Wheeler Dealers

Is it only me that thinks its brilliant and utter toss at the same time.

I some how have to watch it as I scoff at it all the way through.

As for the buy and sell prices………….

Its was ok until they do a car you know something able, then you realise that they do some strange things.
Plus Ed works for free.

Ed China and Mike Brewer are a good partnership. Seem to genuinely get on and have a good time making them. Edd’s hourly rate is a bargain.

To paraphrase Count Arthur Strong; Wheeler Dealers, they buy a car, do it up and sell it for a small loss.

I only watch the Ed China bits, Mike “I’m a geezer” Brewer does my nut in

The price they buy/sell at and any hourly rate is irrelevant, the low production costs and what channels/countries you can syndicate to are far more important than the validity of the content.

I wish he would use a wire brush and clean stuff up when removing/refitting though 🙂

I know hardly anything about cars and the closest I’ve been to engines is taking apart various lambrettas and vespas when I was younger but I seem to always watch this if its one I haven’t seen,quite like watching him fix up cars,maybe it helps if you don’t know if he’s doing a crap job or not.

I like wheeler dealers but have really got hooked on Fast & Loud. American muscle all the way.

I like it, is there a new series coming to freeview soon?

Like ed but Mike is a tosser

Hopk1ns – Member
I like wheeler dealers but have really got hooked on Fast & Loud.

This. Obviously (poorly) scripted and the Richard bloke’s a bit of a tit (Aaron seems pretty cool though), but weirdly compelling and it’s some cool machinery they build.

[mockney t**t] Go ahn then, stick yer ahnd aht, you just bought you self a motah! [/mockney t**t]*

*Typed during the ad break whilst watching the latest episode. I probably should’ve posted in the Guilty Pleasures thread instead…

I love it!

The elephant in the room of course is Edd’s labour rate, they argue that when they started the show the concept was showing how a home mechanic could do a few simple tasks to make a few quid trading cars, but that was 12 years ago and the programme has evolved, watching Edd respray a wing on a £1000 worth of banger to make a few quid wouldn’t have lasted this long. The money element is still there of course, but it’s stretched to the limit ‘home mechanics’ don’t usually change the Chassis on a TVR or own £5k specialist tools, but sod it, I choose to just enjoy a bit of ‘man TV’.

They’ve dropped a few clangers – I remember when they put the stripes on a MK1 golf GTi on upside down and the purists went mental and when Mike swapped some “tatty aftermarket wheels” they got with an old Porsche with some original ones which he leapt about saying how much of a bargain it was – only they were super rare, super valuable BBS 3 piece wheels worth more than the car – but hey ho.

Making a profit at the end isn’t the point of the program really. It’s there to show you that you can buy a car and fix it up yourself. They tend to tell you how much the labour would be if you took it to a shop.

A lot of people don’t like MB but he is what he is, a cheeky used car dealer. He probably knows more about how to buy and sell cars than everyone on here put together – yes he doesn’t know the slight minute details of every marque but he’s the sort of chap I’d love to have around when I’m buying a car.

People tend to pick on this sort of program a lot, saying it misses out stuff, this isn’t right etc etc. without realising it’s an entertainment show that has to cover a few bases. I like seeing people fix stuff up, learning about cars a bit and getting some inspiration along the way to do it myself and I think it does all that very well.

I used to like Fast and Loud but it’s just a soap opera now, just ridiculous.

Watched lasts night episode while searching for an Alfsud Ti on ebay/pistonheads/autotrader…..I need one.

I used to like Fast and Loud but it’s just a soap opera now, just ridiculous.

Like all US series after a few seasons, you could probably count in one hand how many minutes American Chopper was dedicating to choppers in the later seasons. Utter toss.

Like it.
and Fast and Loud.
The only shows of the type I enjoy.

Watched it a few months back but not recently.

The more recent format where it’s all done and dusted in one episode is much better than the original where it was split over two.

And it’s actually quite instructional (well Ed’s pieces are).

I like Fast n Loud as I love American muscle cars. Haven’t seen it for ages though.

Good to see how many they export to Sweden and Finland, the amount of cars cruising around Stockholm on a Friday night is ridiculous. Raggare 😕

I only watch the Ed China bits, Mike “I’m a geezer” Brewer does my nut in

+1

I have a bit of a Wheeler Dealer habit – I do genuinely like the idea that they’re ‘saving’ older cars and they do have some quite interesting models from time to time. And yeah, the whole thing with Edd’s time being free on the balance sheet is ridiculous, but that’s not really the point. It’s not as if they really have a tiny kitty they rely on to buy new cars is it…

Apparently they’ve done a Corrado VR6 for the new series, currently listed on Autotrader and, I think, Pistonheads if you fancy haggling with Mike on an endless tv loop for all eternity. I’ll be interested to see which common Corrado problems they fix on that – I’m hoping for Edd’s sanity that the sunroof was okay and the heater matrix hadn’t blown.

I do wonder how many mechanics are really working on those cars though…

I like it, it’s obviously going to annoy marque fanbois/restorers/experts/aficionados “oh you don’t want to do it like that” and “actually the MkII had a silver gear stick knob not a black one” and “I’ll think you’ll find….”. They’ve done some really lovely cars, fiat 500 and vw panel van come to mind and had some real left field motors that you might not normally consider as classics. I don’t mind Mr Brewer, for the most part he know his stuff and yes he can be a bit fast show dodgey geezerish.

