Honest John (The Daily Telegraph): Your Views?

[heebeegeetee]

Jaguar steve said:

I think he survives by bossing a certain type of Telegraph reader - who like to think of themselves as not being vulgar enough to know anything about cars - around.

His style of writing gives the impression he's exposing a garage rip off or incompetence with every sentence - a sort of friendly Geezer for posh people who either can't, or don't want to be seen coping with the day to day reality of buying and running a car - quite often 'tho his forthright replies are saying more about the stupidity of the questions he gets asked in the first place.

For some of them he deserves at least a

Good points. I quite like his political comments too.

[Whitney-Paine]

I asked advice re selling on a top end car.

He replied personally, recommending a well known father and son dealer. When I got right royally had over and said so on the HJ forum, I was sent a very aggressive e-mail by HJ himself and banned.

I cannot express how much I dislike HJ and hope to meet him one day to tell him how I feel. Not physically, but verbally.

Anyway, he did not beat me as I just re-registered as a different name to get the info I occasionally need from the people that post there ------whats the betting I am banned again today!!!?

[MZ]

Whitney-Paine said:

I asked advice re selling on a top end car.

He replied personally, recommending a well known father and son dealer. When I got right royally had over and said so on the HJ forum, I was sent a very aggressive e-mail by HJ himself and banned.

I cannot express how much I dislike HJ and hope to meet him one day to tell him how I feel. Not physically, but verbally.

Anyway, he did not beat me as I just re-registered as a different name to get the info I occasionally need from the people that post there ------whats the betting I am banned again today!!!?

Bloody Hell!!

[Whitney-Paine]

Better add, that I stuck to the facts and did not use bad language.

HJ is obviously a fan of this particular dealer and would not listen to my factual argument at all.

[Deva Link]

Several times I've seen suggestions that he should speak to manufacturers about issues with cars (often VW) and he always fobs people off.

He also strongly recommends certain services - ie if someone wants to get rid of a fairly ordinary car he always suggests BCA's Sure Sell and says he's received many positive comments about it. Well, I haven't seen any positive comments, but I've seen negative ones.

[T5R+]

For the lay-motorist, I think he is very good.

For petrolheads, stick with the likes of PH.

You see I have taken the time to reply personally

[Jaguar steve]

Whitney-Paine said:

Better add, that I stuck to the facts and did not use bad language.

HJ is obviously a fan of this particular dealer and would not listen to my factual argument at all.

Unfortunately it's a problem found everywhere. Show 10 different people exactly the same deal and they'll all have different opinions. Some will it's good, some will say it's bad. Some couldn't care less. Some will become self appointed experts and with a bit of journalistic talent get paid for writing several coloumn inches in a national paper, with tens of thousands of people hanging onto their every word and treating their opinions as gospel.

I've noticed that HJ tends to be very agressive when he's challenged. Which suggests to me he realises that he's writing opinions but actually presenting them as facts, and that's why he needs to defend himself so veremently. He's not always right, and IMO often treads a fine line betweeen providing what some of the readers obviously want and not upsetting the people the Telegraph really cares about - the people who buy the paper, their shareholders and the advertisers with big budgets to spend.

He probrably couldn't care less about your unfortunate experience and just sees it as a threat to his position - his sagely advice has been found wanting, or perhaps there is actually a vested intrest in him using this particurlar dealer - and that's why he's been so agressive when you pointed out you were not happy.

[mybrainhurts]

I dipped my toe in years ago, but retreated when I realised it was a bit of a mutual cuddle club...

[Rob P]

He seems to choose cars based on the cambelt variety, you would have thought that any car using a belt cam was a disaster waiting to happen when you read some of his comments.

He does have a good go at the anti-speeding lentilists thought.

[alfabadass]

T5R+ said:

For the lay-motorist, I think he is very good.

For petrolheads, stick with the likes of PH.

You see I have taken the time to reply personally

Now you're banned.

Get out of our sights!

[T5R+]

[sparks87]

Seriously if you've got a motoring question, here is where to ask. The amount of great advice (and therefor money saved) given to me by fellow PHers has been invaluable over the last year or so.

[corrado 1990]

I did enjoy the letter today from the 82 year old who would "in no circumstances buy japanese or korean".

I'm guessing for 1 of 2 reasons;

1) Didn't realise jap manufacturers are now some of the best regarded in the world

OR

2) Is a racist old bugger

[205lad]

Deva Link said:

Many of his replies in the newspaper column are random, to say the least.

The HJ forum is amusing - you're not allowed to disagree with the small number of things he contributes. If you do, the insanely aggressive and touchy mods delete your post.

The moderators there are a bunch of arses but being the simple folk they are it's easy enough to get round their bias and still have your say.

As for 'honest john' himself some of the replies leave me wondering whether they are ghost written occasionaly. 60/40 split of sense/nonsense.

[Thudd]

corrado 1990 said:

I did enjoy the letter today from the 82 year old who would "in no circumstances buy japanese or korean".

I'm guessing for 1 of 2 reasons;

1) Didn't realise jap manufacturers are now some of the best regarded in the world

OR

2) Is a racist old bugger

Perhaps they kept him prisoner during the war

[Fittster]

corrado 1990 said:

I did enjoy the letter today from the 82 year old who would "in no circumstances buy japanese or korean".

I'm guessing for 1 of 2 reasons;

1) Didn't realise jap manufacturers are now some of the best regarded in the world

OR

2) Is a racist old bugger

At that age they may have come across the japanese during WW2, which could certainly put them off.

[Dogwatch]

When Japanese cars became established in this country there were stories of ex-POW's (captured in the Far East)who swore they would never have anything to do with them.

[NJH]

Well a good few years back when I was looking for a Saab 9-5 most websites seemed to bang on about what a great bargain they are. Saabisti also seemed to like them (I think I am one of the very few to say bad things about 9-5 on the Saab section on PH for example). HJ was the only reviewer which I can say from personal experience gave a fair rundown on what is IMHO a POS of a car. I wish I had read his review on the website before buying because I would have looked elsewhere and been much better for it.

[tr7v8]

Yup it seems to get the same style of forum member who'd read the Telegraph.
The moderators are ver anal, I've fallen foul of them on various occasions, I've given up with a lot of them these days & can't be ar5ed to reply, even if I do have something useful to add. The forum software drives me nuts as well, they've only just added an edit button, that only works for 5 minutes. This is based on some dodgy assumptions.
HJ is a genuine journalist, he was around years with "Buying Cars" for those that remember. His responses are pretty laughable a lot of the time though.

[heebeegeetee]

Thudd said:

corrado 1990 said:

I did enjoy the letter today from the 82 year old who would "in no circumstances buy japanese or korean".

I'm guessing for 1 of 2 reasons;

1) Didn't realise jap manufacturers are now some of the best regarded in the world

OR

2) Is a racist old bugger

Perhaps they kept him prisoner during the war

I was at the Armed Forces memorial just two weekends ago at Alrewas, when coincidentally they were commemorating the Korean War. We got to see some details of the torture that was handed out to prisoners of war, (though wasn't sure if it that done by the koreans, or the japanese in WW2).

Either way, if you take a bit of time to learn about the atrocities that has been dealt out to many people who you'll pass by today in your local high street, you might think about your comments.

But hey, you're free to make them.

Mind you, in fairness to you, in schools today they'll teach you all sorts of nonsense about global warming, but they'll teach you absolutely fk all about how we came to be free today, and even less about how thousands of people living amongst us today, you know, old people who get on our tits with their crap driving, have actually paid their dues in blood so that we can be free to live the lives we do.

Edited by heebeegeetee on Monday 11th August 20:04