Besides the first two months now airing, I would say I saw over 95% of the series when it was originally broadcast. How I still rember these details, I'll never know.
By late 1987 or early 1988, the rule was changed to "win a car and retire as champion". This stayed for the rest of the series.
Sometime in March of 1988, the two strikes rule came into effect.
In late July, they changed to two out of three games wins the match. The first game was divided into the first two segments. The first commercial I believe was after two turns have been taken but I think eventually was after the first match was found. The second game and the tie breaker was played in the third segment. Budget saver as occasionally no cars were won the entire week. Otherwise rarely more than 2 a week.
Late June, 1990, they changed the format back to two strikes and you're out. This stayed for the rest of the series. The difference this time was that all contestants had their own personal clock time starting at 35 seconds. Definitely another budget saver but they did add the 5 bonus car seconds to one of the games to help.
Hope that helps. Any other questions I'll see if I remember from was back then
I'm surprised they didn't change the format earlier than the first year as so many cars were given away, usually at least 2 a week.
Also from watching the series now I don't remember a contestant getting buzzed out for taking so long making a selection. This happened last week and almost again in the last few shows.
