Yes its me, and yes thanks Honest John for pointing me in the direction of your back room. Right now to answer some criticisms regarding my review of the new Vectra. First off, I?ve never seen the famous Clarkson piece, and second, I would gather that any negative review of the same car would result in ?Being a copy-cat?, well I?m sorry but the new Vectra is dull and I?m hardly gonna have a beaming smile on my face driving a car that doesn?t excite me, so if this at-all similar to the piece Clarkson did, I?m sorry. However I do take your criticism?s on board and if you don?t like anything on the show then tell me, I cant always promise that I?ll have time to respond to any threads but I?ll do my best. Thanks for watching the show and for those of you that continually slag it off then here?s a simple cure. Don?t watch it !.
Mike Brewer
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To true. They don't have to watch. And the last time I checked, it was still a free country and you're entitled to your opinion. Plus, it does look 'orrible.
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Why would you expect to be excited by a family car? Most people who buy cars are more interested in reliability , durability, economy , give us information.
We expect to get your opinion especially about the cars ability on the limit , something i would never take it except in error.
Finally are you told what to say or are you told? i really think that the vectra is slagged off for reasons beyond me. Let me make it clear i have never had one so am not biased , however i have test driven three and been a passenger in many and to me they do the job.
It seems to me if its a Ford (not had one since the mk4 cortina) or a BMW (never had one prefer front wheel or x4 drive) it can do no wrong , or is it my imagination.
Ps can you do away with the pointless high speed races , looking at your expressions you enjoy them but to the viewer its about as gripping as watching cricket !
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Sorry about the poor english , this is a bit clearer
Why would you expect to be excited by a family car? Most people who buy cars are more interested in reliability , durability, economy , give us information.
We expect to get your opinion especially about the cars ability on the limit , something i would never take it to except in error.
Finally are you told what to say or are do you adlib? i really think that the vectra is slagged off for reasons beyond me. Let me make it clear i have never had one so am not biased , however i have test driven three and been a passenger in many and to me they do the job.
It seems to me if its a Ford (not had one since the mk4 cortina) or a BMW (never had one prefer front wheel or x4 drive) it can do no wrong , or is it my imagination.
Ps can you do away with the pointless high speed races , looking at your expressions you enjoy them but to the viewer its about as gripping as watching cricket !
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Pete wrote:
>Ps can you do away with the pointless high speed races , looking
>at your expressions you enjoy them but to the viewer its about as
>gripping as watching cricket !
Can't agree with you there. I find them quite entertaining and that race the other week with the S2000 and the Civic Type-R was more exciting than anything I've seen on an F1 track lately.
Lee.
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Well said, Mike. I like your show.
As for the Vectra. The back end, yuk. What an absolutely UGLY car!
Draig Goch.
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Mike,
Firstly welcome to the Backroom.
Your Vectra review, fair comment I thought, and I guess its probably Vauxhall's opinion too, not muchly exciting but it does the job and will sell by the shed load.
Agree with Lee H that by turning the high speed bit into actual races, admittedly a bit contrived, it is far more watchable than the pointless how long can I hold it sideways exercises that Tiff started on TG and Jason was about to fall into the same trap.
Where *do* you get those style council goons from?
Also as the *talent* front of camera do you end up having to do things which in all honesty are cringe making in the cold light of day? Whoever thought up the Brewer brothers test of E types came up with a whizz idea though.
Finally really looking forward to the ice driving special next week. I spend a lot of time up in the frozen north so will be watching with interest. Hope you are doing the test on best ice & snow tyre I have ever driven on which are Gislaved Nord Frost 3. So why is Continental closing the factory that makes them?
Thanks to all the team on Driven, though the Backroom did go a bit quiet after Penny wore that spray on black number!!
Stuart
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Welcome Mike,
Perhaps we could get Jeremy Clarkson to log on and hear his comments as well (however unlikely due to his ties with the Sunday Times) as would be fun!
look forward to your future comments.
