he thinks he knows what a bad computer is.......
he is very lucky in deed If the mercedes C 280 Sport had windows vista you would spend the first 6 six hours sitting still waiting for the car to start and then it would stall every half hour

Alex, Palmerston North, New Zealand

I just found out this week if I don’t shop anyone who I know or believe to be not declaring income like ‘home haircuts’ I’m liable for up to 7 years in jail! We have a company hotline to grass customers up on- that's nice. It’s also illegal for me to warn a customer not to tell me- it’s called ‘tipping off’- I get a prison term for that to. Guess what I do? Personal Financial Advisor hahahaha. Customer does a full confidential financial review then I'm supposed to grass him up- having a laugh.Jeremys right it stinks- I GRASS NO ONE UP But apparently some advisors do - about 1000 in our company last year-what scumbags- bloody dss can do their own work.

peter, reading,

I feel really cheated. I patiently read the entire article in the belief that Mr. clarkson would give my recently purchased Ford Mondeo a detailed and favourable comparison with the new Merceder C Class( Chance would be a fine thing) but all I got was a single sentence about the Ford being more spacious and better looking( better than nothing!). Hey I also wanted to know if I could over take the new C class with confidence when I come across it on the road next time( Again chance would be a fine thing).

Wing, Poole, UK

This man is strange. Complaining about the "Computer" and the buttons for the console, then compare it with 'the new Mondeo' (I hate this tv-advert). The thing is though, the worst on-board-control-navigation-radio-thing you get is from the Mondeo. Really. The Merc's one is the best I've tested in my life. But Mr.Klarkson also thinks a Land Rover is the best car in the world ...

Valentin, Hamburg, Germany

Thanks Jeremy for pointing out the banality of these ridiculous websites. Do they really think the drivers they name and shame care? Naive or stupid? I'm not sure.

Keep up the good work JC!

Digsy, Liverpool,

I find the frivolous manner you engage serious issues most concerning. The website you mention sounds like an excellent idea, there are too many reckless people abusing the highways in this country.
As for the Mercedes, I'm sure it is a well built carbon poluter.
Stick to push bikes!!!

Kev627, banbury,

Hey, I love you!
i dont mean that in a 'will you marry me' sort of way but I love what you write and I love reading your books.
Im also a huge fan of cars but because im only 16 i can't really drive but it doesn't stop me thinking about them and what they sound like etc.
My dream is to meet the TopGear presenters and talk with them for ages about well... anything and have a right laugh; well i say that but there is a chance id act my gender for once and go all girly.
I wish I was as witty as you are, I cant get enough of your books.
Love

Alison, Broseley, Shropshire

Ha ha ha!! Brilliant! Very funny commentery on the umpteen new (and useless) laws that are, i'm sure, a pain in the backside for all the levels of enforcement, as well as the hapless and picked-upon British motorist.

Nice to see Mercs are back to their solid quality.

And poor Richard Pearce of Ottawa, i think, needs to see a doctor, gravy spurting out of the nose sounds very unhealthy.

Justin, Alford, UK

Gee, Jeremy,
We in America so appreciate your nuanced subtle approach to all things automotive. Too bad you never let us know precisely where you stand. Our local car journalists just don't have the touch. You did not seem intent on making a point about how new and improved the '08 is compared to the outgoing '07, so I will just assume - - that it is not.

P Tillery, California, USA

Hey Jeremy,

You asked yourself the question of whether this Mercedes is better than a Mondeo, but appart from a comment on the looks, I didn't see much of an answer on that. What was your conclusion?

Nick O, Melbourne, Australia, VIC

Absolutely hilarious,

What I can’t understand is the lack of a sense of humour from some people.
I once got sacked for laughing at work; mind you I was driving a hearse at the time.

As for Kev627 you obviously don’t want to get out more often.

TonyOz, Bournemouth,

I see absolutely no point in this bad-driving website. Everybody is a bad driver except me.

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

If you Google Kev627, you will find him preaching about everything from football to Formula 1, all over the internet. Going out spotting cars parked inappropriately would seem to be the most interesting part of his day, given that it's the only time he ventures outdoors, away from his PC. He even contributes to the burning question of "What is the best 7.62mm Machine Gun?", which is a bit of a worry, given that he sounds like the architypal quiet loner, likely to "go postal" at any minute. With the likes of him in the world, a bit of iffy driving and the occasional terrorist would seem to the least of our worries.

