Watching the latest episode of The Grand Tour. Season 2 Episode 6 on Amazon Prime. Really good for a laugh.


No spoilers - but let's just say it is must see for any XJR and XJ8 owners.

 

Watching it now at work, and the first thing I can think is..

HARD RESET!

Good stuff though!

 

For those without Prime.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6czlgv

HD
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6czis0

 

Even if they didn't have our cars in it, that was the best episode by far! The skiing looked fun also.

 

I'll be honest, I really didn't enjoy the episode in fact it made me angry.

Firstly, I wasn't at all impressed with the 420G Richard Hammond destroyed. Totally unnecessary, reckless even. I also wasn't impressed with his behaviour throughout the episode, but that being said I really dislike Hammond.

I also wasn't impressed with the destruction of the XK8. I really hope they sent someone down that drop to clean up all the bits which littered the environment.

However I was pleased to see that Clarkson's opinion of the X308 hasn't changed, and that the car he used survived to the end. It wasn't the best example of the model, but it survived none the less.

Overall I'm not impressed with The Grand Tour, I think it's flat and forced. I never thought I'd say this, but I think it's time they knocked it on the head. The magic ingredient, the BBC establishment they acted out against, has gone.

 

This was the first time I looked at a 'Grand Tour' episode, and I can only think these guys are wayyy over their expiration date.

I used to watch their escapades from the very beginning, and was a big fan of them in their glory days ... then it already went down in their last BBC years.
What I saw yesterday was just a sad shadow of the great entertainment it once was.

That said, it was nice to see our cars in the center of attention, but agree with Stu that it was silly and a waste to crash them the way they did.

 

This episode got a few chuckles out of me, the opening 10 minutes I thought were funny. Clarkson's view of the XJR hasn't changed I'm glad to see it's still positive. The one thing I didn't particularly agree with was the caricatured Jaguar owner being a thief, or wilful destruction of a classic, but then it's these idiots we're talking about!

 

That caricature is pretty alien in the USA.


If you can get past all of the tiresome and over played/done 'Lucas prince of darkness/you need two jags' rhetoric over here- despite consistently getting high JD Power ratings for years and Cadillacs and other cars being more problematic, Jags are seen as high society and regal pretty much. Its not necessarily seen as an old mans car, may be a bit, but that's more Lincolns and Buicks over here.

 

I didn't realize the XJR had a refill tube for transmission fluid: somehow I don't think it was that easy. Spent way too much effort trashing the cars (literally and figuratively). I was thinking they were all borrowed, since each had CA plates, then I remember CA cars go to their grave with their original plates, so maybe these were bought off a lot or junk yard and intended to be trashed. One more "JAAAAAAG" and I might puke. Count I has it right: people forgot, Found On the Road Dead made these more reliable than a Cadillac.

Which raises an interesting question: how does Buick rate higher reliability than Caddy, even though parts are mostly the same: different assembly plant or different customer perception?

 

I was really surprised that topping up the xjr's trans fluid fixed the issue. That refill tube is also setup to take the MB dipstick tool for the transmission to refill the level properly, it's a special tool but can be had off the 'bay for 10 bucks or so. Also very glad the XJR made it to the end, though the others broke down due to ignorance and negligence for the most part.

 

This episode annoyed me, for reasons others have already mentioned. I also thought the Jag parts were silly and overdone, especially the pointless downhill skiing section. They sure made Colorado look good though!

 

This also annoyed me.

Another thing that got me was how they seemed to be filmed driving up and down the same stretches of road over and over. Perhaps they didn't have permission to go elsewhere.

 

My guess is that it didn't fix it, it was probably a one-off Gearbox Fault that cleared simply turning it off and back on, but was a good excuse to do "handyman" stuff. I know I've had the same thing happen every once in a while.

 

If indeed it is more than perception- which I think it is- looking over reports I've seen- it can only be down to systems level engineering (integrating all of the elements- even though many of them and the suppliers are common), validation and planning/designing for quality (i.e the systems level use of DFMEAs (Design Failure Mode Analysis)). The other aspect is that Cadillac as a brand is intended to embrace new technologies first and Buick less so- so this has an impact too.

 

Mine had the same problem and as after turning off the car it stopped same with the gearbox fault

 

Did anyone else notice that apart from destroying a Mk10....sacre bleu!!!!!!, Richard Hammond actually drove three different XJ6 Series 3's in the reminder of the episode? Really, they aren't that unreliable, I drive mine daily, haven't been skiing with it yet though?

 

A running gag on Top Gear/Grand Tour has been that Jaguar owners are kind of deviants or high class grifters, like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I've always found it funny. Btw I believe Clarkson has owned a few XJRs and genuinely thinks it is one of the best ever made along with the E type. He raves about it in an old Top Gear episode in 1998.