I've seen a lot of TG threads here so I figure it belongs here. There's a problem that's affecting how I watch TopGear. Why does Jeremy Clarkson hate american cars? Does his Ford GT really break down that much?

I think there are 2 reasons why topgear bashes American cars

The first is that most American cars I've seen them test, have been more or less designed for use in the States. Therefore, many of them don't have the qualities Europeans like...Less emphesis on straight torque, and more on handling, fuel effeciency, and the zippy bouncy energetic feeling you get from light small displacement cars

My example for that is the 300C which they ripped apart in favour of the Jaguar S Type R, and ther Vauxhall...They hated it because it was a big cheap American brute

The other reason IMO is that the European's don't particularly like you Americans, and thats why you back-packers have to put Cnadian flags on ur bags to actually get treated well. So if the European population has a bias agasinst Americans, its just natural that they would dislike American cars the same way.

and yes I know the AF philosophy, there are no American cars or European cars because they all own each other and designed everywhere. But people outside th AF world don't see that.

Probably because the fit and finish of American cars suck for the most part. There's always huge gaps on panels in the interior and they're mostly plastic inside. Not to mention rattles and the general cheap feeling you get when you sit inside one.

NOT to mention FORD DID HAVE RECALLS on the ford GT. beautiful car, but its well documented that alot of them break their rear alumimum suspension cars. and since their engines are outsourced. i forgot, its either Rousch or Saleen that builds, they develope leaky crank seals very early on.

the ford gt is known to problems which is a shame cause i really love that car, esp jermey. thats why he bought two. his first one was a lemon.

did he buy two?
or did he end up buying the same one twice?

There are lots of reasons why Jeremy Clarkson and every one else on Top Gear is almost always ripping on American cars.

#1 Top Gear isn’t a reality show, it’s scripted and they are playing to there America hating Euro audience.

#2 They don’t factor things like cost and practicality. Like when they were ripping on the $25,000 Mustang GT because it couldn’t perform as good as a $50,000 Lotus Exige.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGx1Au8Rh9c&search=Top%20Gear%20mustang

#3 Jeremy is bitter about the fact that the only British auto brands that are still going are owned by American auto companies.

Now about the Ford GT’s reliability. The first problem Jeremy had was the security system freaked out and the second was he overcharged his battery with a trickle charger which I don’t even get. Why would you buy a Ford GT and then leave it sitting long enough that it would need a trickle charger? I mean Briton only gets snow ones or twice a year.

His latest issue with the car it seems that he drove it to a fair with his boy, and when he went to leave, the rev limiter wouldn't let him go past 600rpm.

As he stated, it's still at the fair. :lol:



EDIT: Richard Hammond likes American muscle cars, he's all for the new Dodge Challenger concept car, him and Jeremy got into a shouting match over it and he exclaimed that he will buy one when it comes out. Not sure if he means it, but he already bought a 1968 Dodge Charger a few years ago. Says it's one of his dream cars as a child:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O8Pvc0vxwuk&search=Richard%20Hammond%20Charger

Although, he says the 'one you want is a R/T 440 Charger'... I disagree, the one you want is the 426 Hemi R/T. Although, I wouldn't turn down a 440. ;)

Honestly, I think they are usually spot on regarding American cars.

They complained about the handling of the Mustang GT, and when you match it up with its competitors like the 350z and RX8, it really doesn't handle well.

And they really don't bash all American cars. Go check out the CTS-V, C6, or C6 Z06 videos, they acually liked those. If Clarkson really did hate American cars, do you think he would have bought the Ford GT? or kept it after all of its problems? I think not.

There might be a bit of playing to the British audience, but when a genuinely good car, like the Z06 or GT comes along, they give credit where credit is due.

You guys should be more outraged that he doesn't like Porsche then that he cracks jokes about Americans.

PS. The part of the Z06 video where he talks to the navigation is halarious.

EDIT: Richard Hammond likes American muscle cars, he's all for the new Dodge Challenger concept car, him and Jeremy got into a shouting match over it and he exclaimed that he will buy one when it comes out. Not sure if he means it, but he already bought a 1968 Dodge Charger a few years ago. Says it's one of his dream cars as a child:
I’ve see his Mustang review and he rips on it through most of the review. In the end he basically say “the Mustang is a piece of crap, but I’d still buy it because it looks cool”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYy_ozsnw_0&search=Top%20gear%20mustang

They talked all this crap about how bad the car handles and never had “The Stig” take it around the track.