Here’s the Autotrader link for the Corrado

It’s good entertainment.

I love it.

Seeing someone put a car in the air and pointing out how simple it is to fix stuff on it made be want to fix stuff on my own cars.

Yes Edd working for free is daft but its still a good show

Those adverts on Autotrader aren’t free and Mike seems to do plenty of fuel in his 4 wheel drive aswell.

I love it. I like cars but I’m not a car nut. I think both MB and big Edd are great. Both big characters and entertaining to watch

as already mentioned, in no particular order:

– primarily it’s an entertainment show
– it’s grown over the years from cars for 500 quid to buying and selling 15k to 40k so som of the original meaning has been lost as it’s become more and more about the entertainment
– it shows you what you could do yourself and often quotes the costs if you were to get it done in a garage
– Mike is a proper businessman. He has decades of real experience buying and selling cars and knows what he is doing. Yes, some people hate him but he’s a self made man with real life experience. He’s a south London car dealer. What do you expect?
– But the best bit for me is that you see the whole lifecycle from buying to fixing up to painting to selling in an one hour show. I have watched other shows and they have a whole series focused on just one car. It gets boring.
– Plus other shows spend tens of thousands on a V-Dub that at the end of the day is worth say 10k. At least wheelr Dealers tries to inject some realism into the show and stick to a budget even if there are bits that are brushed over

Highlights for me were the Porsche Boxster S that Mike bought for a ‘bag of sand’ cos the tiptronic gearbox was up the swannee. Edd solved it with an oil change. Or how about the Audi TT that was ‘missing’ two gears. edd opens up the gearbox and finds a selector that has fallen off. He retrieves it and fixes it with a 50 bolt and nylon thread nut.

Quality.

leeph – Member
Watched lasts night episode while searching for an Alfsud Ti on ebay/pistonheads/autotrader…..I need one.

This ^

Also I think the worse vehicle they did was the VW camper with a full wrap that had bubbles on it, eyesore.

Cash? Today?

Best bit for me is when Mike comes in halfway through and says something like “Ed, what have you been doing? It looks exactly the same!”.

Ed has probably fixed the gearbox, changed the exhaust and refurbed the turbo 8)

I watch it occasionally, when I get in from work it seems to be on before real telly starts and thats fine by me.

Would be interested in seeing the Alfasud Ti one since I had one of those BITD.

As is, it’s just “on”.

allthepies – Member

Watched it a few months back but not recently.

The more recent format where it’s all done and dusted in one episode is much better than the original where it was split over two.

And it’s actually quite instructional (well Ed’s pieces are).

It was an odd one that – yes they showed it over 2 episodes instead of 1, but they were half-hour not an hour like that are now, and were always shown as double-features, so really it was a one-hour programme with a bit of extra credits in the middle.

I love F n’ L too – but it’s a bit jarring, it’s been a HUGE success in the US and here and they’re milking it for all it’s worth, at least they now list the clips shows they do as such and not try to pass them off as the real thing, nothing worse than sitting down for my 1 hour of Dad TV time at home, expecting FnL and getting You’ve been framed instead.

Oh and GM Bar and Grill, GM Tequila and GM Live Music Venue call all suck my exhaust too, don’t care, don’t want my precious TV time filled with RRR business empire promo time.

The elephant in the room of course is Edd’s labour rate

No one noticed he’s listed as an Executive Producer, which makes me think he was the one who came up with the idea for the show in the first place, and that makes him much more money than fixing up bangers.

I do enjoy it, despite some horrendous mods they do, the AMC Pacer and RX7 spring to mind

Ed is great, especially watching some of his inventive solutions

Are the end result cars still `bought’ by a member of the production team, who on suggesting “its a little more than I wanted to pay, Mike” has Brewer instantly folding under the pressure and offering half what he is asking for as the punter is “driving a hard bargain”. All done with everyone trying not to laugh.

I’m surprised Roger Mellie hasn’t done his own version.

Edd’s other job.

http://www.cummfybanana.co.uk/

He’s also built some of the more odd-ball stuff for Top Gear IIRC.

railofdestruction

No one noticed he’s listed as an Executive Producer, which makes me think he was the one who came up with the idea for the show in the first place, and that makes him much more money than fixing up bangers.

Pretty sure he won’t have been for the first X number of series. It’s standard practice though in long running shows to give the stars a producers credit. It justifies paying them more, keeps them sweet and makes them feel important.

I bloody love it.

Although the idea is flawed, as they actually make a decent profit (factoring in labour costs) about one car in ten, I enjoy watching old cars being brought back to life.

Ed is an amazing mechanic and although Mike can be slightly annoying, they make a good team.

I also like all the other shows that fix things/buy and sell/bring things back to life. Le salvager, Salvage hunters, etc.

Quest is pretty much the only channel I watch on TV.

I’ll admit to being teary watching Car SOS when they’ve done up a car for a guy with a terminal illnes who was too ill to finish his project and he was able to drive it litterally at the end

Dont get why you need to factor in labour costs? the point of the show is you would do it yourself. Where additional labour is required (professional spray job or engine refurb) that is included, but not for the home mechanic stuff like replacing exhausts etc.