Tesla 'accuse' Top Gear of being 'lying b'stards'

theboyG

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Well, in so many words anyway.

"Did one of the two Tesla Roadsters tested by BBC TV's Top Gear really die on the track and need to be pushed into the studio garage by hand?"

"Says Konrad: "They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault. It?s unclear why they were pushing one into a garage in the video; I?ll refrain from speculating about their motives.""

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/18/top_gear_vs_tesla/
 
300px-KennethWilliams.jpg


What this? Top Gear is bending reality in order to produce an entertaining show? Say it ain't so!
 
And the brakes failing was a "simple fuse failure"...

Well, that's comforting. Then i know what to do the next time my brakes fail at 200km/h.. I'll just change the fuse.
 
How can a broken fuse produce a brake failure?????
 
Tesla Roadsters have regenerative braking system to help charge the batteries
Has no one here ever had a fuse blow? I think I've blown one in every car I've had except my current car, and my first car (there were 4 in between).
 
Fuse + Actuator - brake ?

Who knows - I just watch the show.

Now, I'm no Doctor, but in my medical opinion, Top gear is an entertainment show, not a realistic car review show :) Just as Strictly Come Dancing is a proper Dance Show.
 
the tesla lady is their marketing deptartment or PR (or head of spin as they put it) its her job to make bad things sound good.

i dont think many people will care to be honest... the tesla is a great achievement, its a great car, but its too niche, its too expensive, not all that practical and while it does only cost next to nowt to fill up, it does take the best part of a day to do that. the car is a perfect proof of concept...but its not prime time ready.

hopefully, tesla can get that tech into a more usuable car at a price where its going to make a difference... i.e. a price ordinary folk can take. i mean how many people commute like what 20-40miles a day to work (n back)? i'd have a saloon or hatch with that tech in.... heck even lop some batts off to reduce the range, and use less powerful drive motor, i only need to do 70-80mph max and i dont need face bending acceleration either.

for now the tesla is a just a rich mans play thing and for that reason its almost inconsequential what TG or any other motoring press bodies think of it becuase the people that watch these shows or read the mags havent got the means to buy one anyway so hey wont care if its crap and breaks a lot.
 
Top gear is an entertainment show, not a realistic car review show :)

While true, they are entertainment, some might say that lying about someone else and damaging their reputation could be seen as slander, or something like fraud. I'm not a lawyer (duh) but purposeful inaccuracies to prove some "point" that isn't really there...I can see how that would really bother some people.

It would be like the show COPS showing a fake clip where a cop randomly pulls out a gun and performs a drive-by as he drives past mom's pushing their baby strollers. Okay, maybe a cop accidentally shot a baby in crossfire once...so I suppose it's "based on actual events" but then to not say that the clip is ficticious, even though COPS is a (I use the term loosely) "entertainment" show...can't expect to NOT have people upset.
 
I don't think the Tesla piece painted the car in a bad light.

The overriding message I got from it was that it's a landmark electric car, however it's still at the bleeding edge of technology and therefore it's gonna have bugs ... but how good will it be when the bugs are sorted and the price comes down! Most early adopters of any technology (electronics, electric cars etc) tend to be gadgetheads with too much spare cash anyway, and most of these guys don't care about the odd bug here and there, only because they can say that they were the first to get one. Interestingly, the first Tesla in Australia is due to be delivered to the MD of a large ISP, so there you go.

So, it sounds more like today's piece of Daily Fail fodder rather than a legitimate complaint.
 
I find this a bit strange as well. Top Gear sure is an entertainment show, but they shouldn't sell us things made up for entertainment as actual happenings, especially when it comes to testing whether an electric sportscar is any good. I didn't expect a diehard review, but at least the important bits should be true to life.
 
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I find this a bit strange as well. Top Gear sure is an entertainment show, but they shouldn't sell us things made up for entertainment as actual happenings, especially when it comes to testing whether an electric sportscar is any good. I didn't expect a diehard review, but at least the important bits should be true to life.

No comments on the actual review, but in general I very much agree with you.
 
Thank god for the the Tesla, it reminds me of why gasoline is so awesome.
 
Tesla Roadsters have regenerative braking system to help charge the batteries
Has no one here ever had a fuse blow? I think I've blown one in every car I've had except my current car, and my first car (there were 4 in between).

Fuses don't just blow for no reason, a car with properly functioning electronics should not blow a fuse so it's not just a minor thing like a nail in the tire. Brand new $100k+ car that relies heavily on electronics is already having shorting problems? Personally I don't think shorting while charging is a small issue.


I am siding with Top Gear on this one, she offers no proof to support her claim and in my eyes loses a lot of credibility when she said (but was left out of the first sites quotes)
I am also unclear as to why Clarkson said it took 16 hours to recharge the Roadster without qualifying that statement at all. The vast majority of people who have taken delivery of their Roadsters (and there are more than 100 of them now) have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours.
Clarkson said it takes 16 hours from 16 amp outlet, if you take the #'s from their own manual it lists "18 hours - 240V@16A". So their own data is wrong? :lol:


To me it sounds more like an overly defensive PR lady seeing her job/the company fading away.
 
