The Honest John motoring website & forum will close in about 5 days.

[howardbParticipant @howardb]

The HJ website, started in 2000 by the car journalist Peter Lorimer – AKA “Honest John” -went bust in 2020 and was bought out of administration by a car sales company called Heycar which is owned by Volkswagen Financial Services.

Now, Heycar is closing down. https://www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk/mag/featured/volkswagen-shuts-down-heycar-after-heavy-losses/

So the HJ website and forum will go down with it  – unless somebody or a company buys it out.

[vic neweyParticipant @vicnewey60017]

I am not surprised to see Heycar has failed, seeing their tv adverts showing an aggresive nutcase at the wheel must have put countless people off buying a car from them

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Sad, but I wonder if the need has gone.   My dear old dad rated Honest John highly, and for good reason. Me too, as a young man. Back then buying motor cars was a minefield.  Lots of old-bangers, and UK manufacturers were losing the plot, making hopelessly outdated models and dubious new ones.  Huge quality problems because labour relations were rock-bottom and factories slow to modernise.  At the same time, foreign competitors imported anything from cheap and nasty Warzburgs up to promising, but unproven, Japanese models.  And in the middle, plenty of European makers with serious quality and other problems.  US cars were gigantic gas-guzzlers that were hard to park, couldn’t go round corners, had sickeningly soft suspensions, and unaffordable spare parts.   Buyers worried about MPG after 1973!   Mergers, in the UK and abroad. found firms competing with themselves to sell near identical marques; one of them had to go, and customers had to judge which one was for the chop.  And merged production meant I owned a car with metric, unified, BA, and BS fasteners – insane!  Unfortunately, in the midst of this chaos, the motor trade had more than it’s fair-share of crooks and dodgy sales practices!   And honest dealers struggled with old and new marques with uncertain futures, some of whom couldn’t or wouldn’t support their products.    Necessary for Joe Public to worry because even cheap cars were expensive as a percentage of income.  Buyer beware and Honest John identified the good, the bad and the ugly.  Very helpful!

When I’m in rose-tinted mood, I remember working on cars as fun and interest.  But this is highly misleading:  cars that let me down repeatedly were no fun at all.  Essential to have Haynes Manuals and a set of basic tools, not just a hobby.  May be a shock to petrolheads, but most people just want a vehicle that gets them reliably from A to B in reasonable comfort.  The majority have no interest in how the thing works, and no desire to maintain it themselves.

All change!  Today improved regulation and advanced manufacturing make it hard to buy an outright lemon.   All the too cheap and unreliable makers were forced out of business.  Cars are relatively cheaper and we get more for the money.   Very few people do home maintenance.   Second-hand cars come with a warranty and can be insured against major repairs. New cars are often hired rather than bought: my neighbour & his wife have a new car each every two years.  Now relatively few maintain their own cars, not least because even simple jobs have become difficult without a lift and the right tools!

So Honest John has less to say and fewer people need his advice. Time marches on.

Dave

 

 

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