Jasruler said:
gazzyk1ns said:
I was a bit disappointed with the M5 review. He started off slating everything about it, then pressed the M button and all of a sudden it was back to "Generic Clarkson fast car review #344". You know, "THIS car is faster than anything, and I mean ANYTHING, I have ever driven before in my entire life." etc. etc.
OK, obviously the M5 is an awesome car, and incredibly fast, especially considering that it's a 4-door saloon. But I don't understand who would want one, the target people don't seem to exist... people who need one car to serve multiple purposes (i.e. do the school/shopping run, as well as an incredible weekend burnaround and/or track day) won't be able to afford ?62,705 for an M5. If you've got that sort of cash then surely you'd get a 330ci for the week, and something like an Elise for the weekend/track day? If you don't mind owning a 3/4 year-old car then you could probably get an M3 and and something like an Elise/Ariel Atom.
Again, I loved seeing and hearing the new M5 but it does seem like a bit of a strange choice for a car, if you can afford one. A bit of a novelty, or for someone who grew up loving the M badge... nothing wrong with that at all, but still, I was surprised Top Gear didn't say anything similar; instead it was just the same old enthusing from Jeremy with some decent music and squealing tyres. Someone said a few weeks ago that the format is brilliant but getting tired, I think I'm starting to agree.
There is no reason not to want an M5.
What about the reasons I gave, there, in my post?
In any case, my point was that Jeremy/TG didn't actually review the car, Jeremy highlighted his reluctance to read the instruction manual of "a ?63,000 car he'd just bought" and then we had a review of any car made in the last 10 years which handles well and does 0-60 in under about 5 seconds. It was rubbish, I've never knowingly been within 10 miles of a new M5 but I could have told you months ago that it would have had BMW iDrive, and that it handles exceptionally for a 4-door saloon.
Again, I point you to Jeremy's habit of saying
"Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is as fast as this...". I think I first heard it from him whilst he was reviewing the F50, which surely must have been 1995/6... I've heard it at least 10 times since, and he never acknowledges that he's said it before at all. OK, maybe over the years he forgets and/or car specs become blurred... but he said this about the M5 on Sunday, and no matter how long ago the two reviews were
actually filmed, he'd reviewed the F430 weeks previously. He'd also been in the Carrera GT, Enzo, Ariel Atom, and probably the 360CS and 911GT3RS within the year... so you've got to wonder why he comes out with all this stuff, week after week. It's poor.
There's a part of me which says
"Well TG has to be for the more casual viewers too, not just for car enthusiasts!"... but still, I only want the detail when it comes to cars that warrant it. The ScooterMan, "race to Denmark", and coolwall-type items are all for general entertainment as opposed to conveying car facts. I know they always reel off some stats they've read but it's nothing more than a token gesture. So when they allocate 10 minutes to review an "out-of-reach-for-most-people" car then they could at least tell us everything about it and compare it directly to similar cars, as opposed to devoting a quarter of the review to saying
"Oh my GOD, I don't know HOW to switch the SatNav off! It's like HITLER, not being able to control one of his army's TANKS!". Yeah, very funny. Now how about actually telling us about the car, assuming you are willing to learn how to operate it?
It's always great to see and hear the supercars, but I want to see the Stig (or whatever professional driver) tell me about what they think of them - if I'm ever rich enough to be able to get into supercars without caring about the technicalities then Top Gear won't matter to me, I'll just drive them myself and come to my own conclusions.