The last two Top Gear episodes, which formed a two-part special, in which each of the presenters chose an estate model in order to search Africa for the real source of the mighty river Nile.
As usual, the cars they were constrained to drive were not the most suitable for the rutted and broken roads they would eventually have to negotiate. However, this time Richard actually made a great choice by bringing along a Subaru WRX wagon/estate, which was easily the driving force of the whole expedition.
The Subaru proved itself by pulling Jeremy’s BMW 528i Touring, and James’ Volvo 850R out of trouble time and again. The Scooby was made to look like somewhat of a hero, and many teary-eyed Brits who were watching the show immediately got the urge to search for a used example, according to MSN Cars.
Figures suggest that search traffic went up a staggering 826% on the night of the first show, and 668% while the final show was airing, on March 10. The source article fails to mention just how many people that equates to, so if only one person usually searches for such a car every day, that would mean a whopping 8.26 people searched for a WRX wagon during the 826% peak.
Searches for the Volvo also went up, but by a considerably smaller margin, while searches for the BMW were also higher, but not considerably so. Still, for the equivalent of £1,500, you really can’t go wrong with a Scooby estate – we know we’d love to thrash one.
Note: Photos are screenshots from the second part of the special, courtesy of the BBC.
By Andrei Nedelea
Story References: MSN Cars via Jalopnik
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