Fifth Gear is rubbish...

[nomix]

Tom Ford is just about the only thing I watch Fifth Gear for. That, and because I'm horribly bored. Other than his hair, which Jezza would leave him alone about, I think Tom could do quite nicely on Top Gear.

This man looked at James May and said: "Good look!".

Lady's and Gentlemen, tonights guest, Tom Ford!

 

[eurotrash]

I don't have a problem with the ace cafe scenes or Tim Lovejoy (apart from that trumpet bit), he's kind of the James May of the bunch, meaning that he cares more about what he perceives as stylish and appealing than track times or horse power. Not everyone who drives or likes cars is a boy racer whose ultimate dream is to own a dodge viper.

What is stupid however is all of the useless quasi scientific stuff, such as the crash tests and speed bump tests and basically anything presented by John Bentley. Those feel like unnecessary segments kind of similar to Top Gear prior to Jason Dawe's departure. (The fat guy who told you how to get deals on cars you would never want to buy)

I truly feel that all scientific, and statistical data should be strictly limited to magazines and car literature. That's what the Americans don't seem to understand, endlessly talking about lateral grip, skid pads, and slalom times on television.

 

[kowabunga]

I thought the previous season of FG was top notch, they were carving thier own nieche so to speak with more objective analysis and more in depth revews and then this...

This season has been horrible no doubt, for one they put the 2 most irritating people as co presenters, and others never visit the studio. Id like Tiff and Jason to visit the studio every once in a while and dscuss cars which they never seem to do now.

Also all the wreck my car and police constable segments are horrible and come off as being just what they are, fillers..

They should really get rid of lovejoy and get back to tiff, jason and tom, even that guy with the spiked hairstyle aint half bad....

 

[Danny Tran]

I suggest Vicki do topless road testing.

 

[Matt2000]

^^x2

 

[Banii]

Vicki ain't that good looking. But then by British standards she might be...

 

[Paul]

Ha ha, you are so mean.

 

[stuntfreak]

I suggest Vicki do topless road testing.

 

[nomix]

Ha ha, you are so mean.

Norwegian women are made from lamb and delicious.

British women, however, are not.

Joke, for those who are too stupid to understand irony.

 

[CSerpent]

OK, I'm a new member.. and I've trailed through this thread for the past half hour

I'm not a member of any media industry, let alone 5G or TG before I start!

I wasn't a big fan of 5G when it first started, but at least they're trying in this season - trying different ideas to increase the entertainment and popularity of the show. I'm actually enjoying this current season along with the previous one.

I have a friend who says to me "oh.. not watching 5G, it's crap", yet he hasn't watched it since probably the 2nd season - so can't exactly judge it. Since we're both pilots I thought the VW Toe-rag (as I call it ) towing the B747 would interest him... it impressed his brother and his mate, but not him!

But then again, I'm not going in to watch it expecting TG, I don't expect the normal Jezza having a go at James and Richard... I don't expect to see a (fixed) Veyron vs Cessna 172 speed battle where James has to allegedly land an hour before sunset (wrong - it's 30 mins after sunset for official night and was with an instructor anyway who would have been night rated! I did enjoy watching it though!) I just turn it on for a bit of entertainment and some petrolheaded fun...

And it is that, entertainment - something enjoyable to watch at the end of a Monday at work - or you could watch Gardeners' World on BBC2?

Tom needs to stop trying to be humorous as he's not generally! Agreed about Tim being the James May of 5G tho.

 

[caro]

James May is much better than Tim.

Anyway, i sure you have noticed that 5th gear started something like driving lessons in series 8 or 9. But... there was one lesson (Tiff - handbrake turn) and then they gave it up. Why didn`t they go on with that ?

