Just 'cause I feel like sharing, my intro to the show came from Speed Channel here in America. They've been showing 5th Gear, but they keep cutting out bits to fit some more commercials in, and they cut into a segment I really enjoyed, so I went to go see if I could find a torrent of the episode anywhere, and found this place.
At first, Top Gear's "Theater in the round" style turned me off, but that was quickly fixed. Thankfully, like the original poster, my girlfriend also enjoys the show. It'd be easier to get her to watch it with me if it were just normally on TV (less "choice" involved, like how she's more keen to watch 5th Gear with me since it's what we did on 10pm on Mondays), but she still enjoys the occasional show.
Thanks so much Viper and everyone else involved for making it possible for me to watch Top Gear unadulterated. I brought a bunch of episodes on a laptop with me on my last plane flight, and it was, by far, the best plane trip I've ever had.