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Wheeler Dealer Renault 5 Turbo

Matt Scolding seems quite upset about it on Facebook, I couldnt blame him either!

Does anyone know why they didnt undertake the project as I was really looking forward to seeing Ed China get stuck into a 5 turbo? From what Matt said on facebook was that they thought it needed too much work. But, it looks like they have stuck 12 months MOT on it and so it cant be that bad rust wise etc. From first glance it looks like it needs a lot less work than most of the project cars on this forum which we are restoring.
 
Wondered if it was because when they come to sell it, the person buying it would most probably be the type of person who has done their homework and/or knows about these cars which means it would be difficult to demand strong money without it being completely oe with all the hard to find parts....
Complete speculation on my behalf obviously but I can just imagine the researchers face when after days/weeks looking for a completely fresh raider interior and gear knob he excitedly finds one!!!

....Seconds later the joy is replaced by tears as he notices the price tags!! that's before he was gonna follow up a lead about a brand new oe front grill!! :D:D:(
 
From what I read it was "chassis " issues. Or Rot.

I dont think its bad TBH , but I think that they were after a mechanically poor car , but structurally/cosmetically sound car. Its harder to make cash ( or appear to ) if you have a rusty car than a mechanically knackered one.
 
From what I read it was "chassis " issues. Or Rot.

I dont think its bad TBH , but I think that they were after a mechanically poor car , but structurally/cosmetically sound car. Its harder to make cash ( or appear to ) if you have a rusty car than a mechanically knackered one.

Ah but Wheeler Dealers isnt about making cash, its about keeping a car on the road and most of the time they make a loss. Anyone remember that TVR that they bought from a TVR dealer? Chassis was so rotten the car was not financially worth fixing hence the dealer wanted to off-load it to some gullible person. However, wheeler dealers bought it, stripped the car down to nut & bolts, fitted whole new chassis, rebuilt it all, then after all that noone wanted to buy it, so they then it back to the same TVR dealer at a huge loss. The dealer must have been killing themselves laughing.
Whilst im chuckling at that memory, some other classic Wheeler Dealer episodes I remember...

Suzuki Jeep - They buy it, and spend a fortune turning it into the ultimate jeep. Jacked up suspension, massive new wheels & tires, CB radio, winch, buckets, harnesses, roll bars etc. Then they take it to its MOT and it fails cos the chasis is so badly rotten its beyond repair. So they sell it to some farmer for a few hundred quid so he can use it to push bales about on his farm.

Porsche 928. They buy one, see it has non original wheels on, so Mike goes to a specialist who happily swaps the mega rare BBS alloys (worth more than the actual porsche) for some bog standard wheels.

Sierra Cosworth. Same sort of thing, Mike swaps the expensive Escort Cossy Wheels & rare RS steering wheel for standard items, plus has to pay the "specialist" extra on top for the cheaper stock items.

Best of all. VW Beetle. Mike buys it as it needs just paint work. Ed strips it down and finds out that all the bodywork is shot, so they then fork out and buy a beach buggy bodyshell for it. When they try to fit this, Ed then finds the chassis is shot so they have to redo all of that. He gets the new body bolted to chasis and then finds out that the engine is shot, so they have to replace the whole engine. So it basically ends up being a completely new car by time they have finished.
 
When I chose the car for WD they needed an "angle" so basically they needed to repair something on it that they hadn't already done in the past. They were not fussed about bodywork greatly as they already had someone who would detail any cosmetic faults.
Maybe they just couldn't find a unique angle?
 
When I chose the car for WD they needed an "angle" so basically they needed to repair something on it that they hadn't already done in the past. They were not fussed about bodywork greatly as they already had someone who would detail any cosmetic faults.
Maybe they just couldn't find a unique angle?

In this case the "angle" seems to have been to buy the car, do nothing to it other than MOT it, then sell it for £2250 more than they paid. Bit of a result there really! :) They could probably actually do an episode purely based on that. "How to make money out of appreciating classic hot hatches"....

In all serious though, with 11+ seasons of wheeler dealers I think they would struggle to find something to repair which they hadn't repaired before on a car. They have long since got to the stage where they seem to be doing the same old things to the cars they buy and the main interest is seeing a car you like being worked on and what the finished result is. The last series was great where they had some old classic cars in there which bought back a lot memories for older viewers and I think thats what 5 owners were hoping to see this time around with a 5 turbo on there. Although I know id probably have spent most of the episode screaming at the telly trying to tell them what they were doing wrong.
 
I'm afraid its all a bit secret squirrel with Wheeler Dealers. Over at RAOC we were very heavily involved with the A310 episode. Mike Brewer was a really nice guy, very sociable and genuinely chuffed about the shows fanbase. Ed wasn't so friendly but he might just have been having a bad day. Was always a silly idea to buy a car worth about 25% more in France , bring it over the channel and expect to sell it for a profit! Head gaskets were gone which they never mentioned and my friend Paul changed them and serviced the car. Another friend of mine John Law (JL Engineering) did most of the Holley fit and the bloke who pretended to buy it is a friend of ours from France who works on the channel tunnel! They never sold it for months afterwards and took about a 2k hit on the price even after all the work they had done. Current owner has spent a fortune on it since turning it into a competition car.
 
