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Has HJ left the Telegraph? I haven't been able to find his column for a while now, at least in the online edition.
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>> Has HJ left the Telegraph? I haven't been able to find his column for a
>> while now, at least in the online edition.
>>
For the last few editions of the paper version there have been changes.
Mug shots of HJ plus three others.
Each reply to a query has the relevant initials of who responded.
HJ is still there but credits are shared.
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Telegraph is & has been clearing out staff and overhead costs - even the people charged with firing people have themselves been axed.
Unfortunately the DT sales, subscription & advertising are falling - like all dailies, Sundays & local rags
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HJ was roundly criticised in Private Eye last week for his take on the VW emission scandal , apparently dismissing public concern with ' a few brisk put downs' on his Q &A section.One questioner was told ' Don't be ridiculous' when asking if he should reject his car.
The implication from the Eye was that as long as he and other hacks benefit of motoring companies largesse they will not make too much of a fuss....
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I saw his live interview with Sky News on the day the story broke. He insinuated that other marques night very well be found equally culpable, something with which I pretty much agreed on hearing it.
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HJ is cool in my book. Knows what he's talking about 90% of the time.
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He doesn't understand anything too technical - he's a car salesman.
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>> He doesn't understand anything too technical - he's a car salesman.
>>
Typical of most car salesmen then. But selling cans of beans or household furniture does not require knowledge of bean growing or sofa manufacture.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 15 Oct 15 at 08:21
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True, so it's odd that so many seem to revere this salesman as the fount of knowledge on anything beyond how much to pay for a used Ford Fiesta.
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>> True, so it's odd that so many seem to revere this salesman as the fount
>> of knowledge on anything beyond how much to pay for a used Ford Fiesta.
He may not know or understand much, but he does have good contacts within the industry, and is able to hoover up and collate user comments through his media outlets.
However, he is dependent on the industry, or various parts of it at various times, so his impartiality and fairness is open to debate.
Which is the same as saying, Salesman = liar.
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Surely any half-decent car salesman needs to know how to fix that dodgy part-ex they have taken in, in order to shift it on quick. So in that respect he may well have gained technical knowledge in his years as a car salesman.
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From the dim and distant - one gets used, as a car sales person (very PC!) to likely faults and costs across a wide variety of marques.
If one heard a distinctive top end rattle as a dog of a px trundled onto the forecourt it was a good bet it was a Simca or a Sunbeam Talbot. Earlier years it would have been a Ford Classic with the ghastly 1340cc engine.
Nowadays it takes a fancy electronic fault reader, so not so easy.
As an aside, when I had my dealership, my salesman took a white Ford Escort into stock as a PX. Unfortunately he was not his usual observant self and missed the tell tale give-away of a massive zip in the roof lining!
Yes - it had been a police car
The vendors, or a previous owner, had removed the rooftop lights and filled the holes, painting over them, but hadn't bothered with the headlining access zip!
Not only that but the engine was completely shot, with all the signs of a gazillion miles on it.
Completely unable to sell it and economically silly to repair it, I cheated a bit and took it to a Ford dealership in Swansea and offered it as a PX for a decently prepared retail car on their forecourt.
I banked on the Ford salesman being as dull as my bloke had been - he didn't look at the car, but hoisted a figure from Glasse's Guide, plus a bit.
I did the deal and a couple of days later went back to collect the car I'd bought.
SWMBO was arm-twisted to drive it to Swansea, with me as the passenger (!).
Just as we drove onto the Ford dealer's forecourt the beastly thing just expired after leaving a cloud of smoke from my premises to Swansea
A quick handover of paperwork and we headed back west rather promptly!
We managed to sell my new purchase for just enough profit to cover the over-allowance and expenses on the ex police car, so no loss, no gain - but my bloke earned no commission on THAT transaction.
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>> a car sales person (very
>> PC!)
You're about as boring on that subject as I am on the royal family, Rog.
The moral standards you display in your subsequent tale are surely not fitting of an upstanding, English gentleman. Is that the sort of moral standard you're hoping to protect in this country by stopping all those dreadful furriners piling in and ruining the place with their funny furrin ways?
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>> >> a car sales person (very
>> >> PC!)
>>
>> You're about as boring on that subject as I am on the royal family, Rog.
>>
>> The moral standards you display in your subsequent tale are surely not fitting of an
>> upstanding, English gentleman. Is that the sort of moral standard you're hoping to protect in
>> this country by stopping all those dreadful furriners piling in and ruining the place with
>> their funny furrin ways?
>>
No lies told by anyone in this tale!
Just lack of observation and professionalism by two car salesMEN who should have known better.
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>> No lies told by anyone in this tale!
I didn't use the L word. I said your moral standards were questionable.
