Team-BHP - Automobile shows on Indian TV: Your choice and why

Over the years there have been so many Indian television channels especially the business channel ones and each of them do have an automobile show. The programming has also improved by leap and some of them are really up to date, crisp and well shot. Some of the anchors have gained tremendous respect and following in the likes of Siddharth Vinayak Pathankar (SVP) - CNB @ NDTV Networks and Renuka Kriplani (RK) -Autocar show @ Bloomberg UTV

My personal favourites are CNB followed by Autocar show. SVP's superb rendering of cutting edge info on automobiles across the world and his well rounded and unbiased reviews draw my highest vote. Renuka with her years of racing pedigree brings on a great show along with Hormazd Sorabjee's insights.

So go ahead and vote for your personal favourites and let us know why and discuss whats airing hot in these shows recently!

I do watch most of the programmes if I get time on Sat/Sun but my choice of preference is the Overdrive programm for the anchor Shirish and Shireen.

I also love SVP of NDTV CNB but many a times I find him very wooden faced with no expression at all.

I find Tutu Dhawans comments in Overdrive (Awaaz) very funny.

I watch them all but sometimes notice a tinge of bias towards particular manufacturers. However, I like watching Fifth Gear on Discovery Turbo. Though the episodes are a couple of years old, I like the presentation and the humour and not to mention those on-screen test drives of exotics.

My take:

Quality-wise, Top gear.

Then the shows on Discovery turbo, Chop shop-London Garage, Wheeler Dealers, pit crews, rides, fifth gear, wrecks to riches, seem to be worth watching.

Among the Indian programs, C&B (NDTV) and times overdrive are watchable.

Amongst the local shows, my favourites are Times Drive & Autocar. Joel has a great style of presenting. I'm also a fan of Renuka's reviews and her anchoring style.

The Hindi auto shows are mostly run by a bunch of jokers. Either they know absolutely nothing about cars and / or read out material from the press release.

International content, of course, its Top Gear & Fifth Gear. Hugely entertaining stuff. TG's camera work, especially, can blow your mind.

Voted for Autocar, used to watch Autocar show from the time it used to come on CNBC TV18. Have almost stopped since when it has started coming on Bloomberg tv. Only watched the one in which Renuka tested the XUV.

I guess the reviews don't make any sense now as i get to read it on Team BHP which is far far more comprehensive then whatever else is on the offer. Occasionally i do watch mostly because of Renuka's presentation style and her driving skills.

Voted for the C&B show on NDTV. I like the way SVP goes about the cars although sometimes he gets a little too serious about the lines and curves in the car. Overall I have felt they are quite balanced in there reviews which is one thing I like.

Offtopic: I have no idea why they didn't cover the new Jetta on the show! A fall out with VW to have ignored such a huge launch? (huge because the new Jetta is a total deviation from the older model).

Car and Bike Show from NDTV is good. SVP gives a good overall impression of the car.
Next is Overdrive mainly because of Sirish and shireen but sometimes get a feeling that Sirish has got soft corner towards the VW group cars :)

Hindi Channel shows make a mockery of auto shows, however good fun to watch those hilarious answers to the viewer's queries in true textbook style.

TopGear and Fifth Gear are benchmark for auto shows in terms of presentation, content and style.

Cheers!!

The NDTV Car and Bike Show is the best among the different automobile shows on TV, and the major part of it goes to the sensibility and knowledge of the presenter Sidhart. The way he describes the outer design of an automobile and then goes in to the finer intricacies of performance and engine tune is simple expertise. Rest of the shows are just there for the sake of it, with some like Overdrive on CNBC Awaaz presenting obselte reviews of Honda Unicorn vs Apache 150 even today. Even the expert opinions of most shows like Wheelocity, Overdrive, Living cars is either so stupid and senseless or is biased to some specific model/brand for no reason.
To sum it up Car and Bike Show, NDTV is really informative and true in its approach. Only thing that they should bear in mind that never let this good work go down in terms of quality and output. All the best to them.

I like the Car and Bike show, SVP is very good. Also like Autocar.

Agree with GTO, Hindi auto shows are not worth watching at all and they mostly are very late with their reviews.

I just hope that these shows utlize the full 30 mins of the time, many of them usually wrap up 5-10 mins before the scheduled time.

Most of our 'Auto Journos' are absolute clowns, to say the least, and they cause my innards to churn! No offence meant to anyone, but having known the fraternity from very close quarters (being a joker-at-large in the pack you see!!), that's how I feel.

IMHO, Hormazd Sorabjee overall, and Gautam Sen for his grasp on the history of the automobile in particular, are the only two I have any respect for. Adil Darukhanawala also maybe, but I don't know him well enough to comment much. No wait, Adil surely is a pioneer of sorts as well (and he does appear to have a grasp on the subject, although his writing style...no, lemme drop that) so okay, he too. That's it, as far as professional respect goes.

However, sticking to the Indian TV Auto shows, SV Patankar of NDTV is a presenter I like, but just as a presenter (despite the very superficial 'expert' comments, especially on the vehicle's design elements!!); but, no comments on his knowledge of the automotive world!

And finally, who am I to pontificate? I don't think I can present a show on TV to save my life if I had to!!