The guys at Top Gear do a review of the F-150 Lighting tonight. On BBC America (Direct TV channel 264) 8pm, 11pm, 1am Tuesday and again Saturday 9/27 at 3pm, Sunday 9/28 11am. All times eastern.

 

this is an older episode, and the gave the F150 poor reviews.... kinda made me mad, not because they are dissing the f150, but because they tested a Lightning..... and they tried to use it as a 4wd. Clarkson complained about a bunch of stuff that doesn't apply to the Lightning, and it is very fustrating. I still love Top Gear, despite this

 

and he puts some stuff in the bed when it could have very esaliy gone in the pasenger seat...and he did take it off road and it made it with no problem...but still a poorly made review none the less

 

i have watched this program and it is not even close to to what a lighting is all about. they have almost nothing to compare the truck against in the uk let alone test it for what it is. (a red neck rocket).

 

Lets not forget the right hand conversion was probably also done by some shoddy dealership. Those dash tolerances were way to loose to be acceptable. But anyways, yes that was an old episode. But you gotta remember as well this is targeted towards the UK, i bet they get a kick out of American cars being trashed.

 

No matter what car it is on that show, if it is American, it's cheap, slow, handles bad, or just plain 'shoddy'. I like the show for entertainment, but they try TOO hard to bash on American cars.

 

I don't really watch the show. Personally, I think it sucks. I saw a clip of that episode on you tube. He had maybe 2 good things to say about the Lightning and nothing else. Why were they trying to test it as a regular truck. I don't even think he refers to it as a Lightning does he? What a joke!

 

Aye, older episode. Season 3 or 4 of the current generation of TopGear.

The show is great. Yes, Jeremy beat up on the Lightning because it's horribly impractical for the UK market.

Most people that buy trucks in the UK and European market go for compact 4-cyl diesel models like the Toyota Hilux which are superbly reliable and well suited to offroad use in fields and hunting ranges where pickups are almost always found.

The Lightning is a great truck, but in European market...c'mon, it's a joke. Petrol costs an arm and a leg, and you can't use it the way most pickups are used in Britain. It's also too damn wide.

Anyone that takes offense to the show or the presenters is out of thier mind. The show is hilariously funny and meant for entertainment, not so much for real world car buying advice. They bash America all the time...it's the way of the world...it gets a laugh. It's no different than how our tv shows say Brits have bad teeth or we make fun of other stereotypes. Do unto others yada yada yada.

Watch out, it's coming to America too, hosted by Adam Corolla.

 

i dont think that Top Gear would be as good in America as it is there....

 

I love Top Gear. I've seen every episode in their 12 seasons of this current incarnation.

However, they are very lopsided towards American Cars. The very fact that it's American means it's trash.

And then Clarkson and the other 2 very commonly lie about the cars. Simple misquotes are fine. But I've caught them in several outright falsities. The Corvette one is the worst ever. They said a 1998+ Vette had leaf springs and solid axle...1996 was the last year of that..ever

The GTO is another wierd exception of that show. They absolutely love the Austrailian version. Can't say enough good things about the car. Slap a Pontiac symbol on it, and the car is "Utter Rubbish"

as for the Lightning episode, what a load of crap. They said upper $30,000 British (roughly $60,000+ American). He neglected to mention the truck was probably the 2nd most expensive truck Ford offered at the time and that it can/will outperform most sports cars. And the truck itself was obviously a poorly cared for daily driver. Just look at the dash and other panels. In horrible shape.


Top Gear is a good show, but they need to clean up their act and present the facts truthfully. It may be good entertainment, but a lot of people in Europe actually do reference the show for car buying.

 

They do have some dumb things on that show... at one point they put a GT500 on the dyno, prove that it makes 445 to the wheels and say that it's cheating because it's not making the claimed 500 hp...

I'm sorry, but for a car show, someone should know the difference between rated at the engine and rated at the wheels...

I love how they tested a civic around their track but never took the mustangs (gt or gt500 or roush or any others they had on the show for that matter) on the track... Jeremy might have to eat his foot...

 

They actually did. Same episode as the dyno you pointed out. The GT500 was middle of the pack time wise (on the new chart, not the old one).

They also too the Roush Stage 3 Mustang with S/C'd 4.6 (not the 5.4). It was almost 2 seconds faster I believe with 430 crank HP.

I'd like to see them take a GT500KR around their track. And the driver actually drive it. Not try and make it slow. You can see in the video where something is up. The GT500 was acting like it had a open diff and the rear-end was all over the place from too much throttle.

 

The interior dash and poor fitting panels were a direct result of a crappy right-hand drive conversion.

They're just poor sports is all. They're still smarting from the whoop-*** beating we gave them back in 1776.

Stewart

 

Some of the biggest lies were in the Top Gear special "The Good The Bad The Ugly". Where they had a mustang, and a horse beat it around a circle track. Jeremy said that it had a 300 HP 4.6L V8, but complained it had an automatic, lets not even mention it was the less-stiff convertible version as well. You can only get the 4.6 in the GT, and their mustang had no GT badges at all. The automatic transmission is optional and jacks up the price as well. Almost as if they tried to make it as slow as they could

 

I'm gonna have to re-watch those episodes now... wtf, i'm drawing a blank, and seriously don't remember those at all... I wouldn't be surprised if they're spinning all over... they're not used to having torque...

haha, I remember that one... you forgot that V8 only had one tail pipe, and it was pointing down ;-) Not to mention the "circle track" they picked was so ridiculously tight, that if it was any tighter, it'd be spinning around a stick... heck, I could probably take an enzo on foot like that... It would obviously be proof that sketchers, and not ferraris, are the way to get around