Discovery Real Time - tonight

[ayd]

new series of Mr Brewer picking up tat from across Europia http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/web/r ... r-dealers/should be fun if not already been mentioned....

[AXrescuer]

I hope he's learned something about cars this time. For a so-called expert he don't half talk a load of bollox.

[HillmanImp]

I do enjoy Wheeler Dealers, but Brewer does come up with some right rubbish. He comes across as not having the foggiest about what he is doing. Another thing i have noticed is that Ed China always seems to replace EVERYTHING on the car whether it needs replacing or not. Instead of replacing the caliper piston he will do the whole caliper. But i suppose thats no different to most mechanics.......

[Guest]

I need to have a bit of a rant here to be honest. I've seen a few Mike Brewer shows and if he has successfully been involved in any aspect of the motor trade I will eat my hat, either that or he hides it very well. He comes across like a smug "pub expert" sort.I remember one show where he was overhauling an early MX5 to put up for sale and make a tidy profit, but he spent a fortune on add-ons. If I recall he got a new set of alloy wheels, some strut braces and a load of chrome add-ons for the interior. Really all that it wanted was a bit of mechanical tinkering, a polish and being put up for sale - perhaps that wouldn't have made as interesting viewing, but it would have been a wholly more realistic view of making money on a car. I could sort of understand if he scored a nice set of cheap alloys with good tyres for £50 to replace a set of Trayal-equipped steels, but how on earth can he soak up the cost of a new set of alloys on a cheap old MX5? Bonkers.Recall another where he took some newly passed driver down to the auctions to buy a bargain used car (always a great idea), he settled on a quite dodgy-looking Ford Ka and paid a fair bit for it, I bet as he was driving it home all manner of issues revealed themselves.I still find the shows make strangely compulsive viewing sometimes, just not for the right reasons.

[Ross_K]

I need to have a bit of a rant here to be honest. I've seen a few Mike Brewer shows and if he has successfully been involved in any aspect of the motor trade I will eat my hat, either that or he hides it very well. He comes across like a smug "pub expert" sort.

To be honest I don't find him any more of a pub bore than Clarkson.I'd imagine the production company loses a fair bit of money on each motor they buy though.Still, the new show should be good for a bit of "A'right fella. Speaky the english?" type foreigner humiliation. The German Borat lookalike selling the Merc didn't seem to get his haggling technique...

[r.welfare]

Damn my employer for not extending it's cable network to my village - and I refuse to fork out for Sky. So I'll have to wait until these appear on YouTube I guess...I like these shows, but more for the spannering Ed does than Brewer's inane babbling. Yep, the cars make a large loss - the "buyer" is usually a fake (member of the production team I heard) and I've seen the cars themselves (928, 635 and Corvette from Series 4) appear on eBay, being sold by the little fella who helps Ed out sometimes. Who incidentally went on a blind date with one of my wife's friends once.

[Richard]

Damn my employer for not extending it's cable network to my village - and I refuse to fork out for Sky. So I'll have to wait until these appear on YouTube I guess...

They cables run through the town where I live but they don't stop. No Freeview either, and until recently they were planning to switch off the analogue signal without replacing it with digital.

[Mr Lobster]

I need to have a bit of a rant here to be honest. I've seen a few Mike Brewer shows and if he has successfully been involved in any aspect of the motor trade I will eat my hat, either that or he hides it very well. He comes across like a smug "pub expert" sort.

Its the inconsistancy that gets me. One minute he's coming across as the all knowing used car 'expert', the next utter shite comes tumbling out of his mouth that is just blindingly obvious to everyone.If remember on one episode of Deal On Wheels (I think), he bought a newish Golf, VR6 I think, minted it, serviced it and then drove it all the way to Scotland to sell to some guy for the exact amount he had originally paid for it and then went on to proclaim this as a good deal.How exactly?

[Guest]

For info, I watched that MX5 one on Youtube to clarify whether my facts were right. If anything I'd vastly understated the amount of wasted cash.The car itself was a bit of a shed, rot in the A-Pillar and a knackered leaking roof which had caused the interior to stink. The A-Pillar repair required removal and re-fitting of the windscreen by a professional at a total of £150, plus the removal of the wings and bonnet to sort the rot completely. The roof required completely replacing and the interior was chucked out and a new one bought from a breakers. At this point you'd think they'd have sold it on (probably at a loss), but it was not to be - as well as the bracing I mentioned, he bought a big sports air filter, a load of very cheap looking chrome bits, a pretty awful looking chrome grille, a pair of stainless kickplates and that new set of white wheels (which he repeatedly called Compomotives, despite saying Enkei on them). The wheels looked very odd on it, even the mechanic said that he preferred the original ones in the end.The car was bought for around £1600 and they claimed to get something like £3600 for it. For a G-reg MX5, not that long ago, with a load of tat added to it. Sure thing!

[AXrescuer]

For sheer incompetency you need to see the episode where they bought and 'restored' a Suzuki Jeep. Total feck up from start to finish!

[Guest]

Is that the one where it was so knackered it couldn't be put through an MOT and had to be sold for off-road use only?

[mnde]

My mate and I tuned in last night expecting it to feature a Citroen DS!! Is that one next week maybe? I wasn't a fan of that Merc. Wasn't the right colour for me, to be spending all that wonga on...Mark.

[AXrescuer]

Here's a clip from the Mazda prog. Notice how they managed to spend £135 on the 'tunning'.