Johnny, London, UK

Hey, Dan, why don't *you* go and visit some of the families of victims of careless driving - and while you're at it, visit some people who were recently maimed or bereaved due to natural disasters, robberies, shipwrecks and industrial accidents - because, you know, the innocent have a whale of a time in those situations, and if the rest of us feel at all uncomfortable about the idea it only exposes our buried guilt. (sarcasm ends)

Felix, Nottingham,

Of course, style is a matter of opinion, but I think the C-Class looks very good. I admit I expected something more after 5 years of development using computers and 3D similuations. However, the style is good enough for me, it has a good number of talents and best of all, this has passed through 15,000,000 miles of testing. This means that it will probably be more reliable than the Mondeo and any of its rivals.

Chris Galea, Naxxar, Malta,

Thanks Jeremy. Spot on, as always. Was there a car review in there, by the way ?

Simon, Woking, UK

Thanks Jeremy now I know how to turn those annoying traffic announcements off at last!!

Personally I think that from the back the new C-Class looks like a Saab ...

Dani, Monks Risborough, UK

I like dull cars, because I think trying to make cars interesting is about as sensible as trying to make a gas boiler sexy.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Hahaha. A whois search on interferingsealot.com reveals:
Creation Date: 22-jul-2007
tsk, opportunists.

Felix, Nottingham,

Good grief, Kev627 has FOURTY-FOUR pages of reports! Including cars he's seen on the news on TV! This is a good one:

"Passed this car and saw was fitted with a tiny front number plate, I could only read it from a couple of metres away."

So, he's trying to read number plates in his rear-view mirror, rather than paying attention to where he's going - report him!

Jeremy, Chichester,

Brilliant. I don't remember the last article I read that was quite so entertaining with such an accurate analysis of the current state of play. Thanks for a great story Mr. Clarkson!

Richard Murphy, Xiamen, China

That car looks terrible, the "cat eye" lights and upturned grill make it look like all the Merc lookalikes over here in China, and there's a lot!

Herbie, Beijing, China

All very funny Jeremy, but wasn't there an episode of Top Gear where you presented the traffic reports on a radio show and you used the traffic cameras to...um...read out the number plates of bad drivers to name and shame them? Sounds rather like an interfering zealot to me.

Anne, Reading, UK

Google Kev627. Sad. Deeply sad

Ian, Vire, France

Clarkson for Prime Minister, he will soon have this pace sorted out.
As usual a brilliantly observant article.

Christy Conroy, Licestr, UK

The man might offend, as is his wont but as often, he is spot on.

M C NHEMA, leeds, uk

I dunno. Yesterday, driving from Daytona Beach to Vero Beach, I noticed this older greenish car driven by a maniac barely stay on the road after attempting to get around some other cars. About an hour later, there the car was, off the road and fairly well smashed up with an abundance of spectators waiting on the ambulance.

My Ford Focus is feeling smaller and more vulnerable today.

David Martin, Vero Beach, Florida

That's exactly why I read Clarkson over here in the US...(and I'm a girl) .He's hysterical.(perhaps slightly insane)...and when he does finally get to the car reviews they are substantive....The NY Times would NEVER print any of the non-PC things Jeremy Clarkson is so good at.

Victoria, Bedford, NY

Hear Hear Graham La Manga Spain. Clarkson is spot-on and it is very good illustrative jounalism (In my opinion - and I know I'm not alone). Clarkson's use of metaphors is what has made him the success he is - it is enlightening and a great way to illustrate the point.

The car report - well any above average journo with some mechanical empathy, engineering savy and in depth knowledge hewn from a life-long passion for fredom and the motor-car could cobble together and supply all the techy bits and bobs that drive most car nuts - but to raise the game and level of understanding we do need someone more, well more qualified perhaps, perhaps more intelligent, perhaps just someone who sees the greater picture and appreciates where things have come from - the history and provinance that goes with it..

As someone that's given Mercedes a good kicking when they were down by his comments on TV - Clarkson has now redressed the balance by commending them on their production of the C-Class.

Martyn, Farnham, Surrey UK

My God Jeremy. The UK sounds awful with all your spy cameras and nosy neighbors with their motorist outing blogs. You need to move to the states, where we are allowed to keep our personal selection of guns anywhere we want, including under the drivers seat so they are handy when we need them.

Oldnslow, Seattle, Washington, United States

so what was the car like?

sam, boston, uk

My goodness, America must be in the stone ages, with no speed cameras, hardly any enforced laws regulating anything to do while driving (at least in California) and wonderful roads and weather (at least in California).

Freedom and enjoyment of driving is truly (almost) dead in England, it seems.

As for the car, I too miss the solidity they had in the 80s, but it's good to hear they are coming back...

Gus, Los Angeles, USA / CA

Sorry JC, I shall have to report you to the authorities for using 'Muslim' and 'Terry Wogan' in the same article. This *has* to be against the law.
And as for the guy who snorted gravy through his nose - I think he should expect a knock on his door in the middle of the night......

