Motormouth Clarkson has landed himself in hot water again after performing a Nazi salute on BBC2’s Top Gear TV programme.
The presenter said the new Mini should be made into a quintessentially German car with the addition of trafficators that mimicked Nazi salutes, a sat-nav system that directed the driver to invade Poland and a fan belt that lasted 10,000 years. Love him or loathe him (and you can declare your vote on this matter at the bottom of the page), motormouth Jeremy is impossible to ignore. He has been blamed for all manner of things from the demise of MG-Rover, the sales failure of the Vauxhall Vectra, through to the slump in jeans sales in the 90s. But occasionally his caustic sense of humour and determination not to suffer fools means Jezza often finds himself at the centre of a storm of controversy. Here is our round up of the more outrageous Clarkson moments - don't forget to place your vote below.
Toyota pick-up

Toyota pick-upIn February 2004 the BBC was forced to apologise to a Somerset parish council after Jeremy drove a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck into a tree in the car park of St John the Baptist church in Churchill. The council had thought the damage to the 30 year old horse chestnut was down to vandals until a local resident saw Jeremy footage of Jeremy demonstrating the car’s strength on Top Gear. The Beeb apologised and paid the parish council £250 compensation.
Hurricane Clarkson

A US Coast Guard helicopter in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane KatrinaJeremy has even managed to whip up protests on the other side of the Atlantic with comments in his column in The Sun about America’s treatment of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He said that: "Most Americans barely have the brains to walk on their back legs," and went on to claim that starving black people in New Orleans were being shot by helicopter gunships rather than being rescued.
Hyundai horror

Hyundai XGJeremy has always been outspoken and it’s been landing him in trouble for years. In 1998 the BBC had to step in when Hyundai UK claimed Jeremy made “bigoted and racist” comments at the Motor show in Birmingham. Jeremy allegedly told visitors to the Top Gear stand that the Korean company’s staff had been eating dog and that the designer of the then new XG had probably eaten a Spaniel. The BBC said that: "Jeremy’s colourful comments are always entertaining but they are his own comments and not those of the BBC. More often than not they are said with a twinkle in his eye."
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Despicable dog walkers

Clarkson with his wife Francie at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 2004Jeremy infuriated dog walkers in October 2005 after he banned them from using a footpath crossing his land on the Isle of Man, claiming that they had killed his sheep. The footpath was a ‘permissive’ one, meaning that walkers were allowed to use it with the owner’s permission. But Jeremy withdrew his consent blaming, "unpleasant and deeply militant dog walkers". He added: "You have these clots who just can’t see it. They just think they have a God given right to trample around on somebody else’s garden wherever they want and kill the sheep."
Anti-Clarkson campaign

Rover 75Poor old MG Rover has often been the butt of Jeremy’s jokes – he compared the 75 to a ‘Vicar’s elbow patch’ and a letter to the Daily Telegraph blamed Jeremy for Rover’s ills. Sacked MG-Rover employees were really incensed by his comments on the company’s ultimate demise: "when I heard the news my first though was: 'good'", prompting workers to hang a banner reading: "Anti-Clarkson Campaign", outside the defunct plant.
We hate Jeremy Clarkson club

People demonstrating against Oxford Brookes University granting Clarkson an honorary degree, September 2005Residents of Norfolk started this campaign in response to comments made by Jeremy implying that people living in the area were backwards. Jeremy claimed that in the 'flat and featureless' county people point and say: "Hey, look, it’s a car!" whenever he drove past and that the government should tell people to avoid it unless they like: "orgies and the ritual slaying of farmyard animals." Comments about Lincolnshire also got Jeremy lambasted by road safety groups for saying he drives "fast and recklessly" through Lincolnshire because it is so boring.
Click here for our story on Clarkson & Lincolnshire
Discovery

Land Rover Discovery 3Not content with ramming Toyota’s into trees, Jeremy upset conservationists by driving a new Land Rover Discovery up to the top of Ben Tongue mountain in Scotland. Dave Morris, director of the Scottish Ramblers Association said: "We found Clarkson’s stunt highly irresponsible. Driving to the top of a mountain over open ground is inevitably going to cause damage to the countryside. It is wrong of the BBC to promote such hare-brained and reckless behaviour."
Custard pie

Clarkson, shortly after his encounter with a custard pieWhen Jeremy was set to be awarded an honorary degree by Oxford Brookes University, over 3,000 people signed a petition in protest, upset at Clarkson’s claims that he had a ‘disregard’ for the environment. At the ceremony itself in September one protestor took rather more direct action, flinging a custard pie into Jezza’s face. The man himself was unruffled, saying: "great shot" and posing for pictures. He also upset environmental group Greenpeace by saying he had 'wet dreams' about one of their ships sinking, prompting Ben Stewart of Greenpeace to brand him: "a class-A muppet and absolute plonker."
Mowing down cyclists

Cyclicts in London after the terrorists incidents of 21st July 2005As a true petrolhead, Clarkson has a disdain for pedal power which attracted fury in the wake of the London bombings in July 2005. He warned all those setting off on two wheels for the first time: "Do not cruise through red lights. Because if I’m coming the other way, I will run you down, for fun and do not pull up at junctions in front of a line of traffic. Because if I’m behind you, I will set off at normal speed and you will be crushed under my wheels."
Punching Piers

Clarkson with Piers Morgan, then editor of the Daily Mirror, on board the last Concorde flight, October 2003With his famously scathing turn of phrase – he once said the Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like "unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite" – Jeremy has no need to resort to violence. In fact only one man has been on the end of a Clarkson fist, Piers Morgan who, as the then editor of the Daily Mirror, published allegedly compromising pictures of Clarkson with a woman. Jeremy took such offence that at the 2004 British Press Awards he punched Morgan in the head several times; Morgan claims he still has a scar from a ring Jeremy was wearing. Morgan also claims that Clarkson deliberately spilt a glass of water on him during the last flight of the Concorde in October 2003