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I really wish they hadn't glossed over the poor safety records of Chinese cars. Obviously they were taking the piss with their "tests", but a lot of Chinese cars perform very poorly in crash tests. In Australia some models are even being recalled because their safety is so poor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7fpmvWBZw8
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Feb 7, 2012 11:31
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| # ? May 8, 2024 11:36 |
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bolind posted:I recently bought a tarp for the equivalent of one (1) US Dollar. That includes 25% VAT, profit, pay for the dude selling it to me, and it was made, sown, packaged, stuffed into a container, shipped from China to Europe and trucked the rest of the way. That's not really sustainable. I really agree with this, I think the solutions to a lot of the resource problems in the future will come from the past. Ie making something that's robust and have people trained to fix them when they go wrong. Chinese cars have made their way to Aus, Great Wall produce a series of utes and 4wd's for about 30% less than equivalent Toyota. I haven't read a review of them yet where the journalist hasn't gone into it without a "this will be crap" frame of mind though. Speaking of cars you might actually buy, think there's any chance the BRZ/FT86/FR-S will make it onto the show, this might be the first new car I ever buy.
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Feb 7, 2012 11:43
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Ecstatic posted:
The first lot of Great Walls were... umm.... bad. However they have improved so fast it's mind blowing and they now get 4 stars on NCAP. Also the quality has likewise improved out of sight. The handling and ride is pretty much 5-10 years behind but again, improving rapidly. The other thing of note is that the Chinese seem to be able to make tooling changes much quicker and hence you can have noticeable differences in the car over a year as corrections and changes are made. The reality is that the Chinese are doing the exact same thing the Koreans and before them the Japanese did - built copies, learned from mistakes, began design for themselves and then leave the ones they copied behind. The Chinese in this case are doing it faster and to me I have no doubt they will produce a genuinely good car within this decade of their own design. http://www.ancap.com.au/crashtestrecord?Id=356 NCAP for Great Wall X240. I believe no car anymore can gain 5 stars without ESC (Which to me is bullshit but eh not the one working this stuff out) CAT INTERCEPTOR fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Feb 7, 2012 |
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Feb 7, 2012 12:10
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Clarkson really had a good point. In 5 years they went from building bike/trike/motorcycle car things to building solid, if not "meh" cars. In another 5 years, they're probably going to be churning out some really good stuff. A few years ago I would have never considered seriously looking at a Hyundai or Kia. Now the Velocter Turbo and the Optima Turbo are on my radar as cars that I'd really like to own. I'm willing to bet that once the Chinese start building cars at that same level of quality and are priced competitively they're going to do really well. We'll probably see giant import tariffs on Chinese cars in the USA, if only to allow GM/Ford/Chrysler to compete against them.
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Feb 7, 2012 12:31
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Cat Terrist posted:The first lot of Great Walls were... umm.... bad. However they have improved so fast it's mind blowing and they now get 4 stars on NCAP. Also the quality has likewise improved out of sight. So you're saying that at the current rate of improvement and growth that in five more years we'll all be driving Chi-UMF ACK HELP IM BEING ATTACKED.
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Feb 7, 2012 17:21
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djdanno13 posted:I got a laugh when they introduced Hammond as the pace car driver to... a couple claps. I keep forgetting that outside of our little community on the internet and their 6 min segment on 60 minutes almost two years ago they are virtually unknown over here. This is a moment that at least to me comes off as scripted. If there is one place in the US that knows everyone in Top Gear, it's a NASCAR event.
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Feb 7, 2012 17:58
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sbaldrick posted:This is a moment that at least to me comes off as scripted. If there is one place in the US that knows everyone in Top Gear, it's a NASCAR event. Maybe they were disappointed they didn't get Jeremy; I assume "yobbo" aligns pretty well with the stereotype of NASCAR fans.
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Feb 7, 2012 18:00
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sbaldrick posted:This is a moment that at least to me comes off as scripted. If there is one place in the US that knows everyone in Top Gear, it's a NASCAR event. I just moved from California to middle America, and you are so wrong. I asked a co-worker who was a NASCAR fan and he wondered if it was a copy of the history channel show.
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Feb 7, 2012 18:06
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The people that were there and knew what Top Gear was probably assumed Top Gear covering NASCAR would not be a very positive endorsement of their BELOVED SPORT.
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Feb 7, 2012 18:39
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I bet Hammond would have got a cheer if they'd introduced him as Richard J Cheeseburger.
