Did anybody actually won those cars offered on 5th gear?

[911GT1]

Curious, I've never heard any announcement on 5th gear or any other form of media on the results... and they kept offering cars ever single week! Man, if I live in the UK I'll be watching 5th gear every week and texting on my mobile like mad afterwards.

[jensked]

Well I suppose somebody must win those cars. I think they're super-prizes anyway!

[bone]

i don't think channel 5 would set up a scam, and not let anyone win

i hope not...

[911GT1]

coincidently I'm working with a company that do this SMS (or text) based services and I know at 1quid a messege they're making a healthy profit every single episode assuming there's at least 100.000 texts. Usually contest like this awards the prize to the person who submitted the most texts and it's pretty common for us to receive 500 texts from one number for a contest that offers cars as the grand prize. And since they never announce the winner of the contest I think there's whiff of scam in the air.

[bone]

a while ago there was a hobby-group on TV who did nothing else than participate in contests like these.

one example was at McDonnalds, you could win a scooter if you bought a coke. they went in with 20 people...47 times. they won 4 scooters.
same goes for sms or phone games. they just fuck up everything where you could win anything.
but the organisers of the games didn't care, they got more money than if those people wouldn't play at all

ever since i saw that, i never participated no more at any of these contests

[MXM]

I assume you haven't seen the latest episode, they announce all winners there.

[oliB]

AFAIK there's one guy on this forum who's actually won that original Mini Cooper on Fifth Gear.

[911GT1]

I see.... I didnt watch the final show yet I'm afraid, still d-loading it off mininova. Thats 's a cool idea actually giving away cars every episode with their production budget.... albiet some cheap used ones. Well, at least it's better than watching guys on top gear throwing away their budget by smashing thing up.

[MXM]

Well, at least it's better than watching guys on top gear throwing away their budget by smashing thing up.

Nah, I'd rather see something smashed up I don't like lotteries.

[SiR_dude]

Originally Posted by MXM

Nah, I'd rather see something smashed up I don't like lotteries.

[bartboy9891]

its on the latest TG, they say who won and where they live. I was hoping that they would have an international winner...

[bone]

^contest is open to UK residents only

aka, they'll take the money of your sms, but won't give you a price

[enzojr]

Perhaps this has already been discussed before, but I highly suspect the Five TV people frequent this board. Before we were all complaining about how VBH isn't quite consistent enough with her shootouts, and 2 weeks later, no one has been doing the shootouts except Tiff. And just a few weeks before we became sceptical of the prizes, and in this episode they announce the winners just to settle the record.

Maybe in the next season, they'll get rid of the office studio setting, get Tiff to powerslide more, ditch stupid segments like making money off auctions, and get rid of Jon Bentley

[andyhui01]

^I wouldn't be surprised if they do that... Fifth gear will do anything to get viewers and improve to be on par and if not better than Top Gear. And this is the only forum about Fifth gear and top gear, hence this is where fifthgear gets input on what the audience wants

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by 911GT1

Thats 's a cool idea actually giving away cars every episode with their production budget....

The contests probably pay for themselves. 1 pound per entry and it only takes like 20,000 entries to pay off the car. Even if they don't get that many, the money they're out is fine as they probably get more viewers as a result of it.

[911GT1]

I kinda like Jon bently segments, it gives you a freash perpective on whats happening in real life and whats the real danger to us drivers. Top gear for me is like friends, funny... cool but if you want information that matters you need to have 5th gear. I mean their review might be a lot like old top gear but that kind of reviews tells you what exactly to expect in a car. Top gear is a lot like evo magazine, toying around with expensive cars while 5th gear is more like Car magazine.

[matt_shaw]

Originally Posted by 911GT1

I kinda like Jon bently segments, it gives you a freash perpective on whats happening in real life and whats the real danger to us drivers. Top gear for me is like friends, funny... cool but if you want information that matters you need to have 5th gear. I mean their review might be a lot like old top gear but that kind of reviews tells you what exactly to expect in a car. Top gear is a lot like evo magazine, toying around with expensive cars while 5th gear is more like Car magazine.

good post


they have their place

[monkeymax]

Originally Posted by matt_shaw

good post


they have their place

What they said...

While I certainly think there are areas FG needs to improve upon/remove (such as the aforementioned studio bits) I actually think the John Bentley bits are informative in a good way (maybe I've just got used to him, as he's on Gadget show right before fifth gear too) and the bits he does actually contain some useful and relevant information.

But then, this thread wasn't meant to be a "What's wrong with Fifth Gear" thread.

As for the actual competitions, my Mum's been tempted a few times to enter... I think the fact she knows the answer is what tempts her. But then she changes her mind when I tell her that it costs a pound (I have to keep reminding her) and also that if she, being someone who knows very little about cars, knows the answer, so too does much of the rest of the audience...
The fact is, with the ease of those questions, and the fact the cost is 10 times the cost of the average text message over here, it is just a lottery - and I don't do lotteries...

[911GT1]

It's not a lottery mate if you know how the industry works. I happend to know that, and the usual practice for ppl in our industry (regardless where you are) to award the prize to the person who text the most number of correct answer. In fact there's a contest where we host earlier this year where the winner send over USD$6000 worth of text to win a Proton car (remember I'm from malaysia). So dont ever dream of sending one text and hope that you might win the car.

[monkeymax]

Originally Posted by 911GT1

It's not a lottery mate if you know how the industry works. I happend to know that, and the usual practice for ppl in our industry (regardless where you are) to award the prize to the person who text the most number of correct answer. In fact there's a contest where we host earlier this year where the winner send over USD$6000 worth of text to win a Proton car (remember I'm from malaysia). So dont ever dream of sending one text and hope that you might win the car.

So it's a bit like playing the pools then - where a group of people get together and buy a whole bunch of lottery tickets then split the prize/value of the prize. Only one person buys all those tickets.

Sorry, still sounds like a lottery to me.

And regardless of how you want to describe it or what you want to call it, I'm not the sort of person who feels paying a whole load of money each week on some competition I have small chance of winning (because lets face it, you even assumed were 100,000 texts - so even 100 entries on my part is 0.1%, and I've never even had £40 worth of credit on my phone...) is a good way to spend my money...

Anyway, what you've just said actually makes me even happier I've never wasted money - ahem - entered these...