Tony P, St Albans, UK

More people should be up in arms at the tendencies so lyrically exposed by Mr Clarkson.

Ok so the car's not much to right home about but the social commentary is spot on.

cuffleyburgers, Lucca,

To John Smith,
London,

why not shop him for your percieved crime ?

Mr Clarkson is here to entertain, not review !

Are you not capable of forming your own opinion ?

Methinks not !

plaw999, Waterford, Ireland

Thats funny John Smith, most of us read Jeremy's articles for the "dribble", as much as for the review itself. I would suggest that if all you want is a tedious list of performance figures and uninspiring text, just read pretty much any other motoring correspondant's work!

Graham, La Manga , Spain

omigod - I searched for "report bad driving" on Google and found several sites!! Couldn't be bothered to see if the people reporting somebody on one site were themselves being reported on another site, but I wouldn't be surprised. If they are so busy concentrating on taking car numbers they're probably not concentrating on their driving very much.

eckythump, Salisbury, UK

I remember reading how a woman was prosecuted in the UK for driving and eating an apple. That makes perfect sense - if she was pealing the apple with a knife, or maybe if she was driving a manual. But if that is so wrong, how about smoking? You have to light it - try doing that with one hand, holding a flame close to your nose and concentrating on the road. Then see what happens if you drop the cigarette in your lap. I'm a smoker, by the way.

David, Ghent, Belgium

I wish there was more on the car and less dribble about matters that have nothing to do with it.

John Smith, London,

Clarkson for London mayor!!

Richard, London,

Delicious... Clarkson is the Greatest!

Josh, Tel-Aviv, Israel

So i went to interferingzealot.com and found it was a registration plate based dating service by the looks. looks like more fun than JC made out

Dave, Auckland, Newmarket

The problem with all these new laws is that the police now have no discretion, instead of being told off for doing something basically stupid such as driving while using a mobile phone or going a bit over the speed limit, you now get fined for it. And it's getting worse, some numpty has recently suggested that taxing booze more heavily will solve the problem(?) of binge drinking, take a look at Norway, binge central.......

Jonathan, Bergen, Norway

A German recently said to me that the feel in the UK at present is very similar to that in Germany in 1938. We need to be careful........

N Reed, York, UK

Jeremy - i take your point, and agree with you on most of the things you have to say.

However, talking on your mobile is against the law for a reason - when you're driving a big lump of metal around at 50 miles an hour, it's usually a good idea to concentrate.

If you really believe that thinking this makes me an interfering busy body, i suggest you go and visit some of the families of victims of such careless driving and see what kind of response you get.

Dan, Sheffield,

never take terrorism for granted, i know its in jest, but us is glasgow were very lucky that saturday

michael, paisley, scotland

Yes, but what has any of this got to do with cars?

Alex, LDN,

By God that Clarkson is a genius. I laughed so hard I snorted gravy out my nose all over the keyboard!

Richard Pearce, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Although it is probably one of those urban legends, I have heard that if you put a frog in cold water and then bring it to the boil, it will feel no pain or even discomfort. It will, of course, die.

This seems to be the underlying philosophy behind the present government. Brothers Blair and Brown have introduced Swedish style taxation and East German social policies in such small increments that they hope we haven't noticed. Luckily we have Clarkson. However, as in Russia, the counter attack is to declare opposition spokesment insane.

While the rest of us will be shopped by the Stasi, Clarkson will be hauled off to a "psycholical rehab centre" - mark my words.

Thomas Johnson, Middlewich, Cheshire, England.

It looks like S class.

Jay, Randwick, NSW

Perhaps we should all sign up to this website and comment on these people's reports when they are clearly ridiculous (or even better indicate they were driving poorly themselves)?

Keith, Kent,

As for the website: In the 1930's and 40's a group of not so pleasant people in both Germany and Russia used to rely on people denouncing others in order to maintain their take on law and order. Many people fell foul of this and reached nasty ends at the hands of the authorities. here we seem to have the 21st century equivalent of interfering busybodies. I think that it is scary stuff.
As for the car: Yawn, yawn, yawn, another dull looking and overpriced German saloon. No doubt there will be millions of them on the roads in the bat of an eye. Give me an Alfa 159 V6, or maybe a Citroen C6 any day of the week. Then at least I can retain a modicum of individuality in these days when everything else looks the same.
Good stuff JC.

Stuart Ian Stanton, Wirral, UK

Moscow 1967. Surely Orwell's 1984 pre-dated Russian paranoia?

Hanus Wolf, St Neots, UK

I am pretty sure that the fox was smoking.

Christopher Millhouse, Randwick, NSW

As usual Jeremy your attention to detail is spot on . I particularly liked the hyphenated screams.

robertwilliamson, kangaroo island,