Is Edd China kicking himself?

So I just had motortrendondemand dump episodes from a new season of, " wheeler dealers."  I have always enjoyed the show, but I have always quickly had my fill of Mike Brewer.  I really enjoyed Edd.  Now with him off, I was surprised at how good Ant Antstead was.  It's hypnotic watching him take things apart and put them back together.  I'm hard-pressed to see why Edd left, but I also don't know if I prefer Ant to Edd.

Maybe I'm enjoying the show because I can skip through parts with Mike on the new format, but I def don't think I'm enjoying it less with Ant.

What say you?

How to make fixing cars not fun.

Bring in a film crew.....

I don't think Edd is kicking himself by any means...he was on the show for 14 years before leaving. It sounded like he was increasingly at odds with management (which is never a comfortable spot to be in regardless of how much you enjoy the actual work) and chose to leave on somewhat good terms before things really got bad.

I'm sure he is happy enough doing his own thing while also pleased to see the show succeeding with its new format. He doesn't strike me as a "bad blood" type of person.

I still prefer Edd over Ant, but I'm warming to Ant. Ant has slighty different skills, so from that perspective they're trying a few new things which is good to see.

Mike Brewer is just plain annoying, but that's why I DVR the show and fast forward through a lot of his parts.

I actually prefer Ant, more engaging to watch and it is a TV show after all.  The only issue I have are the boots, seriously man, what are those things? 

Flippin sweet boots man, LUCKY

I like Mike...he is interesting and a pretty good negotiator on the buy side usually.  He often lets car go to cheaply, but I figure that it just to get the deal done for the show.

Ant does a much better job of cleaning things than Ed ever did.  It used to bug me when Ed would put parts back on without cleaning anything.  It made the work look shoddy.

I've only seen bits of Ant on a few YouTube clips, but he's definitely not a bad bloke. I don't mind Mike either.  

In reply to pinchvalve :

LOL I'm sitting right next to that exact same pair of boots this very moment - they're my steel toes for work. I didn't buy them for style, but they look a lot less dorky if you wear them under your pants 

As for Edd, I always enjoyed him on Wheeler Dealers, but I haven't seen any of his new stuff since, nor any of the new Wheeler Dealers. The question as to whether or not he regrets his decision doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether the show remains successful without him.

I liked Edd. I like Ant. I understand Mike's job, and can accept him doing it on-camera. What I cannot tolerate are the idiotic setup pieces where they drive the car at the end of the show. The overacting is painful, and the setups are contrived and ridiculous. If they dumped that part of the show I'd be happy to put up with the rest of it, even the formulaic buying and selling segments.

Now is my one and only chance to brag about how Ant and I were BFF's before he was famous. I had been watching "For the Love of Cars" on YTube.

Shameless selfie:

(He wasn't wearing boots that day.)

Edd stood by his ethics and/or beliefs, Mike is still a Putz.

In a recent piece on Edd's youtube channel he's asked if he'd ever work again on Wheeler Dealers and the answer was an emphatic "No".  So I don't think Edd misses the show.

That said, I do like Ant, although I did prefer Edd more.  The contrived buying/selling is a little lame, just show them fixing the cars!

Nothing is more scripted than reality television.

I don't mind Ant.  It seems like they don't cover the actual mechanical work as much as they used to before Edd left, but I still enjoy the show.  I even enjoy the gratuitous "money shot" test drives at the end, I just wish they didn't feel the need to do all the stupid "set up" for those segments.  "We finished our car, now we're going to go play with it" would work just fine.  

I had hopes for that Jaguar restoration video series that Edd was involved with, but unfortunately they stopped it after only a few episodes.

Wonder when the new episodes are going to air on TV?  I don't mind Mike.  What I find ironic is that before Edd left, the show was becoming very commercialized.  It was a lot of product placement and not a lot of fixing things. I believe that is one of the reasons he decided to leave. Now that he has left, the show seems to be going back to the format that he wanted in the first place.  

I will say that I do like Ant.

I thought Edd left over the idea that there would be much less car work. I watched the 996 episode last night and was honestly thrilled with how much work they actually showed. I also thinks that the endings are dumb, but this one was simple and more like the old show. 

The wife likes one of those HGTV Flip House shows that had Christina on it so now she’ll watch WD with me since Ant married her.  

^^^^^That is one of the whiniest human beings God ever created.  I try not to hold it against Ant, but it's not easy. 

All the reality shows are the same. They all start off interesting then the folks start playing for the camera and become the star of the show in their opinion.  Programs like Deadliest Catch, Gold Rush, Wheeler Dealer and many others all eventually go down the same path. There are shows I just cannot watch anymore at all like Fast & Loud, Graveyard Cars and several others. The shows that interest real car people with a lot of technical content just don’t appeal to the masses who want drama, deadlines and I guess reality show content. Wheeler Dealers is probably one of the better of the car shows.

I can make anyone LOVE Mike, Ant or just about any other host/mechanics they find for that show.

Just watch one episode of this:

Know what I mean, man? Oh man, I sure do. That’s right, man. You know it man. 

Klayfish said:

Wonder when the new episodes are going to air on TV? 

The first episode was on last night (Wednesday.)

pirate said:

There are shows I just cannot watch anymore at all like Fast & Loud, Graveyard Cars and several others. The shows that interest real car people with a lot of technical content just don’t appeal to the masses who want drama, deadlines and I guess reality show content. Wheeler Dealers is probably one of the better of the car shows.

I would say Graveyard Carz has actually gotten better as time goes on.  Worman still acts like a clown but less than he used to, and there's a fair amount of actual work and technical information included in each episode. I do still watch it with the sound turned off, though.

Two Guys Garage come off like giggling goofballs. The bald dude must be huffing nitrous oxide before every episode. 

I enjoy both Mike and Ant but the thing that kills me about Mike is that he really overpays for cars. ‘Only 5,000 pounds’ for a E36 M3box that should be $1200 on Craigslist. 

In reply to stuart in mn :

The guy definitely has forgotten more about Mopars than most of us will ever know, but damn he's annoying to listen to and watch. 

Of the relatively recent crop of car restoration programs, I like Fantom Works. While the owner is still annoying at times, the show does a fairly good job of presenting a realistic view of the costs and timelines.