I liked the Mastreta test the most of this show, surprisingly. Also laughed out loud for the first time in a while during a Hammond review (the "It's all rubbish" line with the Jeremy-face, yeah I know I'm childish). To me, this is what Top Gear is about: showing us new and interesting cars in a beautiful environment. I was bracing myself before the segment started, but it was a lot less forced than I expected it to be and we got quite a bit of info on the car itself. As far as I could make out, build quality was terrible. Huge panel gaps (check the gaps behind the steering wheel) and cheapish materials for that price. Was it me or did the car in the studio have less of a bonnet gap than the one they tested?
The Kia part: the first part was fine. I only realized they showed Clapton when they mentioned his name. He is getting old. In the end the segment was nothing really special, not bad either. The second part, the car rugby, was a bit daft. As Clarkson mentioned when the match was over, conditions weren't brilliant and as a result, the match felt like a slow-motion replay. Also, good Kia advertisement (I'm sorry Kia, I still don't want one of your cars, but quite sympathetic), am surprised this is allowed on the BBC. Probably has something to do with the unique way the BBC is funded. Anyway, in my opinion the rugby part was the weakest part of the show and it could've been a lot shorter (probably Kia placed some demand on film length?).
The extra time could've been used to lengthen the hot hatch segment. It wasn't short, but I felt it could've been longer. I was surprised Jeremy didn't mention understeer issues on the Vauxhall at all. From the few cornering shots we got it looked pretty understeery and in the segment on the GT86 they showed a similar Astra going fast through a corner with a lot of understeer. I would have the Megane choosing between those three (what did Ford do to the Focus, it looks so uninspiring and bland), but I would also go with Jeremy's point about the Toybaru.
The news was okish. I still don't understand how the news segments of this season are so much worse than those of last season, they all feel so forced for some reason. Still, this was the best of the lot. Hamilton in the Liana was good, incredible lap and incredible time.
Overal, 6.5/10 on Top Gear scale, rounded to 6.