Usually, I hate agreeing with a lot of what they do or say - I think that’s part of the fun of the programme. They act the idiots (planned, I know), and I do like seeing big expensive cars being pushed around their track, but when Clarkson goes off piste and starts spouting idiocy, I kind of wish he didn’t.

However, I always find myself in total agreement over electric cars. I think we know the fiasco of doing long haul travelling in such a vehicle - range anxiety, no charge points, and the battery gets mashed if you fast charge it too many times. It also seems that electric cars have a finite life as the cost of replacing the battery seems excessive - a problem if the car is only 5 years old. If I had to replace the engine in my car after it passed that time span, I’d be seriously pissed off.

So, agreement with May and Clarkson again - the current slew of electric cars is just wrong, and I would suspect that the next generation will have deal-stopper faults too. Hydrogen may (or may not) be a problem depending on how quickly the extraction problem can be fixed, and, more importantly, how quickly the infrastructure can be upgraded to cope with it.

I told myself when I bought the current car than the next one would not be petrol powered. That view has shifted. I’m not looking to change cars - but my view has shifted.

That is going to be a big claim.

If you can walk away from an accident like that, then it’s got to be a good car.

Not seen any pictures of it but just knowing how much they cost would mean it was going to be high. Even with the miles he put on the clock. The Maclaren is very strong with so much carbon fibre being used throughout and being based on F1 tech it was much more likely to be one you can walk away from.

Not the first time Mr Atkinson has wrecked his McLaren F1:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/485692.stm



Ooops!

Here’s a picture of the current crash:


What gets me is that wrecks you see in F1 races, and the drivers can get out. Us amateur drivers are not always so lucky.

Yes but races now for fun. It was mentioned on Top Gear. Still that does not look that badly damaged.

Yeah it'll polish right out...

Like, totally man.

I thought my next car would be diesel. I'm not even so sure about that. It's all [LIFTED]. Costs are high whichever way you look at it and I'd rather be comfortable and have what I want if there's ANY cost involved.

A bit of T-Cut and you would never notice.

They go for £2,000,000 in good condition...

I've always been annoyed that Top Gear is classed as a factual program in iPlayer.

Top Gear's electric car shows pour petrol over the BBC's standards

4 days to reach Edinburgh in an electric car.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12138420

They'll be nothing more than a stop gap technology. What makes me sad is that in the future, children possibly won't get to experience the theatre of a big engine at full chat.
For me, the noise and vibration of the combustion engine is part of what makes it great; my car at idle moves under you, I hesitate to say heart beat but even just sitting in it at the lights with the car rocking and trembling makes me smile.
There's two of you who've been in it, I hope you know what I mean.

Until the advent of trains daily life was like that. 4 days to Edinburgh would be considered normal. Without cheap oil life will be like that again for everyone. In fact we will either have to move a lot closer to work. Or commute by train a lot more. Electric cars are suitable for short journeys. Many people will probably only do a short commute to and from work and visit a supermarket on the way. Though it is not suitable for everyone. For most of my needs an electric car would be practical.

Please. That's one of the most priggish articles I've read in quite some time. The fact is they didn't misrepresent the range of the car, they just didn't tailor the journey to make around the range of the car. If you can only have an electric car provided you only go to places where you can charge it easily, then it's failed as general form of transport. And anyway, what the hell does the range or not of an electric car have to do with boy racers? Is he actually blaming new Top Gear for boy racers? Because I don't have written documentation but I'm pretty sure 18 year old boys were getting speeding tickets long before Richard Hammond's television career got going.

I read over the weekend that deaths and injuries in car accidents dropped last year. Top Gear was shown last year. Twice! Surely this means Top Gear is a vital component in our continuing battle to ensure road safety.

No? Well it makes as much sense as his arguments, frankly.

Jon

Oh yes!