Birddog51

What ever happened to Ed China? Why did he leave the show and what’s he doing. Ant Anstead is a great replacement but I miss Ed.

ColaBear

He could not deal with the new network and the pressure they were putting the show under to complete the car make over in a shorter time to cut costs. He has packed all his tools up and shipped them back to England. He pops up on YouTube from time to time. Do a search on YouTube and you can watch his new vids. He explains the reason he left.

belairbrian

Haven't watched the show since Ed left.
Same for Top Gear. I still watch the old episodes and The Grand Tour.

383vett

There was also friction between Ed and Mike. Mike was more important. I like Ed better than the new guy.

jsmcol

I think the new guys is ok, but I really liked Ed, he was just so matter of fact about everything, didn't really complain much, you could tell he just liked doing what he was doing bringing the cars back to life.


I could see that the possibility was there for tension with Mike, as he was under the gun to bring it home fast and cheap. Remember, it's a TV show...


They had some fun cars though.

DGXR

Mike was always pushing a profit while Edd was always focused on solid mechanical repairs and resulting quality cars for sale at the end of the show, which is the ONLY way to provide the profit that Mike wanted. So Mike was regularly asking the impossible and Edd was nearly always able to deliver. And Velocity decides to cut down on the meat of the show? Anyone can get a deal on a used car. The art is in being able to correctly fix the issues at a low cost, which produces a quality car, which sells at a profit.

Sad to see that money is again ruining a good thing, thanks to Velocity and Discovery Studios. Way to put your profit ahead of your product.

sluggballz

You get the same result with Ed or Ant, just different routes of getting there. I enjoyed every episode of the first iteration, and so far have enjoyed all of the new shows this season. Ed was more laid back and what you might expect of a British host, Ant seems a little more energetic and animated. I watch it because it's enjoyable , with either mechanic. It is a tv show, so reality must be suspended. They get paid whether they turn a profit or not.

Sabre34

Ant is okay, but I would prefer Edd.

The Thomas J

I wasn't happy about Ed leaving either. Ant grew on me. He seems to enjoy what he dies and gives very detailed explanations as to why he is doing what he is doing, how things work etc..I know some of the comments that Mike and Ed made seem to suggest there was some friction about why Ed was leaving the show.

nutsy

I watched it once since Ed left and didn't like it. just not the same without Ed, I don't watch it any more.

Crossed Flags Fan

Regardless of their on camera differences (which I think were part of their "shtick") Mike and Edd had great chemistry. I understand Velocity wanted less of Edd's time doing explanations and demonstrations which Mike apparently agreed to. (Maybe Mike felt Edd stole too much of his thunder/air time?).
The new guy Ant doesn't provide the give and take that Edd and Mike had and he seems to be trying too hard. Almost like he's kissing Mikes a$$ and doesn't want to lose the gig. Noticed a whole lot of arm rubbing and stuff between them....."not that there's anything wrong with that".

vader86

Don't watch since Edd left, stopped watching Top Gear too.

Churchkey

IMHO it is not a restoration show they are just high end gyppers (Chicago slang for flippers).

Fix the issues, make it look pretty & sell it for a profit.

I like Edd but rarely watched the show it depended on what vehicle was under the knife, I had zero interest in most of their projects.

Watched maybe 10 minutes of the new show, I'm done.

belairbrian

Sitting here watching Edd work on a GTO. Velocity is running the old shows again.

As far as Top Gear, I do watch The Grand Tour now. And very happy that they dropped the dead celebrity crap from season 1.

Don't know who thought Matthew LeBlanc was a good idea.

Corvette#2

It's a cool show. I like seeing them fix up old cars but always thought the oremise of buying and selling for a profit was a gimmick. Only because the profit usually seemed low for the amount of money and work put into them. Like Mike buys a used card for 20 grand. They put 8k worth of parts into it. And sell for a couple thousand profit. I think someone with Edd China's skills could make more just operating a garage and charging 100+ an hour for labor.

But yeah, I read Edd left the show because the new producers wanted to cut down on the garage part of the show, apparently, it was costlier to film. And he did't like the idea, and left. I haven't seen any episodes without him. So they got a new "Edd" ?

L98Justin

Same here, I really tried to like Ant but it's just not the same

i987c0sw0rth

Being a Sierra Cosworth owner, I was really impressed with the Escort Cosworth Ant did recently. I like him and also had a lot of time for Ed. Dont believe all you see when the cars are sold on the programme. The C 4 Corvette they did in the UK actually turned up on Ebay for a lot less than it was seen to be sold for on the programme. It was that actual programme that got me interested in the C 4 Corvette. It was a lot smaller than the average classic American car and I realised that one would fit on my drive. I think that the parts Ed sourced for the car, price wise, were very tongue in cheek. I thought that spare parts new and used would be both cheap and plentiful. WRONG.

mike100

Pretty sure Edd didn't like either his contracted salary and/or that the network was just interested in immediate gratification of a short repair and resale as most viewers are not all that interested in the technical aspects (sadly).

biggiefl

I just loved watching Edd squeeze into the cars to test drive etc. How tall was that dude?


Yeah they would make like $500 on a car that they rebuilt the transmission, reupholstered the seats, etc. They never took into consideration labor. I loved the one where they did the 928 and he GLADLY traded the BBS RS rims for an original set of phonedials and was tickled about it....I was like Douchemuffin, that just cost you close to $2k

ccmano

Always liked the show (better with Ed) and still do. But every time I watch I can’t help thinking Mike would have lost is A$$ on every one if cost of labor had been factored in, as in the real world.
H