Temptations of a Gearhead

Enthusiasm can be a powerful influencer. When you have that kind of passion for something, you will go above and beyond to satisfy the feeling. It can come in the form of following a band across the country in order to be at every concert, spending hours online "reaseaching" every possible aspect of your favorite celebrity, or even spending extra money for a special or rare edition of a product.

Today, my common sense went to battle with my enthusiasm for the British television show Top Gear. More specifically, the voice of one of its hosts, Jeremy Clarkson.



Probably not his best side...

While it has moments of being a reliable source of information or news about cars, Top Gear is primarily an entertainment show. The aforementioned Mr. Clarkson does his part to accomplish this through his over-the-top television persona. His antics can bring pure excitement to almost anything, even the review of a potentially boring car like the Ford Fiesta...

So what happens when a Top Gear fan hears about the chance to spice up something boring in his life with some Top Gear-ness? Something such as, say, a TomTom GPS device loaded with Jeremy Clarkson's voice to guide you? 

It's so beautiful...

Well, said fan might find themselves considering spending a larger amount for a GPS simply for Clarkson's voice and a few other features from the show.

Another contributing factor to the desire is the fact that the production of this device is not on-going. BBC realized that the device violated their editorial guidelines due to the fact that presenters cannot endorse specific products. Therefore, after 54,000 units were made and shipped to stores, BBC cut the deal. TomTom is allowed to sell what they have but cannot make any more, and the BBC is donating all of it's proceeds to charity.



Serious business, this.

After looking into the device myself, I took the path of not acquiring it, due to one major, somewhat overlooked trait. Jeremy's voice makes quirky little comments alongside the directions, which on paper sounded as though it would be amazing. However, only so many comments can be recorded, and the ones in use would become old very, very quickly. There is an option to make the navigation silent, but none to disable the added comments so only the turn by turn directions would be heard.

It looks as though I’ll just have to settle listening to Jeremy Clarkson’s antics on the television.