Heavy Steering.

The term "Peak Oil" is already well known and relates to a theorised point in time (although we may already have reached and passed that point already in reality) when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is attained and thereafter experiences a steady depletion and eventual extinction if that can indeed be applied to a resource as well as a life form.

I firmly believe that last weekend on UK television we reached "Peak Top Gear".

I should explain.

That TV programme has been one of the most popular in terms of viewing figures for a couple of decades. It's success has been on a global scale with many franchise type broadcasts in other countries.

As with most phenomena of that type there is always the chance that it's Presenters believe the hype and their own celebrity status and that they are in fact bigger than the programme itself. This was the background behind the breakaway to Amazon Prime Channel of the three best known petrol heads and the panic stricken mode that the BBC subsequently went into to try to replace them.

Of course, it is always difficult to replace a cultural establishment and anyone handed the role will have to think long and hard about taking it on.0

Some thrived and others experienced the full and venomous wrath of the viewing public with only a thick skin and acceptance of this inevitable backlash keeping one specific individual from suffering a personal crisis from the social and professional assassination.

The combination of a United States anchor presenter and British support did nurse Top Gear through the aftermath of the defection. There has been a levelling off of any decline in popularity but of course the programme will never be the same.

So to the start of the 2019 Series.

I was keenly anticipating what is always a very welcome addition to the Sunday evening schedules and in particular the slot between 8pm and 9pm which is a bit on no man's land between offerings on the natural world and the usual blockbuster Period or Crime drama.

As per usual the opening segment was a taster for the series run in true crash, bang, wallop impact.

I was already bored after just a few seconds of the stuff.

It was just not very original or inspiring. Just more of the same in fact.

Cut to the studio and there was a ray of hope. The feature was to be on Estate Cars.

There was a shiny Skoda Superb which was introduced in very complimentary tones. That appealed to me because I have owned and driven Estate Cars for the last 25 years. These have included four Volvo's and three VW's with only one mid life type crisis period involving an electric blue fastback that did live up to its name.

In terms of practicality, style and robustness you cannot beat an estate car.

They suited our growing family and all of the paraphenalia that goes with that, as a means of transport for dogs and in my working life as I carry quite a bit of bulky equipment in pursuit of earning an income.

Yes Top Gear. I would like to see a feature on the Skoda as it was, I admit, on my shortlist for a future purchase.

I edged forward on my chair ready to receive a candid appraisal of the vehicle.

For some reason the segment in the show went to Norway and the two cars given the usual glossy treatment were as far from real motoring life as you could possibly get. The pseudo estates were ridiculous being pretenders to that function from Porsche and Ferrari.

I could probably have afforded a change of tyres or a full service on these models using the annual allocation of my usual motoring budget.

There was some entertainment value, I suppose in seeing two supercars in a sort of trumped up domesticated scenario.

The scenery was beautiful and the geology and topography highly dramatic but I had no real interest in the cars amidst that.

Inane challenges followed based on speed, braking distances, carrying a bit of vegetation and a few passengers.

At that point I actually pined for the sight and sound of a Skoda Estate or any typical estate for that matter and a diesel engined one at that, chugging up and down the gradients, fully laden with some of the items that I regularly wedged into my load bays such as a three piece suite, a fridge freezer, 2 tons of decorative Scottish Pebbles, garden and general rubbish for a trip to the dump and loose bicycles.

As for the German and Italian frauds they had only enough load bay space for a man bag and a wine cooler.

That feature was spread over two parts in that Top Gear episode interspersed with equally ridiculous efforts of a toothy star in a car and two pocket sized crossover vehicles that single-handedly destroying a mountainside.

As you can probably tell I was so very disappointed with the whole 60 minutes broadcast.

That is why I feel that we have attained Peak Top Gear.

That original explanation of the term does not even require any paraphrasing.