I can't decide what the premise of the program is - 2 guys who don't seem to know enough about cars to even entertain trying to run a 'business' flipping knackered cars. I suspect the whole point is to flog 60 minutes of tv content and the car is just a vehicle (pardon the pun) to justify the programme.
I remember seeing a breakdown of TV payments / costs - and for a non-mainstream TV channel it was something like £150k per hour - so if you look at their production costs, the 2 guys for a week, plus a cameraman, sound guy, producer, editor etc. they're all on to a nice little earner per episode.
It's why Wheeler Dealers never actually sold the cars - the buyer was part of the team - there was no need - the profit is all in the videotape.
I think the most blatant one is Goblin Works - turning rubbish cars into total scrap - but look at all that lovely TV money!
Premise of the programme? Part entertainment and part showing repairs, what's wrong with that? Yeah, it's also relatively cheap programming. Dont see a problem with any of that myself but Im not a cynic.
Sure, we all knew the 'buyers' on WD were mainly fake although in later series, they did advertise the cars via Autotrader and other websites.
Im just catching up with Series 1 and the episode last night with the Alfa did something you'd never see on WD or even Car SOS. The car was scrapped because it was deemed not safe to put back on the road. Sure, there was still some poetic licence in the programme, for example, wouldnt they have spotted the chassis was in such poor condition before starting?
I think sometimes people expect far too much from such programmes.