[03x06] 2003.12.07 Monaro

Elijah B.

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I would have put this in the Episode Specific section but I couldn't find this episode there.

I've been revisiting the old episodes, and at about 42:30 of the BBC Prime version Clarkson and Hammond are discussing the Holden Monaro, and having fun about the meaning of the number plate (2017) on the front of the car. They went on to say it was the rugby score between England and Australia at the time.

However, I must admit the first thing I thought of when I saw the plate was it is the year in which Holden is shutting down car manufacturing in Australia, which of course includes the Commodore.

I don't know what to call this; a peculiar coincidence, art prophesying life maybe. It certainly is curious that the very make of car being reviewed has, by pure happenstance, a plate on it that is the same year of the demise of Holden as a car manufacturer.
 
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The "Clarkson Effect" is a recognised phenomenon.

In April 2005, MG Rover called in the administrators... The culprit was Jeremy Clarkson.
...
Vauxhall had announced that it would stop producing the Vauxhall Vectra there. The workforce blamed Clarkson.
...
The industry calls it the Clarkson effect, which is said to make or break a car?s fortune.
...
In 1998 he was blamed in a clothing industry report for causing a 14% drop in jeans sales... Soon afterwards Levi?s laid off 6,000 staff.
- http://www.driving.co.uk/clarkson/9133


Now he clearly has the blood of our beloved Aussie V8s on his hands.
 
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BUT - Jeremy always praised the Monaro / VXR and he wears Levi's, he therefore shoudln't be blamed for them.

That's the difference from Vectras or Rovers which he really hated (in case of the Vectra I don't understand why; they weren't that rubbish to deserve such hate, at least Opels were not).
 
he wears Levi's

That was the problem ;)

Children and teenagers saw him on screen and decided that ?they do not want to look like their dads?, the report by the market research company AC Nielsen stated.

Anyway, I cherry-picked the "blame Clarkson" bits from the linked article, which did mention the success of the Chrysler Voyager and BMW 1-series despite his negative reviews. And the article wasn't actually blaming Clarkson, just highlighting the various claims people have made against him.

Maybe my post needed more smiley winking emoticons.
 
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It is a little bit embarrassing that us Australians really can't build & sell a car as a sizeable going concern, even thought everybody here uses one (and are willing to pay a premium, more so than anyone else in the world, to buy & own one).
 
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The "Clarkson Effect" is a recognised phenomenon.

I wonder if we can get him to say something about the elite banksters, then.
 
It is a little bit embarrassing that us Australians really can't build & sell a car as a sizeable going concern, even thought everybody here uses one (and are willing to pay a premium, more so than anyone else in the world, to buy & own one).

Says the guy who owns a Honda.

Think back to the Button Plan. Remember that? What did it yield?
Pulsar/Astra: not quite awful.
Pintara/Corsair: rubbish.

Remember the Toyota Lexcen? It was a turd with Toyotas badge on it. They didn't make that mistake twice.

Throwing billions at Australian car manufacturing = a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters.
So what are we good at?
To quote Homer Simpson: Chop, chop, dig, dig.
 
The "Clarkson Effect" is a recognised phenomenon.

In Australia we call it the Kiss of Death (though we got the term from the Italians).
 
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