Useless
Member
I would expect the US version to be different than the UK one because it's not being aired in the UK. Let's face it, the US is a lot different than anywhere else and I would expect if NBC wanted the show to be somewhat successful they would cater at least a little to the country they are airing the show in. Can you sit there and seriously say that the Aussie version of the show isn't going to feature quite a bit of Holdens and Utes and other things that are typically Australian just as the UK version has a little bias towards Aston Martin, Jaguar and a number of both new and classic european car makers?
America is america, and americans like big, loud, shiny things even if they're pointless and don't do anything and that's our right and we're not likely going to change, being the creatures of habbit that we are.
Also, this wake-up call about performance cars... it's never coming. 85% of the American population doesn't care about performance, they care about comfort, convience and being able to throw the kids and other junk in the back of the car when you have to go somewhere; why do you think there are so many vans and SUV's on the road?
The other 15% of us who do care about performance cars should care about cars built in the UK and the rest of the world because why? Most of them aren't even available in the US and the ones that we can get are so expensive very few can afford them, maybe 5% out of that 15% can afford them and it's likely that only 2% of those who can afford them actually know what to do with a real performance car, the rest are looking to "compensate" for something. I'd be willing to bet that 90% or Porsches sold in thet US never see a track or get ran to redline more than once in their life.
So that leaves you with 10%, the *meat* of your veiwing audience for Top Gear America, middle and upper middle class men and women whos introduction to perfomance cars wasn't a Lotus Esprit, an XKE, an RS Escort or a hopped up Mini. It was likely a Mustang GT, a Charger, a Camaro or a '57 Chevy.
While a lot of the US viewers will appericiate the other stuff, the show isn't going to make it if they ignore or bash every vehicle made in the US over the last 50 years, it's just that simple. These "primitive" cars are in our blood and in our hearts and nothing is going to change that.
Personally I've had the muscle cars like a Charger R/T and I've had european stuff too such as MK1 and MK2 GTI's, and an Alfa Spider; they're all great cars but for completely different reasons, a lot of people don't seem to be able to deal with that.
I will agree that a lot of todays american cars are cheap looking and feeling but so are most of the cars built throught the world. Most car makers build cars to make money and going cheap is money in the bank for them, less overhead and a shorter planned obsolescence. It'd be stupid form them to build every car with Rolls Royce quality when most people only want and are willing to pay for something as good as a Cobalt. And I'm tired of hearing about the leafspring/pushrod BS, I thought that bandwagon left the station a long time ago.
I totally agree. I've always liked Adam because he didn't car about popular opinion, but it seems his has changed of late to fall more in line with the "in crowd". I could be wrong, who knows.... he may just be trying to stir s#!t.
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He also said " if the show does nothing more than focus on things the majority of viewers aren't interested in, and is as bombastically negative to their preferences as TG is, they just won't watch it."