Here's Your First Look At The Revamped, Edd-Less Wheeler Dealers
About six months ago, long-running motoring show Wheeler Dealers was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Edd China had announced he was leaving the show due to its new production company - Velocity - apparently wanting to reduce the legendary mechanic’s in-depth coverage of fixes, effectively dumbing the show down. Immediately following his announcement, Mike Brewer and his family shockingly received death threats.
With the furore over the show’s future now mostly over, we have our first chance to see how it’ll look following Edd’s departure. As announced a few months ago, he’ll be replaced with Ant Anstead - a safe pair of hands who you might have seen on Channel 4’s For The Love of Cars - and in addition to the trailer above, he’s also seen in action in sneak peek footage below.
We don’t know about you, but watching Ant very effectively explain the inner workings of a turbocharger makes us wonder if fears of the show dumbing down are unfounded. We’ll certainly be keeping an open mind until we see the first episode, which airs on Velocity on 4 October.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Ed was my favorite part of the show. He actually got his hands dirty and taught the viewers real mechanical issues and fixes. There seemed to be real chemistry between Ed and Mike Brewer. Mike and Ant Anstead don’t seem to have that . They are in too much agreement, unlike the Ed/Mike pairing that had some occasional tension.
I haved watched a few “For the Love of Cars” They are too formulaic and overly theatrical with no real mechanical substance. I took that show off my DVR.
Sorry Velocity but I just watched the new Wheeler Dealers Toyota Supra episode without Ed and his very natural mechanical enthusiasm and “spanners”. While I have taped and watched Wheeler Dealers for many years, I will give it a few more episodes before I bail.
Velocity why did you “fix” something that wasn’t broken?
Wheeler Dealers would have never attained the level of success without Edd China. He brought a special repour with the audience and his automotive knowledge was second to none his delivery made you feel like he was speaking directly to you. I will have to admit I haven’t watched or do I intend to watch the new show, imaybe being unfair but that’s just the way I feel.hopefully someone somewhere will realize the talent Edd China possess and produce a show that he would feel comfortable doing.