Journalist's damaging cars

[Smokey2326]

Just watching Topgear and clarkson has ruined a Renault Twingo (drove it into the sea).

Are they allowed to do that to the car, as in will Renault of given permission before hand and who pays for it? Will Renault sacrifice a car to get it on TG or will the BBC have to pay for it ?

Just curious.

[Flanders.]

It would have been a Pre Production car which would have been crushed due to tax reasons if TG didn't drop it in the sea.

[C. Grimsley]

Manufacturers build a few cars that are not completely the spec they are going to be etc (test mules)
so are used as test cars and then destroyed, I would think it would have been one of those.

Carl

[Smokey2326]

Never lets me down the knowledge of PH.

Cheers

[greeneggsnsam]

I noticed that the number plates changed when he started smashing it up compared to when he was testing it so as the others said the ruined one was probably going to be crushed anyway.

I assume they use a crane to get it back out anyway so all that changes is the crusher gets a bit wet.

[TRUENOSAM]

Flanders. said:

It would have been a Pre Production car which would have been crushed due to tax reasons if TG didn't drop it in the sea.

This is correct.

The chances are Renault probaly informed them that the car was to be destroyed when they had finished with it. No press or pre production cars are sold to the public due to the hard life they will have had. That Twingo would have spent most of its life driven hard so for saftey reasons would be destroyed. Plus how would you feel if you had just bought that Twingo

When I used to go to college I would often see Astons, Jags and Landrovers all with f-all mileage destined for the crusher

Edited by TRUENOSAM on Sunday 22 May 20:23

[Cyder]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Bingo, that would have cost Renault £10k max, no way could they have made an advert and got it to the masses for £10k

[mrmr96]

Smokey2326 said:

Will Renault sacrifice a car to get it on TG

Why else would it be on there?

[NiceCupOfTea]

OP said:

Journalist's damaging cars

What, like a Hummer?

[Blakewater]

I'm not sure they really drove it into the sea at a ferry port as it would have been a hazard to shipping and polluted the water. I think there was careful editing and computer trickery there.
The Vauxhall Astra "rental car" they cut up for their art exhibition was a prototype they crashed a tractor into in a previous episode.
This guy has posted a clip of a prototype VW Toureg being crushed at a scrapyard and explains that prototypes have to be destroyed so competitors don't get their hands on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Hf_N2skWI

[Exoticaholic]

TRUENOSAM said:

When I used to go to college I would often see Astons, Jags and Landrovers all with f-all mileage destined for the crusher
]

If you thought that was bad, I saw one picture of a Rolls-Royce Phantom on its last legs ready to be picked up by a grabber and into the crusher

[Isimmo]

We had a rally car lightly damaged by a Car magazine on a promo run last year, whilst it was less than ideal, there was ample cover by them to repair the damage. With the TG thing, I think they'll (The manufacturer) probably get far more for the positive publicity than the loss of probably a production quality control reject.

[robsco]

There's a video on the internet somewhere of a 997 subjected to the same fate.

[NoelWatson]

TRUENOSAM said:

No press cars are sold to the public due to the hard life they will have had.

Not sure that is true

[RobM77]

NoelWatson said:

TRUENOSAM said:

No press cars are sold to the public due to the hard life they will have had.

Not sure that is true

Definitely not true. Last month EVO had a 'for sale' feature on the original 996 GT3 mk1 press car, which was openly for sale at an independent dealer.

[Superhoop]

NoelWatson said:

Not sure that is true

Definitely true

Most manufactures use pre production cars for motorshow duties, press shots, launches etc

Pre production is classed as any vehicle produced prior to job1 i.e. The date that is declared as the first official build date of any vehicle, to full homologated spec

These pre production vehicles are normally allowed to be registered for a limited amount of time (normally 6 months) on the agreement that once they have fullfilled their purpose, they will be destroyed

[NoelWatson]

Superhoop said:

NoelWatson said:

Not sure that is true

Definitely true

Most manufactures use pre production cars for motorshow duties, press shots, launches etc

Pre production is classed as any vehicle produced prior to job1 i.e. The date that is declared as the first official build date of any vehicle, to full homologated spec

These pre production vehicles are normally allowed to be registered for a limited amount of time (normally 6 months) on the agreement that once they have fullfilled their purpose, they will be destroyed

I was talking about press cars.

[dugt]

Cyder said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Bingo, that would have cost Renault £10k max, no way could they have made an advert and got it to the masses for £10k

And there not meant to show cars being driven fast/dangerously on TV adverts, but on top gear they can.

[Superhoop]

Sorry Noel, bad quoting, I forgot I was on my iPhone, and that it doesn't quote all

I was actually agreeing with you that press cars do get sold on - and obviously disagreeing with the post that you quoted that said they never were

[Elroy Blue]

We've got a Mondeo that was given to us for use as a skid car. Pre-production example that would have been scrapped otherwise.

Edited by Elroy Blue on Sunday 22 May 21:49