 

[Guest]

Nice shot! And that's only part 3 of 5! There's even more wasted money by the end.Considering this was only in 2005 or so, I'm baffled as to how they thought ploughing all this money into a G-reg was going to work out alright, especially on a lot of stuff which would be down to taste (chrome additions and wheels).What makes it funnier is that the non-modifying stuff was quite interesting and informative, showing how much work was involved in that A-Pillar repair and new roof, but also having the side effect of making it obvious that it would be uneconomic as a car to buy solely for selling on. Nice work!

[AXrescuer]

And they binned the interior cos it was dirty. When my old Escrote cab's soft top had been leaking, I bunged my seat covers and carpets in the washing machine when Wifey was out. Lovely job it was as well!

[Guest]

Yeah I couldn't understand the interior, fair enough if they sourced it all for £20 but they paid £155! The carpets alone came to something daft. Don't they get carpet dye down there?

[Station]

Been watching this almost religiously when I get home from work everyday (over my tea). Watching it now and then is OK, but it starts to grate after a few. I used to tolerate that Mike Brewer but Jesus Christ, he's like the haggler from hell.He went into a Bentley parts warehouse, bought a grille for 150 quid and then tried to haggle the Bentley parts man down (to which he just said "... er, no.") Also, the gushing he was doing about 'owning' this 3k Bentley was irritating. As soon as he walks into a deal he's pointing out the bit of rust on the arch claiming the entire car was 'shot'.I'd also like to know where on earth they are getting their estimates for jobs on these cars - the garages must see them coming. Even as the master of haggling, he still manages to pay three times the amount any normal person could!

[warren t claim]

It's quite amusing finding their previously "restored" cars on the bay advertised as needing some tlc....... The '68 Mini and C4 'Vette spring to mind. It shows the amount of care that goes into each car.Whoever bought the Ferrari off them without a scrap of history or provenance needs their head seeing to.

[Station]

And this dopey manchild insisting on putting an aftermarket CD player into every vehicle they get, old, new, etc, and horrid aftermarket alloys. He said he grew up modifying Beetles. Says it all.

 

 

 

Bargain!

 

[warren t claim]

Jesus! Did he really ditch those Merc alloys for a set of Halfrauds specials?

[504GL]

Jesus! Did he really ditch those Merc alloys for a set of Halfrauds specials?

IIRC they just had them refurbed or gave them a cleanup.

[Station]

Yeah, he got away with the stereo, but I think Mike Brewer flamed him for even suggesting to put some rancid 22" Wolfrace Ripspeed specials.Tonight saw Mr China ditching a chavvy gearknob out of a Lancia Integrale (claiming he'd like to meet the monkey who put it on - and what would he do exactly?), and then put Ripspeed anodised pedals on. Groan!I can't stop watching this though!

[Guest]

Hang on, he put a £200 CD player into a car he's going to be selling? That's possibly the worst financial logic I've ever seen - what a dunce!To be honest, I felt slightly daft putting an old tape deck and some speakers from a breakers into the Cuore I was selling last year. The all-in cost was about £30-40. Probably didn't make any difference to whether it sold or not (didn't to me buying it in the first place). Made me feel better though, I had a couple of weeks of driving around playing tapes.I'm looking forward to an opportunity to look at a car with a snazzy CD player in with an iPod connection and a disc changer and all this other rubbish I won't be bothered about, with the seller going on about how much it cost. Then have me offer to let them keep it for money off, because I'm only going to bang some dusty old tape deck in. That is, if I can be bothered, took me something like three years to do the one in the Cuore. Felt strange to be greeted with a radio rather than a hole with a load of connectors hanging out of it.

[Milford Cubicle]

It's pretty stupid, unless they get freebies.

[hobo]

And i would think that they only make money on most of the car because EDD China (made up name) is on 3pence per hour

[AXrescuer]

Edd China is his real name. Well actually it's Edward China. That's the name registered with Companies House as being managing director of his company Cummfy Banana.

 

All his spanner work is done by Paul Brackley.

 

http://www.cummfybanana.com/

[retrogeezer]

He used to live just round the corner from my old place in Farnborough. Had a chat with his mum a few times. The first thing he built was a beetle covered in fur to look like a dog but he got famous (ish) building those sofa cars and bed cars. Often used to see him driving one about.

[Des]

Can't sleep so was doing a bit of paperwork, telly on in the background, flicked through the channels and happened upon Deals on Wheels and thinks I that's the thing I read about on thingy, quite quickly found I needed to hit the mute button whenever that ridiculous mockney gargoyle spewed bollockery from his fat podgy mouth. The victim was a Mini, I was thinking go on, suprise me and go flag on the roof and minilites, and fuck my old boots that's just what they did, and covered the whole wretched thing in sticky backed plastic, and Cooper stripes of course.But there was far, far worse on tonight, some totally gay looking crap called Bad Boys comes on the screen, I glance up and think I recognise a field in Edgware, hit the volume and found myself transfixed at what is being defined. A flange of Hells Angel fags sharing a ropey old tom between them, fat bloke shagging ropey old toms in a campervan being driven around London, some banger racers, (no toms), and some 'yoofs' claiming to be hardened joyriders recounting their obviously contrived japes, although one of them did perform a display of wheelspinning the remoulds off his mummys Micra.So do we accept that the term Bad Boy refers to a group of males ranging in age from just post midlife crisis to balls freshly dropped and zitty, all still living at home with their mothers, can't get their freak on thus have to pay for it, oh dear me I fear leaving the house knowing such bad boys are out there. I despair at what society has produced, and I'm annoyed at myself for watching such slurry.

[warren t claim]

A flange of Hells Angels

Lolz! Is that the collective noun for Hells Angels?

[Rocket88]

To be honest I don't find him any more of a pub bore than Clarkson.Clarkson has a brain, and has the intelligence to take the micky out of himself. Brewer couldn't tell the difference between irony and Iron Maiden.