Edd China has left Wheeler Dealers.

John Welsh wrote: Sad that it had to be said... But, now with 122k subscribers. Up 16k in 2 days.

I thought later today about this whole situation where the world wrongly thinks that Edd hates Mike and that Edd should want Mike dead, etc, etc.

I found the irony that this reads just like a page out of The Discovery Channel play book where "false drama' and "overhype" fuels the viewership of the typical Discovery Show.

As I always say to summarize my hate for these shows, "do you really need to yell at each other to bake cakes?"

Edd China sits down for a conversation with the guys from Bad Obsession / Project Binky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YETxfPytXfc

That got surprisingly "deep" in parts.

The new season with Ant Anstead is starting out well - they did a Ford Escort RS Cosworth, and  while I was afraid they were going to include even more stupid antics this time around, there was a actually good amount of real work on the car.  I still like Edd's personality more, but Ant is good in his own way.

They didn't show alot of the work that Ant did.  And adding to the factory wing was ridiculous

docwyte said:

They didn't show alot of the work that Ant did.  And adding to the factory wing was ridiculous

That extra wing on the spoiler was kind of weird, but then on the other hand it was the guy who designed the car in the first place and it was his idea.

Looks weird, sounds weird, destroys the value/originality of the car

I liked it. Interesting that the very early shows were more of a challenge in starting with a £1,000 budget. Now they're picking up $30,000 cars

docwyte said:

Looks weird, sounds weird, destroys the value/originality of the car

Which is why the only got a profit of $20k for the car?  

BTW, how did you judge the sound?  I don't understand that. 

They did go to a wind tunnel to show it was effective- which was the goal of the designer.  He had drawings and a model of that set up.  So while YOU may think it's worse, others may think it was more original, since it was as intended.

As for Ant- he was ok.  Not Edd from a few seasons ago thorough.  But they seemed to hear Edd's complaint loud enough to say what they did say.  It was cool to see a turbo rebuild.

Just finished watching the RS episode.  Didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought the ridiculous triplane wing was cool, but then I also used to drool over the biplane wing Merkur. 

Also discovered that my wife likes Ant better than Edd , so they apparently gained a viewer...

No, I thought the concept of a tri plane wing sounded weird.  Not that it actually sounded weird from an acoustic stand point!

They didn't really make a $20k profit.  They never count labor in the equation here and I've always been a little suspicious of the selling prices on the show. 

For a car like that, originality counts for future resell.  Despite the designer saying its what he wanted, its not original to the car.  Bone stock, well taken care of cars are worth more...

In reply to docwyte :

They bought it for $30k, put $10k into it, and it sold for $50k.  

If the wing took that much away from the value, there's no way just fixing the engine would have added that much to the selling cost.  And since the buyer was the original owner, they basically charged him $10k in labor costs.  Which is a heck of a lot for what they did.

In other words, the guy they bought it from thought it had more value with the 3 wings vs. the 2 wings.  Which is why he agreed to pay so much.  Since it became basically a prototype design car, via the original designer, that adds more value than just putting on a wing.  To some people.  Not you, obviously.  But to the guy who bought it.

I like the Cozzie and congrats on selling a car for $50k you have $37k invested.  Will watch a few more episodes but plastic deformation and polish for 30 minutes?  Sorry, I miss Edd's knowledge.

I'll give it a few more turns, but if it turns out like the Gas Monkey spinoff of dunderdicks; I'm gone.

Again, they didn't count any labor costs against their supposed investment.  So they didn't make $20k.  I'm skeptical that the selling price was really $50k. 

Really?  I just sold you the car for $30k, you fixed an oil leak and rebuilt the turbo, then added a weird (My opinion!) third wing element, here's another $20k! 

Loads of tuner shops in the LA area would've happily worked on that car and probably charged the guy, at most, $5-7000 for their work. 

You don't think there's a little "Sounds good for TV!" in those numbers Mike comes up with?

Well, from day one they've never included the labor costs so that's nothing new.

The updates and styling changes they do on some cars seem unusual, but they are coming at it from a UK perspective on what looks good.  For instance, there was a Ford Popular hot rod on the show several years ago that I personally thought was hideous but apparently it was a cool thing for them.  And, there was that crazy AMC Pacer...

Ant is admittedly a better looking guy than Edd, so I can see how he would help draw in the female audience.  

Finally, remember it's just a TV show and not real life - don't put a lot of thought into it.

I like the car.  Not crazy about the wing but if the designer was there it helps.   

Love those white wheels on blue paint.   $20,000 will get me a sweet old WRX that I can have s lot of fun with.  

Without Edd, I have no interest. Never been much of a fan of Mike. Edd made the show.

markwemple said:

Without Edd, I have no interest. Never been much of a fan of Mike. Edd made the show.

I agree with you but that Escort Cosworth was like a pile of cocaine* for me..........I couldn't walk away........I had to watch.

*update - maybe back in 1979 - today it would really be a bag of excellent tortilla chips and some Paul Newman Salsa.....

While I will definitely miss Edd, I didn't think that it wasn't a bad show at all. Maybe the Escort was used to attract new viewers, as it was one of the determining factors that swayed me to tune in. Ant seemed to know what he was doing, and his fab work on the wing showed some skill. I'll continue to watch.

Ant has appeared on a number of BBC shows in the past that you can find on Youtube, and I believe he has his own company that's building some sort of low volume supercar.

In reply to docwyte :

At least you know you don't have to waste your time watching any more shows.

I caught the Cossie RS episode and was confused.  I thought the point of getting rid of Ed was to focus more on the Wheeling and Dealing by Mike and less on the mechanical repairs by Ed.  If you recall the early episodes, Mike would drive a pristine example of the car they were reconditioning and talk at length about its history and why it was a deserving candidate. I thought they might go back to that even.  But the format is exactly the same, they just inserted a different lanky Brit.  WTH?

Cosworth RS is that much money now? Strike that off my list lmao

Period WRX STI or a Pulsar GTIR are better cars so it's surprising to me.

I actually thought it wasn't that bad.  Considering the direction it could have gone, I they did OK.  I thought last year you could sense that something wasn't right, so how many more seasons would it go on before they closed up shop.  This may give them another lease on life.  I'm sure with a new guy they may have different ideas, etc., etc.  There's nothing wrong with mixing it up from time to time.  Hopefully Edd goes on and does something as well as he was always had a great knowledge base. 

As far as the Escort, I think having the actual designer tell them how he wanted it, and building to those standards, probably won't hurt the value.  They do have actual footage of him saying it, so it's not conjecture on their part.  Some people like the unique, and let's face it, it is a rally car in street clothing, so just having original body parts is a plus!    Personally, I thought it looked better with just the two wings, but it wasn't objectionable I don't think. 

All in all, I enjoyed it.

I'm shocked Cossies are that affordable. True they never took the whole enchilada but when was the last time Ford did that in anything?  NASCAR I suppose which is good here.