Why does the BBC Top Gear programme dislike the Beetle so much?

Yesterday they showed cars going through a classic car auction and quickly showed pictures of 4 cars, and I quote James May – 'terrible cars', one of which was a Beetle. Its interesting to note that the classic rally in Spain for which they were buying cars to drive of which the Beetle was presumably in their opinion no good, actually had a Beetle in it:!:

In the previous series they featured a stunt of driving 3 cars across the desert with the threat of if your car breaks down you will have to drive the 'Beetle'.

How can the most successful car ever be terrible :?

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Because it's a world wide icon and it's not British! So it's very easy to rub a huge number of people up the wrong way and cause a bit of reaction.

Another great example is this article from Piston Heads .

It doesn't bother me at all, let them hate the Beetle - we're not going to suffer at all from it :wink:

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Yes, I have seen that one but at the end they heva to confess that all cars broke down or got stuck but the beetle did not and was actualy the winner.:p

I have no idea why they dislike it...maybe the lack of power? altough my oval with original engine drives fine.

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does anyone actually listen to James May? Lets talk about his co-pilot :shock:

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Don't think Clarkson thinks much of the Beetle either – you can't tear around frightening old ladies and cats with one :evil:

They're all a bunch of petrol heads:x

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By 'James May's co-pilot' I don't think he's referring to Clarkson! :wink:








:shock:

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Yes I'd have thought that, but one of the other 'terrible cars' shown was a 1960's Morris Minor and another a very attractive 1920's red Austin 7 :?

Let's hope that they don't start dropping pianos on Beetles to push up the TV ratings:shock:

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I'm hoping they do start trashing VWs, purely because I want to see the mass outbreak of internet forum hysteria. If merely saying 'ooh, it's not a very good car' is enough to start people off on a rant, imagine what'll happen if they look for an air cooled alternative when they run out of Marinas.

I'll sell them mine if it gets the ball rolling... Mr. Wilman?

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When you ask me it is better to be a Beetle than to be a Morris Marina!:roll:


:twisted: ET

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I've read the pistonheads article – it's really difficult to be offended by this article that does not disprove but merely reinforces the Beetle's high build quality, ruggedness and reliability. These are the virtues of the car – speed and handling is as we know is not, but we love this pre-war car and its easily better than most else from the 1930s.

The writer says the Beetle will not achieve the Mini or Fiat 500-style cool – well both these cars really are wafer thin junk unlike the Beetle, and the Beetle is as cool as a classic car can ever be. Can you think of a less safe car to be sitting in between 2 lorries than a Mini. It may be British, but the Mini should never have gone on the road, it has all the crash resistance of a wet cardboard box :wink:

Yes, the Beetle design was to a certain degree stolen from Tatra's T97, I did a thread on this site a few years ago 'Tatra T97 the Real Beetle Prototype'. I have a 1938 T97 in my collection and can certainly see that this car helped spawn the VW Beetle – no Tatra T97 would have meant a rather different VW:!:

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All that said, it's still one of the funniest programmes on the box. :lol: Which at the end of the day, that's all it is, entertainment.

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they hate morris marinas more lol

:!: :?: DOES ANYONE LIKE MORRIS MARINAS:?: :!:

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The Morris Marina owners club,possibly.

Think you'll find they take them in out of pity:cry:

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'Second place went to VW… despite being responsible for Beetle, the worst car in the history of the world' Richard Hammond Top Gear last night :!:

Is this really just resentment from the BBC because the popular Beetle is not only German, but was a very common sight here in the UK in the '60s and '70s, more so in fact than the woeful Mini and dreadful Morris Minor which we are constantly told were the UK's People's Cars and motoring success stories? Or maybe it's that the Top Gear petrol (dick) heads really don't like anything well made, that's not shaped like a box and is simple and reliable :?:

More rubbish from the 'impartial' BBC :twisted:

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i would feel much more insulted watching last night's programme if i was Rio Ferdinand!
hilarious programme, love it
Ford, number 1? you can't get any duller, can you
50mph on the m1 for 20miles, no-one working there? yes, someone needs shooting

the little guy loves porsche, so i'll let him off

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Still the funniest programme on the T.V. :lol:

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Is it a real issue...I think not.

They're petrolheads and petrolheads are little interested in cars that perform poorly (speed), stop poorly, steer poorly (debateable), corner poorly, have a spartan interior and used the same body design, (in which you formed part of the crumple zone)for nearly 70 years and was overwhelmingly popular and in their day the most reliable car on the road.

So what...I don't like Susan Boyle but that's not to say she can't sing.:wink:

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Yes but the old VW is attractive to look at (well to many of us I would think), and it whines a treat going through those non synchromesh gears:o

The interior of my '49 as with most of the early Deluxe VWs is beautiful with a real quality feel, sofa rolls and all, unlike the interiors of most the modern 'dream' cars that Top Gear likes to show which are usually awash with plastic, and are essentially crap (wouldn't expect sofa rolls here though to be fair). Have you ever looked inside a Suburu Impreza – yuk 😶

All said and done, no one would expect the Beetle the appeal to the Top Gear petrol heads - but to say its the worst car ever 😳

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