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Feb 7, 2012 20:01
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Feb 8, 2012 00:46
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Mister Kingdom posted:Luke Skywalker Kick.gif
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Feb 8, 2012 00:59
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sbaldrick posted:This is a moment that at least to me comes off as scripted. If there is one place in the US that knows everyone in Top Gear, it's a NASCAR event. Looked like the pre race drivers meeting, full of all the drivers and bigshots, so i have a hard time believing TG UK would be able to organise a scripted event in that case. If anything maybe they organised to have Hammond introduced right after some army general dude or whoever he was.
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Feb 8, 2012 01:28
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sbaldrick posted:This is a moment that at least to me comes off as scripted. If there is one place in the US that knows everyone in Top Gear, it's a NASCAR event.
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Feb 8, 2012 01:45
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uPen posted:The Montage
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Feb 8, 2012 02:23
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quote:I work at a bike shop where we see a lot of Chinese motor scooters in for service, and the thought of cars made in that mold terrifies and despairs me. They are universally horrible and I pity their owners. Look at it another way. If there weren't people willing to buy that stuff, their wouldn't be people making it. If I were an aspiring businessman and my research tells me that there is a market for cheap terrible junk (  take my word for it, there is), where would I make it? Switzerland? Most cheap junk is made in China because everything is made in China, not because the Chinese only know how to make junk, If you are willing to pay a little more for a little better quality, you get iPhones. Otherwise you get exactly what you pay for.The 2 cars they tested, the Roewe 350 and the GAC Trumpchi, both get full marks on the Chinese NCAP which is not surprising since they are based on foreign engineered platforms. The Roewe was primarily developed in Britain by the old MG Rover folks who now work for SAIC and the Trumpchi like Clarkson said is a re-skinned Alfa Romeo 166. I'm almost certain both are much safer than junk like the Nissan Versa(bestselling subcompact car in America). I don't even know what Clarkson's problem is with the 1.5l 105hp engine, that's the same as the engine in a Yaris or a Fit and they come with 4 speed autos, not 3 speed AFAIK. I've ridden in one and they're...just ho-hum economy cars. But then again, they aren't really that cheap either, Maybe 10% or so cheaper than an equivilant Chinese assembled Honda Civic or Chevy Cruze after rebates. Again, if you want cheaper, you can find it, but it will be worse. I highly doubt that any Chinese branded cars are going to be coming to North America, though. Considering how terrible they've been at even gaining a foothold in China. Toyota and Honda didn't start their inroads into the US market when Japan was dominated by VW and GM like China is today. There will probably fewer car makers in the US market as GM/Ford/Chrysler are turning around with a vengence on the back of government assistance and a depreciating dollar. Suzuki and Mitsubishi probably won't survive much longer and FIAT is floundering, and any of them are easily 100x better run than any Chinese company. At best some of the foreign JV companies will start producing in China for the North American market. Honda is already importing the Fit from China to Canada. In that case it's largely because of their terrible luck at having both Japanese and Thai facilities suddenly end up under water at the same time but it shows that they're pretty confident with the quality. Also parts. 
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Feb 8, 2012 02:32
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SIARPC next week is Ryan Reynolds. Suddenly it's all A-list celebs
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Feb 8, 2012 05:42
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Throatwarbler posted:So much for American cars.
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Feb 8, 2012 06:28
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Hermansen posted:SIARPC next week is Ryan Reynolds. I think it's pathetic that in order for TGUK to get A-listers they have to shamelessly plug their lovely Hollywood remakes. It makes me sad that even people who are gearheads can't even go on that show without thinking how they can make a quick buck.
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Feb 8, 2012 06:29
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I thought the Chinese section was really well done. But I bet the Prime Minister of China said he'd have to look at their footage before letting them out of the country. It's probably why stuff like these Chinese crash test wasn't shown. 40mph truck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D827IxEJVS4 It's a common myth that chinese people are small. In truth, those bigger than a matchbox are culled off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmpDM8wVrUQ&t=22s
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Feb 8, 2012 15:49
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sigtrap posted:I was referring to making a Top Gear USA that is more similar to the UK original. One difference right up front is the fact that the networks in the states are ad-revenue supported, so from what I understand a lot of your flexibility for saying "The new Chevrolet _____ is a complete pile of poo poo" goes out the window. Even though it's LEGAL to say that (within reason) GM still has their lawyers on the phone in nothing flat, threatening to pull all their advertising (and that of their corporate holdings). So, if you don't have complete freedom to 'tell it like it is' then you're stuck having to be positive about almost everything. Can't they just put it on HBO or Showtime or something?
