D. Hirst, Top Gear have been robbing your website!

[Volksy]

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/britai ... ?imageNo=8

 

One of those generic car lists, but I would have thought that there were more than 14 Skoda Estelles left on the road......

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

One of those generic car lists, but I would have thought that there were more than 14 Skoda Estelles left on the road......

 

There are probably another 3,578 registered as 105/120/130, and such a search would be beyond the capabilities of a BBC "journalist", who thinks that "the Estelle was monstrously competitive in rallying during the seventies" (the name "Estelle" didn't even appear until the second generation came around in 1978ish).

[outlaw118]

Bugger, sorry, didn't see this thread before I started a new one....Great minds think alike and all that....

[theorganist]

I was suprised at the amount of Estelles same with the Lada 1500!

[ProgRocker]

No mention of the Talbot Targora though.

[theorganist]

Or the Renault 14 .

 

In fact several Renault's I have never seen a Renault 6 over here, nor a 17!!

[andrew e]

Is this the work of Matt whatsisface late of PC?

[M'coli]

Who would want a coupe version of a Renault 12? Which is precisely what would-be buyers said to themselves as they walked past the dealerships.

Hmmm, the same market sector who might want a coupé version of a mk2 Cortina?

[Guest marcellogandini]

I deplore these trite old car articles.

 

Interesting fact about the Queen's Viceroy estate though, do any photos exist?

[dieselnutjob]

most of the cars in that last don't qualify for "historic" road tax, just like my 604 which is equally rare

[dieselnutjob]

my email to the beeb

 

Subject: SMMT data and Endangered Species

To: editor@topgear.com

Body:

 

Hi

In the Endangered Species articles on your site you (or researcher Matthew Jones) talk about "immense screeds of data" from the SMMT.

I would like to know how many cars which were manufactured during 1973 are actually currently taxed.

This number multiplied by £210 would be the cost to the Exchequer of rolling forward the historic car tax concession by one year. I would like to know this figure.

Please can you calculate this or send me the data so that I can calculate it myself?

You will note that most of the endangered species in your list do not qualify for historic road tax which is a bit ironic.

thanks, Philip

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Are you sure it's £210? Don't the small-engined crates of misery qualify for a slightly reduced rate?

[dieselnutjob]

that's true

[Guest]

Oh well, might be some free traffic. Would have been nice if they asked, but I suppose it'll be a scan from a brochure and it's not like Daihatsu will have been asked either.

[CIH]

"vulgar interior options"

[brammy777]

Typical survival article, I think the numbers they have for the Lada may be a realistic amount for the early models which didn't carry the Riva name. But there is a lot more Rivas still about....

Half of those are pretty normal though. Interesting they didn't mention the Maserati Kyalami, apparently there is only one of those in the UK.

[trigger]

So where is the Opel Kadett B then?

[Guest]

Incidentally, the article is fairly inaccurate as we didn't get the MK1 Charmant of 1974. And by Daihatsu standards it was a reasonably good seller, it hardly failed terribly. And it's unfair to really say it had that much more chrome than the Corolla it was based on (which originally had chrome bumpers).

 

In fact, the funniest point of the Charmant is the dated mechanicals, which has been completely missed. Better luck next time!

[CIH]

plus that volvo coupe and possibily that generation skyline were never officlly imported to the uk

[Dead_E23]

Re the missing cars, I suspect they have used the data very selectively to come up with a lowest common denominator 'top 20' article.

 

There must be literally hundreds of different models running around where the survivors are in low single figures; as well as our besty-fave Tagoras and Ranchos, there'll be no shortage of rare survivors from the likes of Tatra, Bean, Armstrong-Siddeley, Jowett, etc. Much as we might find that fascinating, there's a risk Mr Dullard-3-Series-top-gear-fan might find it indigestible so they've dumbed it down for him.

[reallyloud]

plus that volvo coupe and possibily that generation skyline were never officlly imported to the uk

 

Both were official imports into the UK, the 262C was special order, and some would have been in RHD. The Skyline is a C110 model, and was imported here only in 4 door saloon form - might be 3 or 4 knocking around. The DVLA records are patchy at best - there are plenty of cars that have been missed by the DVLA, which might explain why they're insisting that one of my cars doesn't exist on the computer and are therefore playing silly buggers with me.