And they rip on the Mustang’s live axle when a lot of the FWD cars they tested are riding on this:
http://www.autozine.org/technical_school/suspension/tech_pic_sus_torsion_golf.jpg
That is a torsion beam suspension. And this is the Mustang’s:
http://bradbarnett.net/mustangs/timeline/05/05/64.jpg

Which one looks outdated to you?
Honestly, I think they are usually spot on regarding American cars.

They complained about the handling of the Mustang GT, and when you match it up with its competitors like the 350z and RX8, it really doesn't handle well.
I’ve read Motor Trend comparison between the new Mustang and the 350Z. The Mustang’s slalom speed was only 2.4 mph slower then the 350Z (65.4 vs 67.8).

The Mustang is not the straight only car that can’t take a turn at more then 30 mph.

and the cars that do have torsion beam rear suspension like the mark IV GTi's handles poorly. jermey clarkson always says that the previous gen GTI is as sporty as playing golf. so he also would criticise cars that just handles bad in general.

they don't discriminate. if the car is a POS, then its a POS. also 2 mph is more then alittle difference. you have to do a good amount of suspension work to get a stock car to go 2 more mph on the slolam.

also the stang's live axle can't cope with bumpy roads during a turn.

Am I the only one still waiting around for the American Top-Gear???
I think me, Tat and Stig should be the hosts!
its perfect! you got a multi-cultural gang of young studs who love cars and cant agree with one another! BRILLIANT.

Would you be our "captain slow"








:lol:j/k... you're gettin closer each time u go to the track so its :thumbsup: to you

Am I the only one still waiting around for the American Top-Gear???
I think me, Tat and Stig should be the hosts!


at least one of you should be fairly tall, no? :cwm27:

Didn't there used to be an American version as late as last year? or was that just the british episodes imported to american tv? discovery channel i think...

british to american tv.

also the stang's live axle can't cope with bumpy roads during a turn.

while this is true with mustangs of my generation and back (i know from experience). and i havent actually driven the new mustang. ive actually heard that the new 3-link setup does really well on bumps. i think it was road&track that actually said it did better on the bumpy part of their track than the corvette.

and yes, there is a bias. they are british and are playing to their audience. on the issue of the ford gt. there were some problems, but not all the cars had it. it was outsourse to roush, the issue on the crank was because some tool over there got tired or something while sanding it. he wasnt paying attention and sanded it so the oil could follow grooves in the crank past the seals. like i said, this only happened on some of them, not all. i still love roush though

hahah i think i would be richard hammond if i was on the show since i have his taste. but i dont know whos taller me or stig. i'm 5'8 how tall are you matt and mushashi?

and the cars that do have torsion beam rear suspension like the mark IV GTi's handles poorly. jermey clarkson always says that the previous gen GTI is as sporty as playing golf. so he also would criticise cars that just handles bad in general.
I don’t see him ripping on the GTI’s rear suspension in this review, in fact he says he’s glad when the rear tire goes airborne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvFAZYLfGDA&search=Top%20gear%20GTI

they don't discriminate. if the car is a POS, then its a POS. also 2 mph is more then alittle difference. you have to do a good amount of suspension work to get a stock car to go 2 more mph on the slolam.
Yes 2 mph takes work, but 2 mph doesn’t make the Mustang a bad handling car it just means it’s not as good as the 350Z.

When Motor Trend tested the GTO (which as we all know is Monaro that Jeremy Clarkson loves) it ran a 63.5 mph slalom speed which is 1.9 mph slower then the Mustang that Top Gear says can’t turn.

also the stang's live axle can't cope with bumpy roads during a turn.
The Mustang’s live axle can cope with bumps while turning. As you can see looking at the picture I posted the Mustang is not riding on some 60’s style rear suspension where there is nothing more then a couple of soft leaf springs controlling the axle.

Seriously who takes to heard what Clarkson says? He is the most freaking inconsistent person. He just loves to make puns at everything without discrimination, while Hammond and May are counterbalances. It's what makes the show great. Heck I don't agree with a lot of stuff they say but I still enjoy it. Bottom line he drives and loves the Ford Gt an American car icon, I think that says enough about his biases.

Plus I recommend watching the entire show and not just short clips. You will get far more perspective into their personalities.


