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Honest John has moved to Drive

Looking for HonestJohn.co.uk, Honest John car reviews, Ask Honest John, or one of the site's motoring guides? The Honest John website has now been folded into Drive.

After 25 years of helping people choose, buy, own and run their cars, HonestJohn.co.uk is now part of Drive.co.uk. Drive is backed by Volkswagen Financial Services and brings together car reviews, used cars for sale, leasing, and plain-English guidance on paying for a car.

Millions of drivers came to Honest John over the years for straightforward answers and honest advice about the everyday realities of running a car — researching a next car, checking Real MPG, asking a question, or working out what had gone wrong under the bonnet. It was also a genuine community: people sharing what they'd learned and helping each other out. Thanks to everyone who read and contributed over the last 25 years.

What's happened to Honest John?

Honest John was one of the best-known motoring advice sites in the UK, known for its car reviews, the Ask Honest John Q&A, Real MPG data, buying and selling advice, reliability and common fault guides, and its used car listings.

We're redirecting pages to the closest equivalent on Drive wherever a sensible match exists. In practice that means:

Honest John car reviews are moving across to Drive's reviews section
buying guides are being updated and republished in Drive's guides
model information is being linked through to the relevant Drive model pages
used car pages point through to matching cars for sale on Drive
duplicate articles are being merged into one stronger guide rather than left to compete with each other
anything genuinely out of date is being retired rather than kept around indefinitely

Is the Honest John website closing?

The standalone site and brand are being retired, but the useful content and the editorial expertise behind it live on through Drive.

Not everything will reappear in exactly the same form. The archive is large, built up over 25 years under different ownership, and some of it covers vehicles or regulations that have since moved on. The priority is keeping what's still genuinely useful, updating it where it needs it, and giving you a sensible place to land instead of a dead page.

Where have the car reviews gone?

They're being moved, updated or merged into Drive's existing car reviews. Where possible, an old Honest John review link should take you straight to the matching review or model page on Drive.

What happened to Ask Honest John?

Ask Honest John answered thousands of questions over the years about buying, owning, repairing and selling cars. That exact format isn't continuing, but the recurring questions and best answers from the archive are feeding into Drive's practical guides and FAQs.

One caveat worth flagging: if you've got a specific mechanical, legal or financial situation, get advice suited to your actual circumstances rather than relying on a general answer written for someone else's car.

What is Drive?

Drive is a car marketplace built around choice. Some people want to buy outright, others would rather spread the cost with car finance or lease a new car. Some already know the exact model they want; others need a steer on what actually suits their family, commute, budget or access to charging.

Drive brings all of that together in one place. It's backed by Volkswagen Financial Services, with particular strength across the Volkswagen Group brands — Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, SEAT and CUPRA — and its job is simply to help you work out what suits you and get you there.

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