 

[Cobol74]

I think that I am only now getting what they are about. They are trying to keep moving the show on, using the base of cool cars they are doing stuff and see if it works - sometimes it does and sometimes it does not. This series unfortunately they have tried a little too hard and changed a little too much for my liking but credit where credit is due at least they try. They do way more shows per year than TG and I would expect that their budget is way less than TG. Lets hope for better things next series, personally I did not like the Ace Cafe and Lovejoy could be good but has not been just yet. I have slowly warmed up to the spikey haired bloke and Tom is Ace. One of the beauties of UK telly is that sometimes shows are allowed to re-invent themselves and even make mistakes without being cancelled willy nilly.

 

[SL65]

OK, I'm a new member.. and I've trailed through this thread for the past half hour

I'm not a member of any media industry, let alone 5G or TG before I start!

I wasn't a big fan of 5G when it first started, but at least they're trying in this season - trying different ideas to increase the entertainment and popularity of the show. I'm actually enjoying this current season along with the previous one.

I have a friend who says to me "oh.. not watching 5G, it's crap", yet he hasn't watched it since probably the 2nd season - so can't exactly judge it. Since we're both pilots I thought the VW Toe-rag (as I call it ) towing the B747 would interest him... it impressed his brother and his mate, but not him!

But then again, I'm not going in to watch it expecting TG, I don't expect the normal Jezza having a go at James and Richard... I don't expect to see a (fixed) Veyron vs Cessna 172 speed battle where James has to allegedly land an hour before sunset (wrong - it's 30 mins after sunset for official night and was with an instructor anyway who would have been night rated! I did enjoy watching it though!) I just turn it on for a bit of entertainment and some petrolheaded fun...

And it is that, entertainment - something enjoyable to watch at the end of a Monday at work - or you could watch Gardeners' World on BBC2?

Tom needs to stop trying to be humorous as he's not generally! Agreed about Tim being the James May of 5G tho.

I totally respect your opinion but I think our ideas of entertainment differ completely. I didn't consider many of the entertainment orientated bits on Fifth Gear in series 10 "enjoyable" like you.

For Fifth Gear - the shift from being informative to attempting to be entertaining has proved nearly fatal. They really need to get back to being informative, IMO. I'll continue watching in hope of them someday returning back to there old selves. They can start by getting rid of Tim.

 

[Dsemaj]

But then again, I'm not going in to watch it expecting TG, I don't expect the normal Jezza having a go at James and Richard... I don't expect to see a (fixed) Veyron vs Cessna 172 speed battle where James has to allegedly land an hour before sunset (wrong - it's 30 mins after sunset for official night and was with an instructor anyway who would have been night rated! I did enjoy watching it though!) I just turn it on for a bit of entertainment and some petrolheaded fun...

It's been said by Jeremy Clarkson and others heaps of times, the races aren't fixed.

 

[Devon]

I totally respect your opinion but I think our ideas of entertainment differ completely. I didn't consider many of the entertainment orientated bits on Fifth Gear in series 10 "enjoyable" like you.

For Fifth Gear - the shift from being informative to attempting to be entertaining has proved nearly fatal. They really need to get back to being informative, IMO. I'll continue watching in hope of them someday returning back to there old selves. They can start by getting rid of Tim.

I totally agree.

I do like the new track they use for testing, I don't like all the celebrity interviews or celebrity related stuff Tim did. Especially getting some wanker to review the LP640.

Johnny (spikey hair) has potential, but some of the stuff he did made me think he was just a younger, slightly cooler, Jon Bentley.

 

[SpoBo]

A couple of suggestions here. The first one (a realy good one), and it has been said a billion times before. Stop copying Top Gear. There is NO magic what-so-ever on FG .... just accept it. Please fire some presenters (I'm thinking of Vicky and Lovejoy), get some drivers with great personalities who actually race in real competiotions. Experienced people who know how a car should handle. Then, race them on a legendary british circuit and compare the cars.

And .. offcourse let Tom Ford (and perhaps the spiky kid) do the funny bits because that man is a genious at what he does. And if you want more viewers by showing a hot chick then please do so. But don't make her say anything because when Vicky opens her mouth it all falls appart imo. And for the record ... Vicky is not that hot. Sure, it's fun she likes cars but I dunno ... she is a BAD actor.

