Top Gear on History Channel HD - Page 5

What's with this back-to-back truck episodes? I would have thought they would at least slip in the obligatory 5-7 min "fast car" segment + Stig race in there.

Sounds like I made the right decision in deleting the series from my DVR...

That's the American car market (and audience) for you. If it wasn't for trucks they would run out of test vehicles.

UK Top Gear has access to all the European brands in the UK market, USA? Well ...

USA doesn't even get the engine variation that Europe does so even import vehicles that make it here only come in one or two flavors versus the ten or so that appear in the UK.

Compeletely shut off my brain as if I was watching Final Destination 5 and it wasn't bad...

What brands (that are WORTHY) are in Europe that can't be had here?
I'm not talking about the little diesel commuter cars.

It's irrelevant what you think are "worthy" because if that were the case there are plenty of US brands that I don't think rise above mediocre either.

In the context of the show UK Top Gear can pull models from far more places to talk about - Citroen, Fiat, Renault, Peugeot, Lancia etc. ... even one time industry joke Skoda got Jeremy Clarkson's seal of approval.

The diesel variants of the same model get a different look on the UK show too like the Jag at the Nurburgring, which thanks to the lack of diesel-interest here means that can't be covered or compared either.

Even Euro models which make it to these shores are sold below Euro spec like the new Golf R so you can't even see those at the same potential as the original versions.

I think the UK show would have succeeded to be just as boring with the example of makers you provided, there. The cars that made the show interesting can and should be just as available as it is there. Sweet performance cars are just available as a matter as where money is available. It's totally unnecessary to bring automotive jingoism into this.

The Diesel Jag at the Nurburgring was a great episode and it was just a typical Jaguar with an alternative engine. Same with the Fiat 500 episode - which is going to be released here soon. More choice, more possibility to be creative. Alfa Romeo is on almost every season in some feature or another.

UKTG has made episodes with all those brands and they made mostly fun episodes with them. They have to because you cannot get a supercar every week and the audience doesn't just want to see cars they could never possibly afford. What's the point of a car show which reviews cars all the time that you can't get?

In the same logic, there's only so many examples of more "mundane" cars that can make for a somewhat interesting episode. The show cannot survive on those, either. Basically, we tolerate those fillers in hopes the next episode brings a worthwhile car feature.

It just seems like American TG is already scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas, having not even tried a "Prius vs Volt vs TDI Jetta racing around a road course" episode (if that's what it is really what we are down to).

That's the problem though. For UKTG there are more manufacturers leading to more releases leading to more potentially interesting or new vehicles to pull from with more interesting features and engines. If they can't obtain a Volt for an episode then they have a bigger pool to find other marginally interesting vehicles to work with.

USTG also has the problem that it's not as big a show either so I imagine their requests don't have as much weight. Which means they'll have to use whatever they can get and going back to the OP comments ... that means trucks. And probably more in the future too because trucks are everywhere and in huge numbers and an easy fallback.

I guess "interesting" is in the eye of the beholder. I think I would still be complaining if UK TG was doing eleventy-million variations of the show with some sort of quirky Fiat 500-like car. People come to watch TG for coverage of fast and powerful cars, and there are plenty in the US as there are in the UK. If there is nowhere to source these cars, then there is nowhere to source'em. I guess they don't have a show w/o it. If they are stuck with trucks in the meantime, where is the F150 ecoboost shootout, already?

What I meant by "worthy" cars is cars that excite the emotions...cars we can dream about driving, dream about owning.
Fiat 500?
Not so much.
Fiat's Alpha Romeo 8C Competizione?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_8C_Competizione
Uh, yes please.

I dont have a preference for unobtainable cars. Just any auto I have not heard of old, new, weird interest me. It does not have to be fast. As long as they are interesting, fun or just mediocre. as long as they are not boring.

If you want to see what that's like watch The Car Show on Speed.

That's mostly four guys talking to people in front of a picture of a car interrupted by a couple of five minute driving sequences where they tell you nothing about the vehicle they are in.

Same here. The Fiat 500 Albarth is an interesting little car ... or it would be if TGUK hadn't already covered it.

Which unfortunately is another problem. TGUK version 2.0 has been on air so long now that they've already hit up most of the cool and weird vehicles out there so even if TGUS visited Rinspeed people who know this show have already seen it.

TGUK has been up a volcano, across the Antarctic (or was it Arctic?), through the jungle and even to US locations, so it's going to be hard to beat those kind of settings and trials with a History Channel budget.

Just keep corolla and chuck everyone else, or at least chuck Sally...

True, that.

However, at least they are more entertaining than this show...

Lol, oops this is the tg us thread.

some silly ideas maybe not so interesting.
since they have been doing truck challenges... maybe AWD cars, eagle, subaru, audi? coupe ute (el camino, ranchero, brat) vs trad pickup truck? gullwing challenge delorean, Bricklin! TGuk did police cars, they should do it on the america version since there is a lot going on in that atm bc the death of the crownvic.

Keeping my standards non-existent this show is ok... The Car Show is ahead.

This week's show was pretty well packed with good stuff (I still think the Big Star-Small Car segment is pointless, though)!

Absolutely horrible episode... so much f$#%ing fail...

That's gotta be a wrap for this show, no? I just cannot imagine why it would get re-signed.

Why not? It's way better than the Car Show, but not near as good as Top Gear UK. Very short season though, so maybe it is toast.

I sure hope so.... Hell, I'd take TG Australia over this douche filled @#$%ing trainwreck....

So it actually has been getting worse?
Oh my.....

Watched The Car Show tonite....seems to be getting better.
Or I have been getting drunker.