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>> >> No lies told by anyone in this tale!
>>
>> I didn't use the L word. I said your moral standards were questionable.
Questionable maybe. But the joy of trading in a car is that the buyer looks at it, makes their own assessment, and makes you an offer. If they ask you if you know of any faults, then you are getting more into questionable territory if you are not truthful. And if you were worried about the Saab gearbox for example, would you say "the gearbox is probably knackered" when it might go on for years and you don't actually know for sure, or would you say "it's not perfect and I know it needs some new wiper blades, but I'm not a mechanic - check it over if you want"?
But really, they are the "experts". They can drive, inspect it, do what they want. They aren't going to knock their own product, why should you?
Had Roger been a crook he would have knocked it out sold as seen to some gullible punter (they say you can't do that but it happens a lot - people are eager to 'waive' their rights to get a 'trade' deal and most aren't brave or determined enough to try and assert them afterwards.)
I had a lot to do with the motor trade for a few years. Every salesman (they were all men) I got to know would say that the customers were the biggest crooks, and at the same time the majority (and I mean that literally) would not tell the truth when a lie, or more often a fudge or half truth, would do the job. Some of them were absolutely brilliant at it - the art was to be economical with the truth and vague but reassuring at the same time, rather then telling a blatant, provable lie.
In other contexts, they were mostly OK and some were friends - I came to the conclusion that it must have been very difficult to prosper or even survive while being completely open. I wouldn't say it created any problem of conscience for the ones I knew - as with many other circumstances, humans just recalibrate for different situations, and don't perceive it as dishonest. There's a PhD there for somebody.
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>> And if you were worried about the Saab gearbox for example,
>> would you say "the gearbox is probably knackered" when it might go on for years
>> and you don't actually know for sure, or would you say "it's not perfect and
>> I know it needs some new wiper blades, but I'm not a mechanic - check
>> it over if you want"?
I stated in the SAAB threat that I informed the Volvo salesman that the car was throwing gearbox error messages occasionally, but that the light was currently not showing. I then allowed him to test drive it and it was to his satisfaction. So yes, in other words I did say the gearbox is probably knackered when it might go on for years and I don't actually know for sure.
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>> I stated in the SAAB threat that I informed the Volvo salesman that the car
>> was throwing gearbox error messages occasionally, but that the light was currently not showing.
I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, just giving an example. I'd forgotten it had lit up.
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>>>> Completely unable to sell it and economically silly to repair it, I cheated a bit
>> and took it to a Ford dealership in Swansea and offered it as a PX
>> for a decently prepared retail car on their forecourt.
>> I banked on the Ford salesman being as dull as my bloke had been -
>> he didn't look at the car, but hoisted a figure from Glasse's Guide, plus a
>> bit.
>>
>>
Isn't that what they call "Bowler Hatting" in the trade?
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>> Which is the same as saying, Salesman = liar.
>>
And punters don't ?
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>> >> Which is the same as saying, Salesman = liar.
>> >>
>>
>> And punters don't ?
>>
Punter are the world's best liars!
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>> Punters are the world's best liars!
I bet they can reply to a forum message without quoting the whole damn lot that they're replying to though.
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>> >> Punters are the world's best liars!
>>
>> I bet they can reply to a forum message without quoting the whole damn lot
>> that they're replying to though.
>>
D'ya think?
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>>>AC said..... "HJ is cool in my book. Knows what he's talking about 90% of the time".
AC I would have said the same of you however on this occasion you're about 30% correct.
The other 73% of the time he's using an uncanny knack of soap-boxing a topic with minimal basis in fact but that sounds plausible and appeals to the punters as he appears to be with them in the fight for deals, rights, secret fixes and the like.
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>> The other 73% of the time he's using an uncanny knack of soap-boxing a topic with minimal basis in fact but that sounds plausible and appeals to the punters as he appears to be with them in the fight for deals, rights, secret fixes and the like.
Perhaps, but he knows a lot more about jalopies than most people.
I notice that the comic now has him surrounded by other experts.
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>> >> The other 73% of the time he's using an uncanny knack of soap-boxing a
>> topic with minimal basis in fact but that sounds plausible and appeals to the punters
>> as he appears to be with them in the fight for deals, rights, secret fixes
>> and the like.
>>
>> Perhaps, but he knows a lot more about jalopies than most people.
>>
>> I notice that the comic now has him surrounded by other experts.
>>
>>
From my experience, the average joe public is very ignorant about the cars they drive, so anyone such as HJ would appear like Professor Hawking in comparison.
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In the land of the blind...
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>> In the land of the blind...
>> >>Resorting to mockery when there's nowhere else to go:)
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Honest John - henry k
