The Car Show

Here we go again.... My usual love affair with the media - particularly Channel 9.

This time it's The Car Show.

Now, being somewhat of an enthusiast, I don't mind watching a show like this when I get time in between building & rebuilding my own cars as there can be some interesting tidbits of entertaining information in there. I've sent this blog entry to The Car Show but I'll have to put it on my blog because wannabe journo's don't like having their 'stories' discredited. Thank god for blogs - at least I can get some of what I say out there!

I've never had a problem with Glenn Ridge as he seems like a half decent bloke. He even spared a few words for me when I was down in Targa Tasmania a few years ago. Where The Car Show failed is by incorporating know-nothing plonkers like Steven Jacobs into it's line-up (when the show started) and more recently, some fool called 'Dieter' who pretends to be a journalist but really can't get his head around the concept of 'research' (which makes him quite suitable for just about any media outlet in Australia!).

Sure, he's young... he's "hip"... he's "cool" - he's also a friggin' tosser that doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about yet still thinks he's qualified to offer an opinion.

What's that? "Everyone is entitled to an opinion?"
That's very true - everyone *is* entitled to an opinion - but NOT on a nationally syndicated TV show where your half-baked opinion can be confused for fact.

Deiter: facts are facts but your opinion is CRAP.

Yes... I know... people will wonder why my ire is being directed at this young chap who doesn't really know much about anything, let alone his arse from his elbow, but this time The Car Show took on a subject about which I know more than the average bear: The Ford Mustang. I'm no expert but I know my share.

Don't take my word for it though - watch the videos yourself...
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

So... where did they go wrong?

1. They talk about Ford producing Mustangs in the beginning yet the show decides to grab the pinacle from the 1965 production year, the Shelby GT350 - and they can't even get the name right or allude to the fact that it was not a product supplied by Ford but rather a remanufactured new car from Carroll Shelby's workshops.

2. They talk about the current Ford Mustang yet they pick the (almost) top shelf version of 2006 - A Saleen S281 - yet another remanufactured new car that is NOT available through Ford. It's true that it is a very much upmarket version that will blow the doors off any standard Monaro and GTS Coupe but it's not the standard.

3. While talking about and driving tricked-up versions of the production years in question, Deiter refers to a "dag factor of 10" for cars built in the 70's, 80's and 90's. I would put it to him that he's never seen any of these cars in the flesh in any form let alone driven one nor seen one of the versions that were tricked-up like what he was driving.

4. Deiter then refers to the interior of the car being lacking for a $135,000 car. Since when was this car worth $135,000??? NEVER!! The car he is sitting in can be bought in Canada for C$40,000 which equates to maybe A$45,000. The difference in price comes from freight from the US; Conversion costs* (see bottom); Import duties; Luxury car duties; and profit for the importer.

5. Deiter makes reference to the live rear axle and the lack of gears in the auto gearbox. Well... an auto gearbox is only there for people who don't and can't drive - that's YOU, Deiter. When you have notched up between half-a-million and a million miles of driving all sorts of vehicles, then you'll be qualified to comment on what is good and what isn't. You're driving a NEW car that is strictly a grossly overpriced bread'n'butter vehicle. It is doubtful that you've driven much of anything in your life let alone some of the clunkers from Australian motoring history!

6. There's that reference again to the $135,000 car. Your lack of knowledge is coming to the fore again. That car is NOT a $135,000 car - it is one that is worth about the same as a Holden Calais! That price tag is NEVER going to be value for money - no way, no how! The only people who will pay that are brainless prats with more dollars than sense!

7. "On the track, the Saleen Coupe makes the convertible look overpriced and underdone". How many times does it need to be said that Deiter has done virtually no research for this story and is comparing a remanufactured and power-added vehicle with suspension and brake modifications to a stock model with a sludge-box. Apples with oranges! This is like comparing a 2006 Corvette to a Monaro! NO comparison!

8. "Live rear axles went out, in automotive terms, in the dark ages." Deiter: do you even know when independent rear suspension came about? How about fuel injection? The turbo? These things didn't magically appear during the 1980's or 90's and didn't come out of Japan! RESEARCH!!! You should be commentating football matches with your clear and obvious lack of knowledge (moron).

9. Then comes Glenn Ridge talking about the '66 model and the lack of handling and brakes. DUH! It's a 40-year-old car that was made in America! It was built cheap and yank cars could never turn a corner anyway! Different driving techniques are needed to get a Mustang, a Corvette, a Falcon, or anything with a live axle and no handling, around a track!

10. What? Now the Saleen is a $120,000 car? At least you got that bit right about there being better cars out there for that kind of money. Go and drive an Audi A6 and see what a car in the price range should deliver. Just avoid the BMW dealers because Australia is being soundly ripped off in price comparisons. The very same 330i with some BMW Motorsport options is over A$40,000 cheaper (including taxes) in Canada than it is here! It doesn't cost $40,000 to chuck a car on a container ship!

The only upside to Deiter's cruddy part of the story is that maybe the more stupid consumers out there will see the 'report' and do some homework to discover just how badly they're being ripped off.

How about The Car Show and it's presenters stick to the little Japanese front-wheel drives and bottom-end European buzz-boxes and leave the classic cars to 'Cruizin' on Briz-31 and the high-end cars to Jeremy Clarkson and the team on Top Gear. These people KNOW what they're on about.

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*Conversion costs: this is a figure that can run to roughly A$35,000 or more (retail) to butcher a perfectly good vehicle that is left hand drive and make it right hand drive. Australia is THE LAST country in the developed (term used loosely) world that FORCES this requirement on vehicle owners when it is NOT NECESSARY. It is just another way of keeping dickhead bureaucrats and shonky converters in a job.
What purchasers of these vehicles do not understand is that they're paying these conversion fees at a retail rate and then the importer is putting a percentage profit on top of the finished job. You'll know this concept well in the form of GST - usually a tax on a tax.
If you were to import one of these convertibles, as it sits, left hand drive and fully loaded, it would cost you about A$57,000 - freight, duties and taxes paid.
It is the short-sightedness of the bureaucrats that is costing you the extra (almost) $80,000!