3.5 hours with that handy, "speed" charger is still a long time, and Clarkson is right, you still can't road trip that go-kart.
 
Fuses don't just blow for no reason, a car with properly functioning electronics should not blow a fuse so it's not just a minor thing like a nail in the tire. Brand new $100k+ car that relies heavily on electronics is already having shorting problems? Personally I don't think shorting while charging is a small issue.
Since we don't know why it happened, everything is speculative. However, I think that there's a difference between "it's brakes had broken" as Jeremy Clarkson said it, and a fuse blew, as it seems it has actually been. And in my book, a blown fuse is a minor problem.

I am siding with Top Gear on this one, she offers no proof to support her claim and in my eyes loses a lot of credibility when she said (but was left out of the first sites quotes)

Clarkson said it takes 16 hours from 16 amp outlet, if you take the #'s from their own manual it lists "18 hours - 240V@16A". So their own data is wrong? :lol:

To me it sounds more like an overly defensive PR lady seeing her job/the company fading away.
To me, it sounds like the manufacturer knows better about his car than a team of journalists does.

Every time someone says that Top Gear made a mistake, people come along and say that it's not a factual show, and that they bend reality for entertainment purposes. But when a manufacturer comes along and says they were wrong, they suddenly are always telling the truth. How does that fit together?
 
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Clarkson's outlet was 13A, not 16A. Not sure how that would affect the charge, but there you go.
 
Since we don't know why it happened, everything is speculative. However, I think that there's a difference between "it's brakes had broken" as Jeremy Clarkson said it, and a fuse blew, as it seems it has actually been. And in my book, a blown fuse is a minor problem.

If it really turned out to be a fuse (it's not like PR reps are known for truth telling) that still doesn't mean Clarksons comment was wrong or even meant to make it seem worse. Put the car on the charger and go to turn it on and the car gives "brake error", that's a brake problem. How long did it take to fix the fuse? Did Clarkson even see them fix it?

And I don't know how an electric car shorting is a minor problem. That's why fuses blow, it's not like an air filter that needs to be changed over time.

To me, it sounds like the manufacturer knows better about his car than a team of journalists does.

The PR lady is disagreeing with both Clarkson and the Tesla owners manual, Tesla's own #'s support Clarkson's claim not hers.

Every time someone says that Top Gear made a mistake, people come along and say that it's not a factual show, and that they bend reality for entertainment purposes. But when a manufacturer comes along and says they were wrong, they suddenly aren't. How does that fit together?

They're calling Top Gear liars with nothing to support it, and to make it worse it's coming from a PR lady from the other side of the world, not the mechanics that repaired the car and not a rep that was at the filming.

Clarkson's outlet was 13A, not 16A. Not sure how that would affect the charge, but there you go.

He said 16a, 13a would be even further away from the PR ladies 3.5 hours.
 
If it really turned out to be a fuse (it's not like PR reps are known for truth telling) that still doesn't mean Clarksons comment was wrong or even meant to make it seem worse.
Sounds much worse to me. If I review a car, it blows a fuse and I say "the car is broken", I technically am correct. For the uninvolved bystander however, this sounds much more severe than it actually is.

Put the car on the charger and go to turn it on and the car gives "brake error", that's a brake problem. How long did it take to fix the fuse? Did Clarkson even see them fix it?
Do we know if they even tried?

And I don't know how an electric car shorting is a minor problem. That's why fuses blow, it's not like an air filter that needs to be changed over time.
Fuses blow. I've had fuses blown on cars where nothing was wrong. Just replaced it, and it worked properly. Maybe they made a mistake when they plugged the Tesla in, and they blew the fuse by themselves. Who knows?

The PR lady is disagreeing with both Clarkson and the Tesla owners manual, Tesla's own #'s support Clarkson's claim not hers.
How so? She said it can be done in 3,5h from dead to full charge on a high power socket. Clarkson said it takes 16 hours on a normal socket (without mentioning other options), their manual - according to you - says 18 hours from a 16A socket. Where did the lady contradict anyone here?

They're calling Top Gear liars with nothing to support it, and to make it worse it's coming from a PR lady from the other side of the world, not the mechanics that repaired the car and not a rep that was at the filming.
Again, how would a journalist that gets a car to review know more about it than a PR lady that works for the company that only makes that one car? How does the fact that the lady is from the US make her statements less reliable? And how does the Top Gear crew, who is known to heavily edit its bits and pieces for entertainment purposes, have any more credibility than her?

He said 16a, 13a would be even further away from the PR ladies 3.5 hours.
No, he said 13A, I just watched it again.

EDIT: I looked it up on Wiki. The normal British power outlet has 13A.
 
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I think the real truth about the Tesla is somewhere in the middle of what the PR person says and what Jeremy says.

But, I really think Jeremy really tried to give a fair review. He did not seem to have the mind set that it was going to be crap like he has some of the things he reviewed.

(But to be honest, I wish James had done the Tesla piece too)
 
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