Best one for me by far (and me & mates still chuckle about it now) was the Capri 1.6 laser they had to put new wings on and "because it was a hot day when they painted it" the paint was drying before it hit the car, so the result was a terrible blotchy paint job.

Ed spent days with a Mop and polishing compound but it wasn't having it, so they sold it looking like a bag-o-sh1te :D
 
Best one for me by far (and me & mates still chuckle about it now) was the Capri 1.6 laser they had to put new wings on and "because it was a hot day when they painted it" the paint was drying before it hit the car, so the result was a terrible blotchy paint job.

Ed spent days with a Mop and polishing compound but it wasn't having it, so they sold it looking like a bag-o-sh1te :D

Which is apt because 1.6 Capris were bags of shite :0).
 
Best one for me by far (and me & mates still chuckle about it now) was the Capri 1.6 laser they had to put new wings on and "because it was a hot day when they painted it" the paint was drying before it hit the car, so the result was a terrible blotchy paint job.

Ed spent days with a Mop and polishing compound but it wasn't having it, so they sold it looking like a bag-o-sh1te :D

I remember that one. That was back in the early days when Ed had a lot less tools/equipment on the shows. I remember the Capri was that Metallic Moonstone Blue colour which is hard to match at the best of times and Ed repainted the wings using rattle cans. The finish was beyond shocking. I remember them showing the car driving down the road and the entire front of the car was a completely different shade of blue to the rest of it with a terrible matt finish.
 
Am I the only one that can't stand that Brewer bloke? I mean, the show is obviously as big a fix as Top Gear but for entertainments sake I can forgive that, but he grates on me something terrible lol
 
Am I the only one that can't stand that Brewer bloke? I mean, the show is obviously as big a fix as Top Gear but for entertainments sake I can forgive that, but he grates on me something terrible lol

No. He's special....
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I find myself shouting obscenities at the TV at the every time it ends when he give's it that little "TA-DA"
Say TA'DA once more MOFO! I Dare you, I double dare you!!:saywhatagain:
 
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I remember that one. That was back in the early days when Ed had a lot less tools/equipment on the shows. I remember the Capri was that Metallic Moonstone Blue colour which is hard to match at the best of times and Ed repainted the wings using rattle cans. The finish was beyond shocking. I remember them showing the car driving down the road and the entire front of the car was a completely different shade of blue to the rest of it with a terrible matt finish.
Keep rubbing Ed! :D
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:ahahaha:
It's funny, if you watch that episode now it looks like Ed was doing a lot more labour back then compared to what he does now.. Any more than 15 bolts (or minutes work) now and he brings his little friend "Paul" out from the gimp cellar!!
 
Am I the only one that can't stand that Brewer bloke? I mean, the show is obviously as big a fix as Top Gear but for entertainments sake I can forgive that, but he grates on me something terrible lol
I think most people dont like the guy although i have to say he doesnt annoy me as much as he used to. My wife particularly cant stand the sight of him. Its stuff like "he`s hot to trot" and "auld out yaa aaannnd" which particularly grates on me. Not to mention he`s probably the worst salesman ever. Its the way when he buys a car, rather than umming and arrring about it like most buyers do, he acts like a fat bird in a cake shop and gets so excited that the seller knows Mike desperately wants the car so rips him off good & proper. Then all through the build he`s saying how the cars worth £15k, then next minute he says "im sure we can get £12k", then its "i`ll put it up for £10k as its worth every penny". Then when the "buyer" turns up he lets it go for £8k. I know its all staged, but it still grates on me!

Keep rubbing Ed! :D
It's funny, if you watch that episode now it looks like Ed was doing a lot more labour back then compared to what he does now.. Any more than 15 bolts (or minutes work) now and he brings his little friend "Paul" out from the gimp cellar!!
Yep, in the early days Ed was (i think) straight from technical college/uni and was very more hands on. Now he just buys bits in or sends them out to other firms. I was reading the other day that Paul actually does most of the spanner work and Ed just films a few bits for the show. Although thats not saying that Ed doesnt know his stuff as he certainly has done some mad things in the past - such as the sofa car and the office desk car.
Paul seems to be a bit of jack of all trades. Do you remember the series where Mike was buying cars from Europe and nearly everyone he bought broke down on the way home. Mike goes "i`ll have to phone up the breakdown service", and hey presto... Paul turns up in his van with car trailer hooked on the back. :)
 
Paul seems to be a bit of jack of all trades. Do you remember the series where Mike was buying cars from Europe and nearly everyone he bought broke down on the way home. Mike goes "i`ll have to phone up the breakdown service", and hey presto... Paul turns up in his van with car trailer hooked on the back.
Yeah Paul sure does get around in that Van! It must have a harrier jump jet engine in it somewhere so it can turn up at a moments notice all-over Europe to pull Mike out of the latest puddle of sh1te he's stood it!
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The show is shit.... pure shit. But then again most cars shows are... I prefer car forums... get to see real workmanship.... Some special cars every now and then. ... much more interesting.
 
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