Top Gear Challenges - Cheap Cars

Cheap Cars

The presenters are given a budget to buy a used car conforming to certain criteria. The budget is typically around £1,500, but it has ranged between £100 and £10,000 depending on the type of car. Once purchased, the presenters compete against each other in a series of tests to establish who has bought the best car.

The presenters have no prior knowledge of what the tests will be, although they generally involve:

• A long journey used to determine reliability and fuel economy
• A lap round a race track, usually by the Stig, to determine performance. In some cases the Stig sets a time in a similar car and the presenters have to beat it.
• An inspection to discover what is and isn't working or how much of the car is original
• Spending any leftover change from the initial budget on repairing and/or modifying the cars
• Selling the cars at the end of the challenge.

All three presenters are highly competitive; vandalism and sabotage are commonplace, and any presenter whose car breaks down during a challenge will typically be abandoned to make their own way to the designated destination. Certain challenges since the African Cheap Car Road Trip have had a back-up car made available for any presenter whose car breaks down and cannot be repaired. The back-up vehicle is generally a model that is loathed by all three presenters, or in some other way antagonistic to the current challenge.

Due to the controversial nature of some challenges, it is difficult to gauge who has been the most successful so far, but as a rough guide: May and Clarkson have won the most cheap car challenges with seven victories and Hammond has won three. Some challenges remain unclear, however, such as the £10,000 mid-engined Italian supercar challenge, where no presenter actually made it to their destination (although May came the closest). The winner of the £1000 police car challenge remains unclear as a result of Hammond eating the final results of Clarkson's Fiat, and declaring himself the winner.