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Interesting to read Andrew English's review of the new Vectra in today's DT. He makes the very valid point that not all motorists are driven by speed, ultimate handling or oneupmanship. Many just want a car that starts in the morning, gets them to work and, when it comes to repair time, doesn't cost the earth - especially the fleet managers. The Vectra (and many other cars) fits the bill.
Chris M
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I'm fed up with all these motor programmes that consist of boy racers revving the guts out of cars and wheel-spinning them all over the place and of course accompanied by excruciating music (the bane of my life). Truly, though, Driven is currently one of the best motoring programmes on TV except for THAT awful music, which programme makers seem to think is necessary to accompany all their items. This, to my mind, detracts from the subject matter.
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Mike,
Those that continously slag off your show..don't watch it.
A bit impetous...your programmes have been mentioned on this site on inumerable occassions with always the view how good they are in relation to any of the others. Which are often ego trips for the testers and often don't cater for the normal buying public.
I think this is the first time anything detrimental (albeit in a semi-humourous manner) has been said re your show.
A good programme and well done, you have the personality to make it so............. but we will still have our two pennorth to say as wer'e all amatuer TV critics.
alvin
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But there is scope for catering for the motoring, as opposed to the buying, public. WE can't be buying Lambos and such like every day, or at all, but we don't want to see boring cars, driven in a boring way! We can dream!
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Regarding the Vectra, maybe if it was tested for it's intended purpose ie throw your briefcase/ samples in the back start it up in the morning put a few hundred miles on the clock. Eat your lunch in it and put it away at night then it might not seem so bad. The fact you did not have to think about it at all might be a reason for it to seem quite good.
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Mike
Nice to see that you've been introduced to the backroom.
With the editorial content and style of Driven you're between a rock and a hard place, aren't you? You can't please everybody and people who don't like it will vote with their feet, but you won't find out until the ratings slide and then it might be too late.
There's a good cross sectiom of views in the Backroom and I think one thing is evident. We like to watch a good motoring related programme. Please don't let Driven go the way of TG which, if it ever wants to come back has an awful lot of work to do.
Things I don't like in any motoring programme:
Dumbing down (like the irrelevant twits who appeared as "experts" on the Valentine's day issue)
Awful, obtrusive music and drunken camera shots
Over-emphasis on the "Max Power" ethos
One thing I like about Driven is the way the team works together. Their skills and styles are complementary.
Best of luck with the programme.
Ian
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Perhaps it?s a generation thing but I don?t much care for the ?in your face? style of ?Driven?. The format of the Monte Carlo programme seemed particularly pointless to me(for a motoring programme) and I guessed that you couldn?t get as many cases of beer into an MGB as you could in a family saloon! However I do watch it and there are parts I do enjoy.
The objective of any TV programme, especially on commercial TV, is to achieve high ratings. That means it has to appeal to an audience other than motoring enthusiasts ? which the majority of Backroomers must be. Personally I would like a serious and informative motoring programme without gimmicks, but I suspect that would attract few viewers. No doubt much market research is carried out on this aspect.
The analogy is between ?Tabloid? and ?Broadsheet? journalism. The former always wins hands down, in terms of sales that is.
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Mike,
keep up the good work, it's a good prog, but, err it could be improved a bit. It's nice to know that there are some certainties in life, like the Vectra being c**p, a bit like death and taxes really. I think that the DT review was valid but we should expect more. How can they get away with something that ugly for a start ? The Mondeo looks good (and the Laguna and the Passat and...) but that thing's just plug ugly.
BUT.... why didn't we see the interior ? A shot of the dashboard, how much room is there in the back, how bigs the boot, what's the fuel consumption and so on ? You're influencing me on whether I buy one of these things or not (well not one of THESE, but you get my drift) so I want a bit more than to be told it's rubbish and it has nasty plastics.
See you next, err, well the video knows when.
Regards,
John
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