I just watched the "review" again, just to remind myself what Mr Clarkson actually said about the car! I'm an avid Top Gear watcher. But, for goodness sake, noone take car buying advice from these people. They live in a completely different world to the rest of us, of Bugatti Veyrons, and Pagani Zondas.

The worst thing is, that though I think I'm not affected by journalists and TV presenters opinions this undoubtedly affected me. Since 2004, when I believe the Crossfire was available in the UK, I had either never seen a Crossfire in real life, or I had never acknowledged seeing one, I'm not quite sure to be honest. And to get to my point, until I stumbled into a showroom that just happened to have one while looking to buy a Honda Civic Type R (hmmm, I know!) I had never considered buying one.

I've seen it said previously, that in a strange way, the negative press on the Crossfire is possible a blessing in disguise. It allows those of us who are willing to look past the media tripe to enjoy exclusivity in a quite stunning car at ridiculously low prices.

Here in the UK these cars are really quite rare. A guy who had to guide me through a small gap in parked vehicles stopped me to ask me all about the car, and was gob smacked at what they sell for. Noone has ever stopped me to ask about any of the other 14 cars I've owned! People talk about it all the time, ask me about it all the time. I took a leap of faith in buying this car, I bought it mostly with my heart, and so far I can say I am truly amazed.

I'm also amazed that Clarkson didn't see the point of this car. It's not about being the fastest, the most advanced, the most practical or the best at anything really. It is a blend of jaw dropping looks, a charming simplicity, and the "to hell with what everyone else thinks" attitude that it oozes.

Jeremy Clarkson has conveyed a "dislike" of a lot of US cars. It's only recently though that we in the UK have started to see good US cars. Several years ago I started to see a market opening up for American cars, and I could see it was a good opportunity for someone to cash in on importing them, because until really quite recently there were virtually no US built/branded cars being sold here. I don't know if this was down to simple lack of need to sell US cars here, or if it was that the cars were not good enough as Clarkson might suggest. But we have seen an influx of American cars and brands being sold here. Some good, some not so good. Unfortunately the US brand of Chevrolet was transplanted onto Daewoo cars when Daewoo went bye bye. That doesn't help the image of US cars much, but looking past that several models have made an impression, and people are opening up more to the idea. Clarkson, as has been pointed out, was won over by the Corvette, and in fact acknowledged that the 3 cars they were driving on the test were good. But, and this isn't meant to put down those three cars in any way, Jeremy Clarkson is often won over by POWER. And the 3 cars they drove are all very powerful. He will often forgive a car any shortcomings if it has enough power. He mentioned the Crossfire's "lack" of power in the clip above. 215bhp is plenty to have a lot of fun in, and enough to get someone into a bit of a pickle. But to Clarkson 215bhp is barely enough for a shopping car. He used to own a Merc SL55. And he owned a Ford GT (see he doesn't hate all things American... though he didn't have too great a time owning that car!).

Anyway, while there are people who are influenced by JC and the like, believe me I know one of them, and they even repeat his dog doing a poo jibe like I hadn't heard it before, the rest of us sane people can make our own minds up thankfully!

Garlum's rant over!