is an optional extra that just happens to be fitted to the particular test car. This is one of the reasons why people switch over after 5 mins of a review because the review is of no use to them when they are looking at the segments vehicles on offer

CompleteCarGuy

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Slightly OT but I stopped reading the Irish Times motoring section ages ago as it was in my view basically a big Toyota Advert. Practically every review was a Toyota or saying home good they were!

Nothing I would say would most likely change your view on that - there has been criticism of Toyota in Motors. I know because I have got the phone calls from them arguing their point with me. In a recent article on Irishtimes.com I stated that there isn't a Toyota I would buy with my own money, aside from the iQ because I don't find any of them interesting. But, Irish buyers like them. It is very easy to slate a car because 'you' as a reviewer don't like it, but you have to take a much broader perspective when you review a car. You could look at Top Gear and ask if their reviews of Jaguar's, Aston Martins and the other British brands are impartial?

CompleteCarGuy

Barry walsh wrote: »

My only word of warning with these shows is that the car that the programme recieves from the manufacturer/distributor is far from the one people actually buy. Most press cars in Ireland are not the bog spec version that you or I walk into the showroom to purchase.These vehicles are used to showcase manufacturers new technologies The veiwer is duped into thinking my new X will come with (insert new feature here) and when they go to the dealership they get sorry its only on the top spec that you get that feature. If the programme could please stick to the facts about this and state clearly what comes on what spec and clearly state what is standard and what is an optional extra that just happens to be fitted to the particular test car. This is one of the reasons why people switch over after 5 mins of a review because the review is of no use to them when they are looking at the segments vehicles on offer

Car #1 is a Hyundai ix20 - as it comes out of the box
Car #2 is a VW Passat and its a 140hp TDi Comfortline and what you get is outlined fully
Car #3 is a BMW X3 and these now come with better spec than before

The thing is that we will review very 'normal' cars on the show and for that we will no doubt be criticised too. There are some high end cars, but by and large there will be mainstream cars that people can 'hopefully' hope to afford.

CompleteCarGuy

LIGHTNING wrote: »

The actual writing is quite good and its not full of nonsense like some of motoring sections. But I just find it very Toyota biased.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/motors/2011/01/30/toyota%E2%80%99s-sales-success-show-that-we-forgive-and-forget/

Barry walsh

CompleteCarGuy wrote: »

Car #1 is a Hyundai ix20 - as it comes out of the box
Car #2 is a VW Passat and its a 140hp TDi Comfortline and what you get is outlined fully
Car #3 is a BMW X3 and these now come with better spec than before

The thing is that we will review very 'normal' cars on the show and for that we will no doubt be criticised too. There are some high end cars, but by and large there will be mainstream cars that people can 'hopefully' hope to afford.

Thats Refershing to hear I will be tuning in so. Will you be mentioning issues such as cost of ownership of a vehicle, fuel prices, VRT, NCT etc

CompleteCarGuy

Barry walsh wrote: »

Thats Refershing to hear I will be tuning in so. Will you be mentioning issues such as cost of ownership of a vehicle, fuel prices, VRT, NCT etc

We only have 30 mins, so we don't go into those in depth this time around aside from dealing with the cost of road tax etc for each of the cars. If we get another series then yes we will expand to those issues. It is hard to get a TV show going in Ireland and sadly, dealing with topical issues such as that, which is right up my street often doesn't make great telly. What Top Gear has done to motoring shows is change them forever. If we don't blow something up we are going to be classed as dull. Hard to win really! PC

mike65

There is no way on Gods earth that a dull witless shopping trolley of a car or indeed a [insert expensive name here] executive saloon with dubious flakey misfiring technology overload will get hammered. Even Top Gear have been denied cars to review in the past (remember Clarksons review of the Vauxhall Vectra?) when a manufacturer throws a hissy fit. If I remember correctly The Irish Times were threatened by BMW Ireland when Kevin Myres suggested their drivers were a certain "type".

greenermetals

good to see a normal motoring programme coming on the air that gives advice on affordable cars and doesnt whizz their presenters half way round the world at licence payers expense to prove that you can ride an expensive tricycle through the great barrier reef or something. Top Gear has lost the run of itself, its nothing to do with the cars, and more to do with massaging the egos of its presenters.

Good luck with the show

colm_mcm

TV3 don't get funded by tv license, just advertising.

greenermetals

colm_mcm wrote: »

TV3 don't get funded by tv license, just advertising.

Sorry, didnt realise, but the bbc is funded by the british licence payer, so iwant totally off