Also for everyone (and this concerns all the threads containing statements of this nature): Could we please stop with the idiotic preconceived notions that Europeans have some sort of hate towards Americans. Yes sometimes they won't agree with certain political actions but that has nothing to do with hate. And yes there might be a few bigot idiots but each country in the world has those and they are very small minorities. So stop going along with popular moronic baseless notions you hear on the internet and if you really like to experience Europe go there and live a few years and then you can have your own educated opinions.

I think thier reasons for disliking American cars are genuine. They hated the Escalade for being a lumbering, badly built, ugly overpriced barge, which it is.

They berated the Mustang for its' old world suspension, which it is indeed in possession of (And on the topic of Torsion beam cars, my favourite FWD of all time, the Peugeot 205 GTi uses Torsion beam, so does the Renault Clio RS Sport)

I can't say I've seen the 300C one, but they do give credit where it's due, which I like. Clarkson is still by far the best journalist there is as well, he's not just some PR speak babbler.

Im 5'7 so i might just have to be Hammond.....:eek: damn Tat, I thought all you guys where supposed to be short!

They berated the Mustang for its' old world suspension, which it is indeed in possession of

theres not much old world about it though other than it still is solid. just because it uses some old technology still doesnt mean its crappy though. the guys there just like to make a deal out of something, they have a show to run.... just like when they criticized the corvette for incorporating leaf springs into its suspension. now dont even try to tell me the corvette has an old world suspension...

I'm 5'7ish... but roughly 120lbs... I've got to be the smallest. So I guess I'm in the running for Hammond. :emo:

hahaha i'm 5'8 153 lbs. i'm still the shortest one in my group. all my asian friends range from atleast 5'10 and they average 6'0 and i know atleast 2 that are 6'3 and i know one that is 6'4. so if you see my standing with my friends, i'm a midget. ( or "little people" to be polictically correct )

okay okay, Matt can be Hammond, Im the heaviest at 190lbs so I can be Clarkson and I guess that leaves James to you Tat.
......Im not captain slow after all...ha!
:grinno:

well i have grown to like james may's alot from watching more top gear.

Anybody see the latest Top Gear where they build the Caterham Super7 in 8 hours while The Stig, races a Caterham from London to where they are in Scottland?

Hilarious. Just seeing the Stig standing in line paying for gas... classic.

okay okay, Matt can be Hammond, Im the heaviest at 190lbs so I can be Clarkson and I guess that leaves James to you Tat.
......Im not captain slow after all...ha!
:grinno:

now wait a second... im a high 6'... maybe 6'1". i should be clarkson :grinyes: .

im 6'...but i have no accent or his hair style....im the guy in the audiance.

6'3...and i can do british

ah thank you

The rest of you guys can all take turns being the Stig.

Actually I did catch the catherham one...well I saw part oneof two. I dont know if they ever finished building the damn thing. I did ROFLCoptor when they drop the car off the jacks and Jeremy is like "Do you remember when I was under there and asked you if it could fall and you said no way?"
-"Yeah, too bad it didnt"
:lol: :lol: :lol:

I http://www.graphicsanonymous.net/forums/images/smilies/lmao1.gif throughout that whole segment. The stig standing in line, then paying with a Bank if Money credit card that actually has "The Stig" on it, the fast and furious game with STIG as all the high scores, and James and Jeremy at each others throat, it was all awesome.

Never saw it until I looked it up on Youtube, anyone know what season it was??

Edit : Nevermind. Figured out why I hadn't seen it, I have the episode but only watched the first half then fell asleep because it was like 4 in the morning kinda like it is now and i forgot to finish watching the episode.

jeremy was so aggravating in that episode...he kept wanting to use a steel hammer to force the parts into place....

Jeremy: This isn't working....Where's the hammer?
James and Richard: NO!!

i felt bad for that poor car

jeremy was so aggravating in that episode...he kept wanting to use a steel hammer to force the parts into place....

Jeremy: This isn't working....Where's the hammer?
James and Richard: NO!!

i felt bad for that poor car

uhh...hello. I belive we all know Clarkson knows very well what he is doing from a mechanical standpoint. We could all see his superior skills in ataching the powerboat engine to the toyota hilux (pardon I mean toybota).


Powahhhh!!!

^ i love how he didnt put a bunch of bolts on to save time... next thing you know hes driving and the right rear wheel falls off.

best line in the show (regarding the hammer)

because it's the tool of a pikey