Back in December of 2008, Top Gear tested the Tesla Roadster. The Elise-based electric sports car was panned on almost every respect, from its abysmal range and overheating engine to the failed brakes.

Last March, Tesla filed a libel suit against BBC’s TV car show, claiming that the whole test was “staged” and demanded that the channel stop airing the episode while also asking for a compensation for damages.

After its first court case was dismissed in October of 2011, Tesla modified its lawsuit and gave it another shot. Unfortunately for Tesla, the lawsuit was dismissed by Mr Justice Tugendhat.

Top Gear may be getting viewers' thumbs up when it comes to watching the show, but one of its hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, got a thumbs down when it came to choosing a celebrity co-driver for a 4x4 adventure, according to new research by Continental Tyres.

The outspoken TV presenter was rated as the worst person to share a 4x4 drive across the Sahara Desert in the poll of 2,000 motorists. Clarkson was followed closely by media persona and former model Katie Price and Prime Minister David Cameron who finished third.

As promised, Top Gear blew up a caravan in celebration of the 10 millionth "like" on its Facebook page. The…honor of destroying the mobile home was given to none other than The Stig himself who played around with a yellow-colored Vauxhall VXR8 GTS (aka the Holden Commodore-based HSV GTS) before pushing the lever.

You can view the video for yourself right after the break where you'll also find a new gallery of teaser pictures from Top Gear Season 18 that returns to the telly this Sunday, January 29.

Some shows celebrate their achievements with a simple 'thank you' to their viewers while others organize competitions and give out gifts.

However, the original Top Gear series ain't your run-of-the-mill television show, which means they aren't about to change habits when it comes to celebrating their 10 millionth Facebook "Like".

During this past week, Top Gear's Facebook moderators asked fans what they'd like to do when they hit the magic number, which currently stands at 9,949,915 "Likes". The page received 7,832 suggestions in a little over six hours, with many of them having to do with caravans and destruction – both a beloved subject of Top Gear UK.

Fans of BBC's Top Gear motoring show will be glad to know that in 12 days from now, the famous trio of British presenters will be back with an all-new season, the 18th to be precise, which premieres on January 29.

And just to get your engines warmed up, BBC released a new trailer providing us a sneak-peek of what's to come.

No one can claim that Top Gear is unpopular; on the contrary, BBC’s televised car show is broadcasted in no less than 170 countries (according to Wikipedia)! It generates a ton of income and of course, its hosts are paid handsomely. To no one's surprise, Jeremy Clarkson has the highest paycheck pocketing a total of £2.14 million (that’s a not-too-shabby US$3.27 million) last year.

Making a whole lot of money, even in this unpredictable economy, is admirable, even if it occasionally makes you unpopular. After all, as they say, you can judge a man by his enemies, right?

In this case, it would be hard to do so, as if you throw a stone in any of those 170 countries, there is a good chance it will land on the head of someone Clarkson has enraged with his comments.

It’s true that the British have a special sense of humor; self-depreciating, absurd, even surreal at times, and no subject is off-limits. But the thing is that people from different countries and cultures may just not get it, or in certain cases, even be offended.

It’s that sense of humor which is a trademark of famous car TV show Top Gear that has often landed them in hot waters. This time, though, their “Christmas Special” episode almost caused an international diplomatic incident between Great Britain and India.

Last July, Top Gear producer Chris Hale wrote a letter to the Indian High Commission in London, asking for permission to film an episode in the country.

“Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will travel across India in three cars filming a light-hearted road trip… there will be spontaneous interaction between the presenters and their environment, and potentially people they meet along the way," Hale wrote in the letter.

Some may call it a Holiday Special, all we know is that the wacky trio from Top Gear UK is returning to the small screen on December 28 for its annual special that will see Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May heading out to India.

After discovering that Britain does more business with Ireland than with the second most populous country in the world after China, the Top Gear crew set out on a mission to boost the trade between the two countries – or at least that's the excuse for the epic road trip.

The world’s most famous car show, BBC’s Top Gear, has had more than its fair share of controversies, mainly due to the sardonic comments of host Jeremy Clarkson.

Never mind the “greens”, Jeremy’s current favorite car is the Mercedes-Benz SLS. He is a petrolhead and apparently, not too fond of electric vehicles. Especially since the Tesla Roadster incident which led to the two parties becoming engaged in a legal battle.

Apart from being a car show, though, Top Gear is also about entertainment. This prompted two fans of the show to record a spoof video demonstrating an “eco race” between two zero emission vehicles: a “Nissan Leaf” and a “Peugeot iOn”.

Channel 9 may have put the brakes on Top Gear Australia after just four seasons on TV, but the magazine is alive and well.

For the needs of their November issue cover story, the crew from Top Gear Australia magazine brought together Ken Block and the local Stig.

The dynamic duo put out an impressive one-off Hoonigan show in Melbourne with two of Ford's finest, the Monster Rally Fiesta and the Falcon FPV that comes with a…tire-shredding, supercharged V8 engine. You can enjoy the show after the break.

Professional race car driver and American Top Gear host Tanner Foust was invited to Germany by Ford of Europe to try out the limited production Focus RS500 hot hatch on the famous Nordschleife circuit.

The refresh your memory, the RS500 was a special edition version of the standard Focus RS equipped with a modified 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five delivering 350-horses to the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. Ford only made 500 examples of the car available to the public and 12 units for its own use.

As you probably have already heard, navigation system specialist TomTom was forced to stop production of the Top Gear Edition satnav and drop plans to allow existing owners to download Jeremy Clarkson's voice on their models because of a clause found in BBC’s own contact.

However, TomTom had already manufactured 54,000 units of the Top Gear Edition device and the deal they came up with the British public service broadcaster, was to donate any proceeds owed to BBC Worldwide to BBC Children in Need, along with an additional charitable donation by TomTom.

If you were disappointed, you'll be happy to know that a TomTom representative came in contact with Carscoop and told us that the Top Gear Edition device is still available for order while supplies last.

Well, at least General Motors isn’t the only one making apologies today. BBC admitted that its deal with TomTom to release TopGear-branded navigation system voiced by the show’s famously sardonic host, Jeremy Clarkson, violated its own editorial guidelines.

More specifically, section 15, article 4, paragraph 7 states that:

“Those working on consumer programs must take particular care not to endorse any product or service which could be covered in the programs on which they work and they should have no commercial or other links which could appear to influence their BBC work”.

In a recent interview with WitneyTV, Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson let slip out that this year's Christmas special episode will take place in India.

Being that all episodes are filmed several months before they hit the airwaves, it doesn't come as a surprise that the British TV show's crew were snagged in Mumbai this month.

Along with a short video clip showing Richard Hammond and a modified classic MINI Cooper that we found on Youtube, the guys over at IndianAutosBlog tipped us off about a set of pictures they took during the filming of the Christmas episode of Top Gear.