American Hot Rod

This truly is a great show. Coddington is the J.R.Ewing of the southern California Hot Rod business and there is never a dull moment. Each custom hot rod build spans 3 or 4 shows each of which is interesting and filled with some unique people. I believe there may be some pressure from the Discovery channel to set deadlines on the car builds that makes for a more interesting show. In reality even if a car is "rushed" for the sake of the show it will be detailed later to be sure it meets or exceeds Boyd's high standards. The Coddington cars built on American Hotrod are even more valuable than a regular Coddington custom and are bringing excellent profits for the primary customer Scotty Gray when he auctioned a few at the Barret Jackson Auction in Feb 2005. Boyd is character himself with his current wife and ex-wife both working there at the shop there is always some tension in the air.

I for one do. Its got none of the charm of American Chopper, in fact, it has no charm whatsoever. Boyd whats-his-face comes across as a royal douchebag, as do most of his workers. The remainder of the guys are either seen too rarely or just plain boring. As for the cars, maybe if they'd get a shop that did some more INTERESTING cars, like rebuilds of classic muscle cars, rather than the same looking cars each show then I'd be more captivated...however this is not the case.

If you can't tell by now, I really detest this show and hope to see it canceled to make way for something better than this trite piece of garbage.

Most people that have heard of American Chopper, you know, Paul Teutel Sr. And Jr. making Custom Bikes might have heard of this show, the show that is known so well in many ways as something like "It's just a ploy taking advantage from the success of American Chopper to get Money".

That is probably true, but this show is just a little fleshier, it has more to it. One thing, the second-worst thing about this Television show is the DRAMA. It's so scripted it's tedious. I mean, we just see them going on and on, not really building bikes, people get fired, and in between that they find some run-down piece of **** and rebuild it. It could be said that the reason for all of this trashy melodrama is because a Car takes so much longer to build than a Chopper, therefore they have to get people to bite, taking advantage of the oh so annoying Melodrama spawned from the evil known as Fox's reality shows.

What I mean by this show is that it is a hate it for it's knock-off, take advantage of success of American Chopper, and scripted melodrama, or like it for the fact they build cars. It won't last for the reasons of hating, but hey... it could... do... some good... some day... maybe... later.

I have to agree with most of the bad comments that have been made on here. Boyd seems like a complete tool and Duane needs to go to some (actually, a lot!) of Anger Management and Normal management classes.

I think my favourite moment was when Tomas told Duane straight up that "everyone needs to hear they are doing a good job once in a while".

Boyd firing Bluebear was ridiculous as he allowed the situation to go that far in the first place. Don't get me wrong, the editing made the Bear look like a complete Job Knockey but it was never tackled properly.

How he dealt with Charlie leaving in order to provide a better life for his family was an absolute joke - Boyd you are such a self-centred A-hole! Charlie tried to explain things to you but you were too busy bleating on about Chip this, Chip that. Shut up and actually LISTEN TO PEOPLE for a change.

Stop overworking your staff. Then follow up one half-arsed project with another one on an even TIGHTER deadline and having the cheek to say that this one will make the staff happy. Yeah i'm sure losing every weekend that exists and working 18 hour days is gonna make them the happiest bunnies on the planet.

I'd never EVER buy a car from you. Not because your team are not talented - they are! But i would firmly believe that you made them rush beyond their capabilities and my car would fall apart when i got it home.

And after the rant, the worst thing is that I still watch the damn program... AARRGHHH!

It's pretty obvious that the producers of this show wanted to cash in on the success of 'American Chopper' by giving us a similar show for the car/hot rod fan.

What they failed to give us, however, are the things that make 'American Chopper' so watchable, e.g. the likable, highly entertaining 'characters' who work in the shop, their obvious love of what they do, the beautiful things they create and the (apparently) genuine personal and professional dramas that happen along the way.

As a result, American Hot Rod is nothing but a soulless shadow of the far superior 'American Chopper', and positively painful to watch. There is NOBODY on this show who is in any way likable or entertaining (Boyd, for example, hangs over the series like a soul-sucking, humorless black cloud), no-one seems to enjoy what they do (their every day on the job is a miserable slog), the things they create take WAY too long (in terms of screen time) and are at best ordinary and unimaginative and at worst horrible to look at (the 'Alumatub'? What the heck was that? The drawing was sleek and beautiful, the finished product was an ugly, stunted lump! What happened!?) and the obviously manufactured 'dramas' are just embarrassing.

Shows like 'American Chopper' and 'Overhaulin' are fun to watch, because they feature true artists (with soul, character and real passion) who obviously love doing what they do no matter what the deadline. Boyd 'Mr Misery' Cottington and 'American Hot Rod' both need a huge injection of personality to even get in the same ball park.

Unfortunately, with this crew, that's never going to happen. So until this show moves to another shop, stick with the Tuttles or Chip (the man) Foose...