Jeremy Clarkson, Born to be Riled (1999), p. 21

Then there's power. There was a time when people cooed over Ferraris that developed 200 horsepower, whereas today 2.0 litre Escorts can manage that. It's almost impossible to buy a car that won't do a hundred. (If you really want one, various Mercedes diesels make a pretty good stab at it.) Then there's the environment. The Volkswagen Beetle could kill a rain forest at 400 paces whereas today's Golf trundles around with tulips coming out of its exhaust. The gas coming out of a Saab is actually cleaner than the air that went in. That's true, that is.

— Jeremy Clarkson on Saab Automobile

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Then there's power. There was a time when people cooed over Ferraris that developed 200 horsepower, whereas today 2.0 litre Escorts can manage that. It's almost impossible to buy a car that won't do a hundred. (If you really want one, various Mercedes diesels make a pretty good stab at it.) Then there's the environment. The Volkswagen Beetle could kill a rain forest at 400 paces whereas today's Golf trundles around with tulips coming out of its exhaust. The gas coming out of a Saab is actually cleaner than the air that went in. That's true, that is." in the context of "Jeremy Clarkson, Born to be Riled (1999), p. 21" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Saab Automobile" (C) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jeremy Clarkson

About Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster and journalist known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear, the motoring show, and his columns in national newspapers.