‘Top Gear’ Recap: ‘Season 29, Episode 3’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 2903 of ‘Top Gear’.
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Something that each and every one of us can agree upon, is the sheer fact that obtaining a rental car is quite the pain in the rear. Simply because, you never quite know what you are going to get when you arrive to pick it up, and that sometimes leads to a sub-par ride. One that doesn’t feature Air Conditioning or any other creature comforts that we enjoy when we drive. Or it gets awful mileage, or the car is a beater because the company in question loans it out often. The list just goes on and on. Which really leaves one to wonder; is it at all possible to get one’s hands on a slick and affordable rental ride? One that can exceed expectations on the road while we use it on vacation or business?

Well thankfully, the lads at Top Gear decided those particular questions would be worth exploring in the next episode of this phenomenal series. But in order to properly uncover which economy rental car is the best bang for the buck out there, the boys had to immerse themselves in the vacation experience. Which is why they flew to Cyprus, armed with thirty pounds each to find that perfect ride and well… what they got was pretty unique to say the least. For Freddie received a slightly aged Suzuki Jimmy, Chris was assigned a Kia Picanto (without AC) and of course… Paddy got himself a Ford Focus CC, because that’s how just how things go with Paddy, and once the lads had their new rides in their possession, the time had come to put them to the test in classic Top Gear fashion.

Which meant, that we needed to see how these cars performed in some real-world style conditions and that led to quite the unique challenge. One where the guys would have their cars superheated to resemble the summer months, before they were required to speed through oncoming traffic. All in order to see how these cars would handle high speed maneuvers and wouldn’t you know it? Paddy’s Focus took the first round no problem. Making it seem as though once again he was going to dominate the competition, but the next two challenges changed all that for him. For round two involved using the cars to power the boys across a lake on waterskis, and since Chris Harris was the only one with this kind of experience, his Kia won the day, leaving either he or Paddy within striking distance of having their rental declared as the winner of this grand competition. 

But as luck would have it, the final challenge on the agenda, would continue to shake things up and with good reason. Because no one was expecting a snow related challenge, especially not one that required a race down a snow-packed ski course. But driving in snow is part of the game, so why not push this challenge to the limit and this just was pure madness. Because these cars were slipping and sliding all over the mountain, and minor damage from earlier in the show became major damage and, it turns out that Freddie was the winner of this match, making the whole thing a stalemate. Which means that when all is said and done, it’s up to us to make the most of a rental car, and that we should expect the unexpected when we get one, and that we should also pick up the insurance. Because uh… it stinks that Chris had to pay for the vast amount of damage that these cars endured in the final challenge alone.   

In the end, this was simply a magnificent episode through and through. In large part because it was a lot of fun. Because all of the shenanigans that the lads got into during their challenges made for some laugh out loud moments. The kind that likely motivated a few folks to hit the pause button, so they could get the giggles out of their system. But most important of all, this is a story that everyone at home could relate to. Because we’ve all dealt with rental car woes and honestly… we’ve all wondered what would happen if we took our rental off roading and returned it worse for the wear, and this episode let us live that fantasy out and it helped to remind us to just remember that a goofy rental is only temporary, and it also helped us to realize, that this series is continuing to evolve. For this really was a ‘blue collar’ episode, a rarity from this series and one has to wonder if we’ll be seeing more relatable competitions akin to this one, as season 29 chugs along. Until next time.

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