The Grand Tour Top Gear

Is Top Gear better than The Grand Tour? Fans have their say

It appears as though four solid episodes are enough for fans to start calling it – Top Gear Series 24 is better than The Grand Tour Series 1. This news might be difficult to accept for some, with only the most hardcore head-in-the-sand Clarkson, Hammond and May fans saying otherwise.

Episode 4 was another enjoyable car-based outing for Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid, as they raced each other across the Middle East and played perhaps the best version of Pac-Man we’ve ever seen in three warm hatchbacks. The chemistry between the hosts is clearly visible, and the fans are enjoying what they see.

Reddit user benderisgreat37 says the key to the show’s success is that it simply feels genuine. “There were parts of the Grand Tour where it was just so obviously staged and they were trying to act and it just flopped,” he wrote. “It felt like Clarkson, Hammond and May were being untrue to themselves and just trying to play charactures. Granted they did much better in the later episodes but I think the reason why Top Gear this season seems to resonate so well is that we have been lacking real humanity behind the shows.”

While another added in a bold statement: “OK, so I’m gonna put this out there, as a huge fan of the show I think tonight’s #TopGear was possibly the best episode in years……..”

More viewers added to the fray, writing: “#topgear has been brilliant this season since they changed it up and kept it simple!’ and ‘#TopGear this series has been awesome so far and loving the new presenters.”

With just three more episodes left in Series 24, it remains to be seen whether Top Gear can pull off a full 7-episode run without any major criticism, but one thing’s for sure – the boys over at The Grand Tour should be worried, and desperately need to go back to the drawing board to see how they can tweak their show for Series 2.

Because Top Gear is well and truly back.

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27 comments

Nick January 22, 2019 at 4:48 pm

Top Gear is a knock-off of … the original Top Gear. It stinks of cheap shoddy workmanship and wanna-be actors trying to copy the original trio. Matt LeBlanc is so disingenuous he makes the new Top Gear unwatchable. My 6-year old daughter knows more about cars.

Grand Tour is the authentic continuation of the original Top Gear, name changed because BBC got their panties in a twist. Clarkson invented Top Gear, he is a master interviewer and a master host and as long as he is still doing Grand Tour I won’t be watching the fake original any time soon.

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DB5 May 11, 2017 at 6:45 pm

To be completely honest it’s unlikely that any mutual conclusion will ever be reached…?
Neither Top Gear or The Grand Tour will listen to anything you say on here so…just enjoy them both for the differences they have guys!

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Mario April 1, 2017 at 6:11 pm

Best CAR show was Best motoring real comparison a lot of data and great drivers.
But most people are buying cars for design ( that’s why you don’t hear any more that some engineer is standing behind new car but almost always it is designer, who most probably never drive car 200mph and don’t know what is understeer, ) so Best Motoring and shows with real facts don’t have audience.

Now we have shows with cars in which car is mostly just used to talk about society and occasionally about real cars fact , and it is where CMH are better and more honest then PC oriented BBC NEW TG where we are living in Utopian-no problems, everything is great, society .

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 2:59 am

I liked the GT but it felt forced and excessively obnoxious, there were funny points but there were also points where it was just not funny and points where it was annoying. I feel like on a while top gear is much better IN MY OPINION.

However I do have some complaints about the top gear also. I think that having the guest during almost the entire episode is annoying and the studio segments with the guest are too long. I also want to see much more of Rory Reid. He has done two small segments, both on relatively cheap and slow hatchbacks and that is it. The other two seem like they get a short segment as well as a road trip every episode! The four seasons challenge, Bugatti Chiron challenge, the bond challenge with the mercy and the db11. I find Rory Is fun and funny and u want to see more of him.

My final thoughts are that both should improve but for top gear it is just small adjustments but for the grand tour they need to change their entire mindset.

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 3:11 am

One other thing is that I hope top gear can make their seasons longer. 1 year for 7 episodes!!! And they only have like 40min of pre recorded stuff per episode so spending a year on 4 and a half hours of episodes seems a tiny bit lazy. I know they have been working hard to improve the format and work out the presenters but in futur seasons I would want the seasons to have more episodes. Maybe closer to 10?

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Scooby252 March 31, 2017 at 7:29 pm

Tell you what , that extra gear is awful , to help series 2 they should of just used Sabine or Eddie

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Mario March 30, 2017 at 11:10 pm

IF you are PC tree huger with Prius and bicycle then New TG is better
if you are no PC petrol head who don’t think that all cars are great ( if you are watching new TG they pretty much say that every car is great , especially Rory, and we know that most cars are rubbish )

They were even afraid to smash those plastic “cans” they used to drive( they even cal them cars ????) in Pac-man simulation

then answer is obvious

and so are ratings of the show 🙂

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 3:02 am

I am sorry but I just don’t agree.

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Aurelija March 30, 2017 at 8:48 pm

Top Gear should stop with that nasty habit of destroying cars. What they did to that Alfa Giulia is unforgivable. The rest is good.

