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Channel Five's flagship motoring programme Fifth Gear has been axed. A spokesperson confirmed to Auto Trader that the show will be coming to an end, saying: "Five is proud of Fifth Gear's contribution to the channel but after 16 series, feels it's time to try something new".

But presenter and former racing driver Tiff Needell was still in the dark, posting on his Twitter account yesterday morning: "I know [Channel] Five is a bit short on budgets and I know they're looking at all things but I haven't been told anything officially yet."

The motoring presenter later updated with: "No one can seem to confirm anything but it doesn't look good. So, after 15 years on Top and 8 years on Fifth is this the end of my gears?"

Fifth Gear started in 2002 out of the ashes of the former Top Gear format, and was presented by Tiff Needell, Quentin Willson, Tom Ford, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jonny Smith, touring car racer Jason Plato, Tim Shaw, Tim Lovejoy and Jon Bentley.

It featured a mix of news, car reviews, lifestyle and 'shoot-out' features, pulling in an average of just under one million viewers - compared to Top Gear's eight million.

Disaster struck the show when in September 2007 presenter Tom Ford crashed his modified Bedford Rascal minivan.

Just weeks later, British touring car driver Jason Plato was involved in a 150mph fireball during filming the £210,000 Caparo T1 supercar.

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