Peugeot sent into the desert by Jeremy, or vice versa?
On February 22, 2015, the British TV show Top Gear, with its enterprising presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, featured a segment on Peugeot. Attacking as ever, Clarkson and May postulated that Peugeot, after a phase in which they built outstanding cars, had switched to producing the worst possible vehicles ("terrible cars") in the 1980s.
As examples of exceptional cars, they cited the Peugeot 504, which had replaced the camel in the desert with its proverbial reliability, the Peugeot 505 GTI, the 405 MI16 and the 205 GTI, while the 1007 model, for example, embodied the opposite.
Of course, the whole thing was presented and meant to be funny, so May and Clarkson re-enacted the decisive management meeting at which it was decided to only produce bad vehicles. They wore painted moustaches, toasted each other with wine and had an accordion player playing in the background. Like any satire, this can be seen as funny or offensive.
But the three Top Gear makers are known for not mincing their words, which is probably why 350 million people around the world watch these shows, which sometimes only marginally have anything to do with cars or really finding the truth. It is said to be the BBC's most successful program and this is the only way to explain why an online petition with 350,000 signatories called for the reinstatement of Jeremy Clarkson within hours yesterday after the BBC sent the not easily controllable TV presenter to the desert because he had apparently clashed with a TV producer when there was no food on the set after filming and became violent. Whether this warrants a suspension (and the withdrawal of the next three episodes) is now being debated, but of course even BBC TV celebrities should have manners.
However, it seems very unlikely that the Peugeot report, and therefore possibly even French-English diplomacy, could have anything to do with the whole story, and that seems to be a bit of a stretch ...
