The basic concept of Top Gear is to talk about cars in an entertaining way that attracts even those who know nothing about cars. The hosts are the ones who make the often rather boring car stuff funny and interesting, and it is for this reason that the Australian version fails. Charlie, Steve and Warren are pale imitations of their British counterparts.The ideas are OK, testing utes in a mine for example was a good use of the Australian setting. But the problem is that the presenters just aren't funny. Their jokes feel forced and consistently fall flat. Warren is like that old moustached uncle whose history lessons and bad jokes you try to avoid at Christmas. Charlie tries to be the elitist arrogant version of Jeremy Clarkson but lacks the same biting wit. Steve at least seems to have expertise as a driver and as the youngest, is the most appealing. But he's not that funny either.The British version succeeds because the banter between the hosts feels natural and the situations (although often set up or scripted) are believable. This is not the case in the Australian version. Take for example tonight's episode where Warren "randomly" stops mid-trip to look in an antique shop. Comically, the other hosts drive off. It didn't look spontaneous, it looked contrived.Fans of the original will be disappointed.

When Top Gear Australia was announced, my immediate reaction was that it would be great to have something covering the side of motoring that Top Gear UK doesn't. When the first episode aired, it was all I could do to stop myself marching in protest against SBS.Rather than try to be unique and entertaining, TGA has instead tried to convince us that we're still watching the UK series. Presenters were chosen to be poor replicas of the originals rather than finding truly funny people. They even try to use all the same jokes and catchphrases. It's only a matter before they start ending with "on that bombshell..." The first episode, featuring a review of soft road cars, had real potential. Here was something incredibly Australian, but it was done so badly that I'm almost ashamed to admit it. Then they tried to copy the Stig intro... and failed. Still, I reserved judgment to give them another chance at it with the second episode.Again there's something very Australian: Ford vs Holden. An ongoing Australian battle. Yet they seemed more interested in drifting than driving. Yes, we know you can drift with them, but try to review something more than just their tarmac performance. The "Best Ute" feature was actually mildly entertaining; watched with the terrible presenters muted and it would have been a good feature.The problem with this show isn't that there's nothing to review, it's that they're trying too hard to copy a brilliant series with far superior presenters.

The first thing that sprung to mind within the first couple of minutes while watching this was that the program was trying way to hard to impress Top Gear fans. I mean sure, it is a daunting task to take on the duty and try to outdo the fabulous UK version but please! enough already.The problem is that nothing was fresh, inventive. There was no new material, no new sets and no new personalities that would've, obviously, added much needed variety to the Australian show. It seems the BBC have tried to fool the public into believing that the great Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond can be easily replaced by a bunch of dull gits and everything would be great. How wrong they were! Where was the Australian wit? The individuality? The humour?! *Yawn* B-O-R-I-N-G. The segments were pathetic and over dramatized and for the love of God, shut Steve Pizzati up! Put us out of our misery BBC and run this down with a Geewiz and bring back the UK Top Gear pronto!

After just having watched the inaugural episode of Top Gear Australia I must say: It wasn't bad.....for a start. However, it could have been MUCH better: And here's why.First Point: Why not start with the comparison between the FPV F6 and the HSV GTS (I think it was the GTS) and BLOW us all away??? Ohhhhhh what an opener that could have been!!!!!! And oh what a letdown it was settling for a soft roader comparison instead (I know these cars are popular with us Australians, but so are our TITANIC battles between Ford and Holden)!!!! I feel slightly ripped off having had SBS play scenes from the F6-GTS comparison only to have Cox announce 'what you've all been waiting for' will appear next week (And yes you can bet I'll be watching next week).Second point: The comparison between the soft roaders....was it a comparison or just 3 dudes having a play? There was no discussion at the end of the comparison between the three hosts as to which car won the day....even if the hosts do end up disagreeing at the end it's still nice to know.Third Point: The Franchise. Yes Top Gear is borrowed from the UK version, and it needs to follow a certain formula. But there is no way in hell that Charlie Cox, Warren Brown, and Steve Pizzati can be expected to manufacture the sheer charisma that their Top Gear opposites in the UK have. They need to be left alone to create something of their own. Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond have this truly wonderful-to-watch magic style of their own that should not be attempted to be replicated as I saw in Top Gear Aus: Just won't work, the Aussie hosts will just end up looking like clunky fools, and the show will be ridiculed. Charlie Cox should not be billed as Australia's version of Jeremy Clarkson, there can only be one Clarkson. Warren Brown should not be billed as Australia's version of James May, there can only be one May. And Steve Pizzati...I didn't get the feeling the show was trying to manipulate him into being an Aussie Richard Hammond as much as the other two were. I had the fortunate opportunity to see Warren Brown compete in a Peking to Paris drive, recreating a trek that was made at the turn of the 20th century. He was brilliant in that, so I suspect that if allowed, these Australian hosts are capable of coming up with a magic of their own.Forth point: The test track. The camera angles were bad, I didn't get a feel for how the cars were responding to the turns or get a feeling for just how quick they were racing around the track (The Skyline didn't look as quick as it so obviously was), the track didn't seem long enough, and it all seemed like a bit of a blur.Fifth point: Weren't you lot hamming it up a bit with the chop up and pasting of footage when you dipped Brown into the sea with those sharks? It was crap! That entire part of the show wasn't as scary as it could have been. I think it's fair to say.....you lot made a meal outta that one :PConclusion: Top Gear Australia has a lot of work to be done to it to get it rolling smoothly, mainly camera work on moving car footage around that track, the track itself should be slightly longer, hosts need to be left to develop a personality of their own, but all in all, it passed..only just!