How can you expect TG to not be a parody of a car show, when the cars and car companies have become parodies of their prime? How can TG test "new" cars when all the new cars are ridiculous imitations of other products? Yes, they can look at electric and hydrogen technologies, but until the cars become viable entities, there is just so much you can do.
To be honest i don't think there is a lack of new and interesting cars to be tested nowadays, otherwise Top Gear Magazine could shut down it's business... I advice some fans of the show, to buy the Top Gear Magazine as well, it's quite good, with a lot of great car stuff... Let my scratch my head and think of cars i would like to see on Top Gear, to give you an idea how much potential their is:
- Ferrari 458 Italia
- Merc SLS AMG
- New Audi A4 & A6 ... also the A5 (or S5) has never been tested
- Lamborghini Reventon; it was in the studio and tested for the magazine, but never got a proper test on TV
- Bugatti Veyron Convertible and maybe also the new facelifted Veyron
- New Jaguar XJ
- The new E-class was never tested properly, except for the appearance as Sauna
- The new Vauxhalls/Opels like the Astra or Insignia
- The new VW Passat and CC version never got air time (maybe I'm wrong)
- How could I forget; the Golf Mk 6 never got tested and the new Scirocco could use a proper roadtest, not just what we saw in the advertising bit...
- A whole lot of new mid-sized SUVs came out like the Audi Q5, VW Tiguan, BMW X1 & X3 etc... But to be honest I don't care a lot for SUVs and Top Gear shouldn't give them too much attention, but maybe they can do something funny or unique with this class of cars...
- Get the Bugatti 16C Galibier in the studio
- We didn't had a Koenigsegg on the track for a while and Koenigsegg built the CCXR as a "environmentally-friendly" version of the CCX... That should be some fun in the hands of Jezza comparing it to the new Toyota Prius
- Top Gear could devote a half hour to extreme cars like the Aston Martin N24 or the MercMclaren SLR 722 GT (everybody should see that bit from Thriller were Jezza drives that monster)
- What about some very exotic, small series cars from other parts of the world which are very interesting... The Russians for example built some interesting things
This list could already fill two seasons of Top Gear with petrolhead porn and there is enough other stuff I don't have in my head now...
Also why bother making a bad copy of the ford fiesta film, when you have Ross Kemp... Make a film about cars that appear to gangsters, i think there is something you can do with Jezza and Ross in a 15 minute segment...
I also like the idea to do something with some guest hosts, like James was driving with Mika H?kkinen or visiting Jay Leno... But don't get like FG, where it is just about celebrities and not so much the petrolhead side
Do something with the top three/five fastest guests from SIARPC...
What about Jezza making a new segment in TG, just like motorworld, where twice or so per season he shows some different car culture from other places around the world in a 10-15 minute segment...
Let the boys go around the world and test some super cars somewhere else, like maybe a long segment of them driving around in Hawaii or some other place you would call paradise where there are some decent roads and a great scenery.
I mean, there is enough stuff to be done, it's not like they run out of ideas ... And BTW I don't need every single episode to be a grand epic master episode... no no no ... I'm realistic, you have up and downs in a season, but I'm just asking for some (unique) highlights to talk about this season, which IMO we didn't have up to now!
For the people calling this whining, moaning or pissing or whatever... I just can say don't be childish! Top Gear is not a religion, it's a just a TV-show, but a great one non the less and it can and should be criticized when people feel, that it lacks quality. Also it should receive the props from its fanbase when its done a fantastic job... But right now I'm feeling like:
... It's like having an A-grade pupil who turns in a C essay: that's always going to upset you more than a C student who turns in a D essay.
As long as we stay constructive and try to analyze what the problem is and not trolling around, I think criticism should be respected... But I'm not that naive to think that Andy Willman will now adjust Top Gear because some of us are not happy with this season...