HJ's agony colums is now evidently culled from the weekly ask HJ answers.

Does any one have any better suggestions?

Such as a "Bring Back HJ himself." petition.

A shorter version of the Agony column is still there. I was getting fed up with the long rambles he was expected to answer.

I'm sure HJ had a valid reason for the takeover.

It WAS NOT a takeover, The reasons are there, but not for me to discuss, (I know the how and why) (as HJ replied to me)

As others have said,

I'll see how it goes.

ORB

I'm sure HJ had a valid reason for the takeover.

The website was in administration and bought out.

HJ has been invaluable over the years to steer people away from some real lemons in terms of vehicle quality and durability. Sadly in the world we live in currently people are more concerned about features and vehicle spec. They do not have the ability to see beyond the facade if you will. People do not care about what occurs after the PCP agreement (debt) and if the Ecoboom with its nasty belt in oil has issues or the DSG fails people simply do not care as they will have moved on to the latest and greatest debt. HJ's advice was for people from an era where car owners actually owned the car, and were not 'renters' which is what most punters are today sadly.

Style & toys over reliability & longevity of the cars.

I have looked at replacing my car - showroom staff it's all electronics, PCP, 0% and that is not what would make me change.

How much are you expecting for your trade-in?

I say I am looking at the cost to change & at that they seem to crumble.

Sales person "you say what you want & we build a deal around that"

I want a competitive price & a fair T/I value but they seem unable to get their head round it.

I am not getting backed into that corner - as a cash buyer I want a deal that reflects the savings of not taking 0%, matching an offer in Yorkshire etc etc - one reply was "you cannot save money on something that costs you nothing!"

Completely agree about HJ being the most informative motoring journalist, when you browse the car magazines (without buying of course) they do not have close to the knowledge that HJ has. They are so one dimensional such as informing the world how the latest German metal can go around corners fast and how the badge is something to be proud of. They have become a PR department for the manufacturer. At the end of the article they tout the silly list prices as something that is superb value and proudly announce a typical headline PCP figure.

These car magazines such as the ones starting with A and W and ending in car have minimal understanding about durability and anything outside of the 3 year debt PCP world. Long term ownership and value for money plus durability are aspects they cannot consider based on the single dimension they follow.

My old boss (Merci Pierre) , in Switzerland usually managed to protect our MGRover and Jaguar.Landrover customers from the worst excesses of the manufacturers, but margins were larger in those days for dealers, including on parts so we had something to play with.

I learned an awful lot from him too as well as HJ.

This experience from them has been priceless for me in my outlook.

Edited by Old.Roverboy on 17/03/2020 at 19:46

The Honest John good\bad sections are some of the most usable and essential information for anyone purchasing a car. Whilst the car magazines and other 'experienced' motoring professionals just tell you how good the latest German badge is, Honest John provides useful information that can avoid the purchase of a real lemon in which the maker will not do the right thing and openly admit of issues.

Honest John simply does not fit well with such a dirty and corrupt industry in which it wants to turn durable products to overpriced white goods that have pathetic defects included with full knowledge of decision makers and then pretend ignorance. What the motor industry in general has become is pathetic....

I have a feeling the grandiose shift to electric cars only is going to be kicked into some very long grass, the expense of shoring up the economy to prevent wholesale devastation and subsequent troubles, will take all and more of the money earmarked for that.

It may increase the speed of change.

Govts wanting to increase productivity after the slump may insist on changing sooner, reduce reliance on importing oil at great expense to the economy etc.

But I think you are right, noting is going to be the same again, with such huge (and probably justified) expenditure by the Govt in trying to stop the next great depression, they may actually be just spreading it out over generations with lower standards of living for decades to come.

Edited by Zippy123 on 20/03/2020 at 20:30

Without government support most companies could not fund fixed costs and staff pay for somewhere between 3 months and a year. Closure would (a) lead to huge levels of unemployment (5-10m??), and (b) would make it very difficult to restart the economy post crisis.

Most people live with little or no money in reserve - they would simply be unable to pay the bills. Worse, possibly, than several 100,000 deaths of the mainly elderly, is the risk of social breakdown, mass riots, troops on the streets, shooting looters etc. It takes very little to turn normally equable people to violence - we see it when fuel deliveries are delayed, shops run out of toilet rolls etc. This is potentially much worse.

So the government have no choice but to bail companies and individuals out in the hope that post crisis we recover to some kind of normality rapidly.

This has a cost and it is not clear right now who will pay. But it is a fair bet that the outcome may look a little like the last decade following the bail out of the banking system - austerity, real wage stagnation, low growth.

It is also unclear how behaviours may change - after (say) a 2 week shutdown behaviours are likely to return to the pre-crisis status quo. But after 3-12 months it could all change - work from home becomes the norm, travel and traffic level much reduced, people realise they do not need the material goods in the way they once aspired, community not self becomes more important etc.