Pino Harris had died aged 75

goochy

interesting character , may he rest in peace .
Any one got any stories about him ? he was certainly colourful and the commercial vehicle sector here would have been very quiet without him

colm_mcm

TJe story of how he got the hino franchise when the boys were over from Japan was great. I can't remember it properly though.

Truckermal

Lovely man Jesus it's weird because I was only thinking of him yesterday...

I often took containers in there on Saturdays and if you met Pino while driving a Hino he would stand you 20 pounds but if you were driving a Scania he would nearly spit at you!:p

RIP though he left some money behind him!

Atlantic Dawn

colm_mcm wrote: »

TJe story of how he got the hino franchise when the boys were over from Japan was great. I can't remember it properly though.

The foundation stone of the notoriously publicity-shy businessman's fortune lies in his acquiring the franchise for the Japanese Hino range of trucks. The story the motor trade believes is that Harris was entertaining an initial group of Hino executives when he was asked his advice on a specific truck problem.


He excused himself, donned overalls and, still under the scrutiny of his visitors, solved the tricky engine problem, before returning to the negotiations. The Hino people knew they had their man.



Harris had little formal education. But he now has a score of companies directing his interests, many of which are unlimited, which means he doesn't have to submit returns to the Companies Office. Isuzu is another motor interest, and for a while he ran the Kia dealership.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/robert-pino-harris-26227499.html

milltown

A couple of decades back, Dublin Corporation put out a tender for bin lorries, with one of the specs stating that they had to have two steering axles on the front. Pino tendered and won and supplied whatever number of Hino trucks were required.
Before too long the corpo began to complain that the trucks were eating tyres on the second steering axle and costing a fortune to keep on the road. After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing with Harris, and not getting any satisfaction, the corpo went straight to Hino themselves looking for help. Hino told them they must be mistaken as they don't make any twin steering axle trucks.
Pino had made them himself (well not himself obvs) by just bolting in a second front axle to win the tender, with little regard to steering geometry. Once they learned of this Hino began making twin steering axle trucks.

Ubbquittious

Who is Pino Harris and why is he so famous in here? I have seen threads about him but I honestly have no clue. Did he beat the Brits at rallying in the 80's?

J.pilkington

milltown wrote: »

A couple of decades back, Dublin Corporation put out a tender for bin lorries, with one of the specs stating that they had to have two steering axles on the front. Pino tendered and won and supplied whatever number of Hino trucks were required.
Before too long the corpo began to complain that the trucks were eating tyres on the second steering axle and costing a fortune to keep on the road. After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing with Harris, and not getting any satisfaction, the corpo went straight to Hino themselves looking for help. Hino told them they must be mistaken as they don't make any twin steering axle trucks.
Pino had made them himself (well not himself obvs) by just bolting in a second front axle to win the tender, with little regard to steering geometry. Once they learned of this Hino began making twin steering axle trucks.

Twin steering front axle trucks are one of the most popular configuration in Japan and the Far East / Australia and have been for donkey years, are you saying pino invented these? Sounds like an old wives tail to me

CeilingFly

Had Isuzu trooper - engine blew. Well out of warranty by acfew years, but a known issue.

Engine replaced at no cost and no argument.

Dealer said Harris always put customer first whether an individual person or large corporation.

Pity other motor companies don't follow suit.

andy69

goochy wrote: »

interesting character , may he rest in peace .
Any one got any stories about him ? he was certainly colourful and the commercial vehicle sector here would have been very quiet without him

RIP.
Way back when I was just starting in the tyre industry I remember my boss getting one of those HUGE new mobile car phone things (with the phone wire connected to a large unit/battery, and had a big handle on it for carrying in/out of the car). Now this was back when these things were literally just on the market and almost no one had one. He was telling me about Pino and, I think, the boss of the DOE centre in Ballymount....Murphy's maybe?