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Feb 8, 2012 16:03
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Ak Gara posted:40mph truck: I'm 90% sure that's a real VW T3(?) and the reason it's disintegrating is because they loaded the bed up with three times the allowed load in lead shot or something... Edit: rumour has it, that it was crashed at 100kph and was loaded up with a ton of stuff, in order to test/showcase a new ADAC crash test facility. There's a suspicious lack of crash test dummies and other paraphernalia, too... bolind fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Feb 8, 2012 |
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Feb 8, 2012 16:08
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Was watching the killer 959 vs F40 segment on youtube the other day, and suddenly it's really obvious how often they blur out the windows to hide the fact that it's not Hammond driving.  Can only imagine that the owners wanted to be driving their own cars around the camera cars rather than risk one of the TG crashing into them.
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Feb 8, 2012 17:13
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So wait how can I see Katy Perrys big tits bouncing singing a song with Elmo?
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Feb 8, 2012 17:42
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echoplex posted:Can only imagine that the owners wanted to be driving their own cars around the camera cars rather than risk one of the TG crashing into them. Alot of the shots you see here are done after Hammond or whoever does the talking bits. They go back out and film more footage with other drivers.
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Feb 8, 2012 19:38
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echoplex posted:Was watching the killer 959 vs F40 segment on youtube the other day, and suddenly it's really obvious how often they blur out the windows to hide the fact that it's not Hammond driving.
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Feb 8, 2012 21:01
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This is pretty cool: http://club.autohome.com.cn/bbs/thread-a-100002-13260688-1.html (Adblock strongly recommended for any .cn site) Back in December, when Top Gear was filming in China, some random Chinese Top Gear fan happened to stay at the same Beijing hotel as May. The guy recognized him in the morning and proceeded to stalk May from the hotel to the filming site, where he proceeded to take a bunch of candid pictures of them filming. He got some pretty cool photos of Top Gear behind-the-scenes; worth a look even if you can't read Chinese. Did you know both James and Jeremy smoke?
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Feb 9, 2012 06:42
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Wedesdo posted:This is pretty cool: Haha I like this pic, it's like Jeremy is contemplating his entire life and every decision he's ever made:  I can just hear James whining in this pic "But I want to go into the factory and look at all the machines!!" 
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Feb 9, 2012 06:50
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what I kinda expect them to do was get the knockoffs and test/rail them, like get the pseudo x5 and compare it to a real x5
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Feb 9, 2012 09:56
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Wedesdo posted:Did you know both James and Jeremy smoke?
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Feb 9, 2012 16:37
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jojoinnit posted:I thought Jeremy said he quit years ago. Anyways that was pretty cool, thanks for finding it. I think Jeremy has quit and started smoking again more times than James has re-arranged his spanner set.
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Feb 9, 2012 16:48
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If you've ever seen a HD close up of Clarkson's teeth, you'd think he munches on cigarettes laced with brick dust.
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Feb 9, 2012 21:31
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EvilMoFo posted:what I kinda expect them to do was get the knockoffs and test/rail them, like get the pseudo x5 and compare it to a real x5 Doubtful that the Chinese government would let them do that.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:01
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Hah, proof this show is scripted! But I still love it.
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Feb 10, 2012 05:16
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Nonsense, those are just the instructions from the Chinese government on what they can't say. You can't script things like those banners ripping in the India special.
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Feb 10, 2012 16:13
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The only thing I disliked about last week's show was there were no predictable Robin-like rollovers in the Chinese 3 wheeler.fivre posted:Nonsense, those are just the instructions from the Chinese government on what they can't say. You can't script things like those banners ripping in the India special. Or Arse Biscuits and Penis Oils. Man I loved that episode.
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Feb 10, 2012 21:15
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That 24-hour race one was one of the best ever. Mixed in with the scripted dorkiness was a huge amount of real live honest-to-god experience, stuff like Hammond hitting the Mosler and James accidentally parking in front of the other guys' bay. And at the end you could tell the emotional bond they'd forged with the car was real as hell.
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Feb 11, 2012 00:11
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Fermunky posted:The only thing I disliked about last week's show was there were no predictable Robin-like rollovers in the Chinese 3 wheeler. Pretty sure they'd die if they tried to roll that thing.
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Feb 11, 2012 11:26
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_firehawk posted:Hah, proof this show is scripted! It could just be notes, field notes about the cars, the stupid names that sort of thing, could be what camera theyre walking towards, THERE IS A poo poo TON OF STUFF THIS COULD BE besides a script with dialogue written on it.
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Feb 11, 2012 11:57
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I've always pondered how people believe that James May, a man who CANNOT REMEMBER HIS DRIVE TO WORK after 18 seasons, would be able to remember a weekly script?
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Feb 11, 2012 12:34
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