Dream Car Fixers

This series is better than many car renovation shows in not having a co-presenter who is frankly a bit of a prat (eg Car SOS, Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars and Wheeler Dealers) and also not constantly repeating trivial points needlessly and treating the audience as having some level of technical competence and understanding.

At first I thought it was a bit boring (it hasn't the wit and pathos of Bangers & Cash Restoring Classics for example) but it's a question of getting used to its pace. The presenters have a rapport between themselves and mutual respect. One has been in a number of other TV programmes and both know what they are doing. They also do jobs properly. It also helps that the narrator is an experienced motoring journalist.

Some of the enhancements seem commercially questionable, leaving to tight profit margins. As with all these types of shows the impression is given that cars can be flipped without going through them with a fine toothcomb and doing full servicing and preparation.

I looked forward to new show about restoring classic cars; I already enjoy Bangers and Cash, Wheeler Dealers and others of their ilk.

These shows thrive on the personality of their presenters, and on that of the narrator.

This is where this new show doesn't score well.

The narrator is earnest, but not terribly interesting, he is let down by a dull script, lacking humour or any much engagement. I find his voice dull, compared with the excellent narrators on the two shows cited above.

The two mechanics are clearly very nice people and have the knowledge required, but they just aren't very interesting people, from my perspective. Conversations are flat and uneasy, there's no verve or drama, in my view. Perhaps they were overly-nervous in front of the cameras.

I had high hopes for this show, but, after two shows, it's more of a time-passer than genuine and engaging entertainment.

The margins they make on the first two shows make it blindingly obvious that this could not be a commercially-successful venture in the real world, only in the world of reality television. It this respect it is like Wheeler Dealers, rather than Bangers and Cash Restoring Classics.

Other viewers may find the show more engaging, but their view and mine are subjective, of course.

Read other reviews and see what you think.

You will not get the in-your-face humour that Car SOS gives you, and Alex Riley is very restrained in his commentary ( for a change!).

However this is an entertaining and informative hour showing what can be done if you buy a good base car, and then bring it back to very good and genuinely usable condition. It is not aimed at taking rust-buckets and throwing huge amounts of time and money at the car. The two excellent mechanics have the quietly humorous rapport that comes from being mates and working together for years. Working within a strict budget, with-they hope-a profit at the end of the show, but without taking short-cuts either, they then add extra touches that make the finished vehicle that bit better than you would expect for the money.

Well worth a watch.