Anyway, he said the pair of them were always trying to out-do each other....geting one up on the other, and Murphy rang Pino's mobile phone one particular day, I think just to show that he now had one too. Pino got the driver to answer the call (in that big black merc he used to go round in), and told the driver to say that can he put him on hold because Pino "was on the other line" . They thought this was hilarious!

goochy

loved the cars he and his management staff had , Mercedes 600SEL , Daimler Double six , all manor of Rolls and Bentley - my favourite being the 04D light blue Phantom which I assume he still owns.

what happened with some sort of scrappage deal for trooper owners who traded in against D max pick ups - something to do with Trooper engine problems ? theres a load of troopers parked up on Naas Road.

While he was obviously successful and wealthy , its sad that his business wasn't the force it was in recent years.

lost Iveco - which looks like being an error on ivecos part .
Hinos cant be sold due to emissions
Isuzu no longer selling much in trucks and 4x4s
Ldv and SsangYong sell in tiny amounts.

what is the new building at Fox and Geese about ? says Hino Ireland on wooden sign but if they cant even sell Hino ?

Nekarsulm

Isuzu had to offer buyers of the later 3 litre Troopers a discount on a new D Max, due to woefully experiences with the common rail diesel system, and injector seals. (Which in many cases led to turbo failure as well)
You would have had to have bought the 3 litre new, and even then it was a fight to get the deal.
The problem stemmed from the fact that Caterpillar (who designed the engine for Izuzu) mandated a 5000 mile oil change interval, plus you HAD to use fully synthetic oil.
This was ignored by Isuzu who wanted a longer service interval for PR purposes and sold them with a recommended 10,000 mile oil change interval.
Plus most owners just used SUTO or Diesel Lube as they always had used in their older 3.1 Troopers.
3.0's that were serviced properly can run up huge milages.
A local quarry to me has a 3.0 with 400,000 miles on the original engine.

After the Land Cruiser, the D Max is probably the best selling 4x4 at the moment.

coylemj

andy69 wrote: »

Anyway, he said the pair of them were always trying to out-do each other....geting one up on the other, and Murphy rang Pino's mobile phone one particular day, I think just to show that he now had one too. Pino got the driver to answer the call (in that big black merc he used to go round in), and told the driver to say that can he put him on hold because Pino "was on the other line" . They thought this was hilarious!

Not sure which version is true but exactly the same story was told by Michael Grade on TV a while back and involved his two uncles, Bernie Delfont and Lew Grade who were big players in the entertainment business in the UK in the 60s and 70s.

Pino was a big friend of CJ Haughey.

goochy

I know it wont happen but a book or documentary about Pino would be very interesting but as he didn't like attention - its unlikely people would assist with it.

colm_mcm

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Isuzu had to offer buyers of the later 3 litre Troopers a discount on a new D Max, due to woefully experiences with the common rail diesel system, and injector seals. (Which in many cases led to turbo failure as well)
You would have had to have bought the 3 litre new, and even then it was a fight to get the deal.
The problem stemmed from the fact that Caterpillar (who designed the engine for Izuzu) mandated a 5000 mile oil change interval, plus you HAD to use fully synthetic oil.
This was ignored by Isuzu who wanted a longer service interval for PR purposes and sold them with a recommended 10,000 mile oil change interval.
Plus most owners just used SUTO or Diesel Lube as they always had used in their older 3.1 Troopers.
3.0's that were serviced properly can run up huge milages.
A local quarry to me has a 3.0 with 400,000 miles on the original engine.

After the Land Cruiser, the D Max is probably the best selling 4x4 at the moment.

Wasn't there some dodge with the D-Max at that stage where they modified the rear axle so it could carry extra weight and thus qualify for €50 VRT? I think with that saving they had a lot of margin to give away. Think it was €6k or €7k off at the time. VRT on a Hilux was around €5k back then.

mikeecho

colm_mcm wrote: »

TJe story of how he got the hino franchise when the boys were over from Japan was great. I can't remember it properly though.

Does anyone know this story.

Would love to know

goochy

strange it was posted yesterday but now its gone ?

