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Old 09-07-2008, 05:57 PM   #1
10000rpmlover
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: the US of A, sometimes also London
Posts: 466
Angry are we hapy with foreign car reviewers?

Before I start, I love Top Gear, fifth gear, BMI and all those great tv shows, they let me see cars in action, discuss pros and cons and they are great entertainment, nothing beats the comedic genius of James May and Jeremy clarkson or the spy vs spy type action of Tiff needell and jason plato, however as I sat and watched a few of them I have on dvd, it came to me that most reviews tend to pre-judge a car if it is made in america, now I know the US does not have a great record when it comes to making exotics, with a couple exceptions...

OK ... so the USA built the horrendous Bonneville and the extremely cumbersome only good in a straight line mustang... ok, that does not mean that just because of that all of the cars built there are garbage, I could say that british Leyland built horrible cars, and that is also true, I could say that Jaguars were a terrible investment until FORD took them over, but I would not judge all european cars on how much I hated a couple of them, why then is Jeremy Clarkson saying "rubbish" when someone mentioned the new Camaro to him? he judged the car without even driving it and I am sure in typical fashion they will botch the review and try to compare it with european cars to which it was never built to compete against, this does not make me happy, I also saw how BMI did a quick review of the Holden/pontiac VXR8 it made me cringe, because this car is a marvel to drive, they seemed to dislike it because it was too "bulky bloated americanese" but yet it handled beautifully and made a noise that the motor gods would weep for, and then they place it against an RX-8... bear with me here, Mazda built the rx-8 to be a handling masterpiece and it shows, it may not be as powerful as other cars but it is perfectly balanced, obviously a class above the VXR8 in that aspect, so it was obvious who the winner of a handling test would be, the mazda, but it doesn't do justibce to what the holden/pontiac car is, why didn't they pit it against the japanese equivalent? why didn't they bring in a Mitsubishi diamante or an Accord and do the same test?

Stuff like this makes me upset because I like fair play, case in point, I see that they have reviewed the Dodge challenger in fifth gear, you could tell that tom clearly loves this car, and his review praises the car's good things and he tells you to beware of cheap plastic dodge interior, which is good, until you hear the comments from the rest of the presenters in the show, I do not know if they are paid by a british car company but come on! the car is brilliant, enough said, it is not in the price range of an aston martin so why compare it to a DB9? it is obviously not meant to compete with a V10 powered 500bhp BMW M5, (with an enormous price tag)

I have been considering getting a Corvette... I currently own a 1993 RX-7 twin turbo, it is a good car and I have had it since 1995, it is showing its age and paint is bubbling up, however I am not keen on the things I have heard from it from these shows, I don't know anybody who has a vette and it is discouraging to see my fellow brits being complete poofters on TV, they have lost objectivity which was the main reason I turned to them for a car review, if I go to a dealership and drive a corvette, and I like it, I am going to call Jeremy Clarkson a blundering idiot.
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