I almost cried during that part to be honest. xD
The level of extreme in protests really shocked me. I had no idea it was that big a deal even after reading the articles on their website about the whole ordeal. Maybe I'm being stupid but I feel sad for the cars that had to be left behind.
Yeah it is very staged but on the other hand it wouldn't be very entertainmentworthy if everything went to plan all the time. If anything it made for more entertainment than they though when they realized how good the Lotus actually worked off road. Also, TG without the lunacy wouldn't really be TG and that's still what people tune in for. I don't feel like they have overdone the stagedness any more than they have previously.
Most of them probably are. All of the cars will be owned by the BBC so there really won't be any need for any paper work and frankly any car they buy is pretty much doomed anyway (except Oliver and the cars they used in that Mallorca rally). I was kinda sad for the Lotus and Mustang when I saw them as I knew they wouldn't survive the episode, though admittedly they died in a different way than I expected.
There have been occasions where have actually gotten in to real accidents, such as on the Romanian road trip where James got in to an accident with a local. Filling out paperwork makes for very boring TV anyway so only makes sense they never talk about it. :p
In my mind though it used to be more of a car show than it is now or am I wrong? The specials though have always, to me, focused less on the cars and more on the scenery for obvious reasons but it just felt more obvious to me in this episode for some reason. We didn't even get to know their budget or what their cars cost.
I'm not sure what you mean by "these days". To be fair on them, they mostly do test performance cars and a track is the only place you will be able to tell what the car is really like. They have done reviews on normal roads as well though, Peugeot iOn vs. Nissan Leaf, Ferrari F12, Aston Martin V12 Vantage and Mercedes C63 AMG Black are the ones that come to mind straight away. Even if they get to keep the cars for a few days at a time I doubt they have that kind of budget time-wise for actually filming the segments. That is, unless it's necessary such as with the Tesla Roadster that just kept breaking down. The Zenvo also went back and forth quite a few times.
I think you're mixing them up. :p The second US road trip was with the Dodge Challenger, Cadillac CTS-V and Corvette ZR1. The third was with the Porsche 911 GT3, Mercedes SLS and Ferrari 458. One of the question on the last TG survey was about which was your favorite TG special and I had a really hard time choosing. There was a few I was stuck between, mainly the Burma, second Africa, Middle East and Bolivia ones. Can't remember which one I actually voted for. xD