Car owner discovers his faulty BMW was driven by Jeremy Clarkson in high-octane Top Gear stunt

The £50,000 car was put through its paces on the BBC motoring show
Test drive: Jeremy Clarkson tries out the BMW M3 on the Top Gear track
BBC
Ben Travis9 December 2015

Jeremy Clarkson proves to be an opinion-splitter at the best of times, but one car owner has an extra reason to take against the former Top Gear host - claiming that Clarkson ruined his £50,000 BMW.

27 year-old Rob Willis bought the BMW M3 from a dealership, but soon noticed that the vehicle had braking and steering issues.

As it turned out, the car had been put through its paces on Top Gear by Jeremy Clarkson himself.

“When I bought it, I was told it was an ex-demo which one of the managers had been driving. The brakes were constantly squeaking and the steering wheel made a clunking noise every time I came off the motorway,” Willis told The Sun.

“We were watching Top Gear about four weeks later and my fiancée noticed that the M3 Jeremy Clarkson was driving had the same number plate as my car.”

In the segment, Clarkson took the sports car out for a spin on the Top Gear track and was reportedly impressed with its performance.

Jeremy Clarkson drives the BMW M3 on Top Gear
BBC

However, Willis was not impressed that the vehicle could have proved a danger to himself and his family.

“It’s outrageous, I have an eight-year-old daughter and three young nephews whose lives have been risked,” he said. “The dealers told me it was a mistake and the car should never have been sold as it was unfit for the road.”

Top Gear: Clarkson's last episode - in pictures

1/7

After the issue was raised, the dealership replaced the M3 with a BMW 330d.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in