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 3:01 am

Yes but think about the old top gear. Pretty much every episode they would purposely destroy a car!! Where as now it was a mistake. But I agree with you.

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Clueless berk March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

One might agree with this, others might think it’s the other way round, I say they’re two very different shows altogether and the only thing you might want to compare them is because of their history. Personally I’m enjoying both, albeit for different reasons and I can only be happy to get twice the episodes a year because of the split

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 3:03 am

Yes, both are car shows but one is focused on comedy with a car driving through the picture every now and then and the other is focused on cars with comedy thrown in. I completely agree with you.?

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Rohan Williams March 30, 2017 at 8:13 pm

For true car enthusiasts, both shows are awesome and different, shouldn’t for a for or against, better or worse… Some of you sound like women watching to see who’s hot and whatever else they watch for. These shows are entertainment with guys and cars and travelling. Keep up the good work Top Gear and The Grand Tour.

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cherzo March 30, 2017 at 2:21 pm

Sorry but top gear is no better than last season, they need to get rid of matt le blanc, they should have got philip glenister, as soon as they kept le blanc on it was doomed, they should have got a totally new presenter not somebody who was part of the last season. The Grand Tour is enjoyed more, its not perfect, nowhere near it, but it is better.

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 3:05 am

I think that that is your opinion. I think that Matt is one of the best presenters of the former line up and I prefer top gear to the grand tour. BUT THAT IS MY OPINION.

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JoeBob March 30, 2017 at 3:48 am

Well I really liked the GT except for The American and the lame guest appearences. I’ve mostly enjoyed this season of Top Gear except for Chris Harris being nasty to the guests during the driving instruction (like maybe TG thought they needed their own version of The American) and the extended guest spots still feel forced. So I guess they are about even for me. Harris lightened up in the last 2 episodes so maybe they​ figured that one out. It seems they could give Rory a little more to do, he’s much more likable than Harris.

I don’t really have a big problem with either show at this point. They both are trying to find the right formula to keep them going and both are enjoyable so far. The next season of both should have most of the kinks worked out. And there’s nothing wrong with having 2 wacky car shows is there?

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Ryan April 1, 2017 at 3:07 am

that is the perfect way to sum it up. I agree.

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Gord Lang March 30, 2017 at 1:26 am

I have not been able to find the new show that was called Top Gear before. Can you help me with the new name and how I can find it on Canadian TV in Southern Ontario?

If it is called Grand Tour where can I find it? I really like these guys and enjoyed their show.

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cherzo March 30, 2017 at 2:22 pm

Amazon Prime

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Rohan Williams March 30, 2017 at 8:06 pm

The grand tour

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Kim Versace April 10, 2017 at 4:57 pm Reply
Conlen March 30, 2017 at 12:37 am

The Grand tour is way better hate to say it you guys but I will say this it’s all personal preference if you like a bit more well not 3 people on a stage talking about some new farauie and bit more hilarious things going on then the Grand tour is what your looking for now I will say I’m impressed with the new top gear I think they doing pretty good for themselves but I hate that episodes last 2 hrs 1 hr is enough for me and Matt Leblanc and Chris Harris and um I can’t remember the other guys name please forgive me they don’t have the same bond as jermey James and Hammond they were the best part about top gear and I believe that the Grand tour will get better I mean common it’s the first time their without the BBC and it’s going to take a little while to work out the bugs but they will figure it out and I’m just saying if you say top gear is better because more people whatch it your a total idiot so many more people have tv than Amazon prime let’s face it its the truth I mean common on if you say that top gear is better because it has more people whatching it then you may as well also say the falcons beat the patriots IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY give the Grand tour 1 more your they will have it being alot better than top gear but all power to bolth of them because having two good car shows / a bit comedy is better than just one

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LeMoi March 30, 2017 at 1:11 am

I find your lack of punctuation disturbing, but I do agree with you. 🙂

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Dick McTavish March 30, 2017 at 7:55 am

Breathe!

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GrindyMcT March 29, 2017 at 11:38 pm

As a huge fan of Top Gear for about a decade I can honestly say this season of Top Gear is A) Better than the Grand Tour and B) The best Top Gear season in years. I think people wax poetic about the Clarkson, May, Hammond years but honestly it was all getting very stale. I also find that Top Gear is a show about cars and the Grand Tour is a show about buffoonery. Don’t get me wrong, I like them both but as an Automotive enthusiast I prefer Top Gear.

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gandalf THE WHITE April 11, 2017 at 6:28 am

what a BS… Whatever R U smoking – please STOP IT… its toooo strong for you…
TG 2017 better than ever ?!?! OMG
TG without that 3 real ones is just a wannabe… GT is way much better… not better IMHO than some on the old TG, but much better that present TG

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Brendon March 29, 2017 at 11:09 pm

there is actually seven epiosdes in series 24 not six

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