And finally ... stop giving away cars for rediculously simple questions. I'm sure you guys can come up with other ways to make money. And it's always the cheaper car they give away .. sjeez. How lame.

Anyway, appeal more to the gearhead they will have a good fanbase and will perhaps even rival Top gear one day. Imo the quality of Top gear is going backwards as well ... lately you just see that everything is scripted and acted out to the milimeter. It's not so funny anymore. So, who knows

ps: sorry for the bad english .. I'm not exactly a native speaker.

 

[nomix]

Yes, I remember when they found the best car made in Britain. They said they were going to give away the best. I knew what it would be when I saw the Bentley Continental GT, DB9 and the Mini.

 

[jack_christie]

I don't have a problem with the ace cafe scenes or Tim
What is stupid however is all of the useless quasi scientific stuff, such as the crash tests and speed bump tests and basically anything presented by John Bentley. Those feel like unnecessary segments kind of similar to Top Gear prior to Jason Dawe's departure. (The fat guy who told you how to get deals on cars you would never want to buy)

I truly feel that all scientific, and statistical data should be strictly limited to magazines and car literature. That's what the Americans don't seem to understand, endlessly talking about lateral grip, skid pads, and slalom times on television.

but that's what is makes it different to Top Gear. Sometimes watching Top Gear, is like having a Steak & Kidney Pie, all puff pastry and wondering where's the beef?

Highlighting the critically important work of EuroNCAP is one of the best things on the show. Politicans and all the mandarins in White Hall and Brussels failed to do much about the crash worthness of cars till EuroNCAP came along. As recently as 1996, the side impact test, impact point was on the door sill. The Politicans and all the mandarins continue to fail, as traction control, stability control, tyre pressure sensors etc are not yet fitted as standard.

Perhaps the most important segement in the whole season was the Tyre 3mm Thread Depth issue. I'd bet many people junked tyres on the legal limit after that alarming report.

my 2c,

JC

 

[Apokalypsis]

Yeah it's true but if I had to choose,I would fire Tim Lovejoy
He has no idea of what he's doing there!

 

[Ottobon]

i personally have a hard time remembering alot of stuff people say on fifth gear, the old series WAS alot better. I think TG works because on the outset they hired people who where Intellegent, Experienced, and Entertaining. One thing thats interesting as well is if you look at all the favorite presenters are also experienced Journalists, so they all know how to use words effectively, instead of just babbling about 430hp and a "coupe" style body(i dont need somebody to talk about the basic styling of teh car when im watching it on TV for god sakes) i think good journalists like JC and JM know that you need to put things in a perspective which shows emotion. On that note i think Tiff works because hes had alot of experience with cars, and dispite being a outgoing guy, is older, although people don't like hiring wrinkly old people for television, but i honestly think as a fact that most old people(note i'm 19) have more interesting things to say then compared to somebody whose only been alive for 30 years or so, we just got lucky that the TG guys still have a boyish humor as well

Forgive me if the info I'm about to impart is already posted, but it's late, I'm a little tired and there are four pages to go through.

Just to give you an idea of how "rubbish" Fifth Gear is, here are the ratings for the week ending 23rd July 2006. Top Gear was watched by 3.89 million people. Fifth Gear, was watched by 0.68 million [right at the bottom]. The repeat of Top Gear the day after Fifth Gear, got 1.70 million.

thats not even fair, theirs been alot of things that go and stay unpopular yet are seriesly brilliant, niche markets. However, i can't even imagine that FG appeals to any niche, i really really cant, old one did though!

The Politicans and all the mandarins continue to fail, as traction control, stability control, tyre pressure sensors etc are not yet fitted as standard.

this may be a bit offtopic, but are you saying cars should come with stability/traction control by law? if so thats rediculous, its not that hard to learn how vehicles move, and its much more valuable to have intelligent people than "intelligent" cars IMO, i hate this society of making everything smarter so we can get dumber, i really really do