Nekarsulm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Wasn't there some dodge with the D-Max at that stage where they modified the rear axle so it could carry extra weight and thus qualify for €50 VRT? I think with that saving they had a lot of margin to give away. Think it was €6k or €7k off at the time. VRT on a Hilux was around €5k back then.

Really? Never heard that.
There are a family of 4x4 dealers up Granard / N4 way would know if it was possible!

milltown

J.pilkington wrote: »

Twin steering front axle trucks are one of the most popular configuration in Japan and the Far East / Australia and have been for donkey years, are you saying pino invented these? Sounds like an old wives tail to me

Just relaying the story I was told by one of my tutors in tech.
Not suggesting that Pino invented them. How would they be included in the tender spec if they hadn't been invented yet?
The point of the story was that Hino didn't have any in their range at the time so Harris made one to win the tender.

colm_mcm

goochy wrote: »

strange it was posted yesterday but now its gone ?

Look again!

colm_mcm

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Really? Never heard that.
There are a family of 4x4 dealers up Granard / N4 way would know if it was possible!

They put some extra leaves into the rear springs. Made them very bouncy.

Henry Ford III

I know someone working with Harris's on the Longmile Road. I'd say there are a few tasty stories about him ok.

Cee-Jay-Cee

milltown wrote: »

A couple of decades back, Dublin Corporation put out a tender for bin lorries, with one of the specs stating that they had to have two steering axles on the front. Pino tendered and won and supplied whatever number of Hino trucks were required.
Before too long the corpo began to complain that the trucks were eating tyres on the second steering axle and costing a fortune to keep on the road. After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing with Harris, and not getting any satisfaction, the corpo went straight to Hino themselves looking for help. Hino told them they must be mistaken as they don't make any twin steering axle trucks.
Pino had made them himself (well not himself obvs) by just bolting in a second front axle to win the tender, with little regard to steering geometry. Once they learned of this Hino began making twin steering axle trucks.

It's a nice story but completely untrue and a bit ridiculous to be honest. Adding another steering axle is not something you can do without completely changing the chassis, steering system, hydraulics and brake system.

coylemj

mikeecho wrote: »

Does anyone know this story.

Would love to know

goochy wrote: »

strange it was posted yesterday but now its gone ?

It's still there, post #4

goochy

I remember during celtic tiger years they were advertising for people to assemble hinos. was half thinking of applying but read story about him and his chauffeur that he fired and got cold feet - looks like it was good move on my part seeing as hinos not suitable for Europe now.

J.pilkington

After foden went to the wall in England he signed up a lot of their dealers to sell hino, they seem to have initially done okay in England but completely dropped off after a few years.

It was great having the site on the long mile road, one of the few assembly sites left in the country.

The LDV / china models seem to be a strange move, he must have picked a huge amount of them up in some auction on the cheap (maybe in the hope of an post buying them, but they didn't end up buying after taking a fee on trial) and they look like they were parked up in a port for 10years. I saw a 161 recently with rust you would only see on a very old van. They have also given distribution rights to alot of odd dealer types, my local town has a garage that sells a handful of cars every month and changes management alot and they about 5 of them for sale with big ldv flags up. They have sold a few kind you so must be priced cheap.

Nekarsulm

Saw an An Post one this week, for the first time. Looked OK actually.

goochy

He didnt buy them at auction. He bought about 3000 to sell in UK and Ireland . Harris has never been fussy who sells his stuff. He likely gives them on sale or return basis . I think the ssangyong models are a terrible idea. They are flying in UK but not competitive here. Maybe harris didn't move with the times . He also didn't succeed with kia

colm_mcm

To be fair Kia's were pretty saleproof in 2001 when he took on the franchise.
Remember the Kia shuma, or the original Kia Rio. The first Sportage (with the spare wheel on the boot) was crap too. Remember the Mentor?

J.pilkington

goochy wrote: »

He didnt buy them at auction. He bought about 3000 to sell in UK and Ireland . Harris has never been fussy who sells his stuff. He likely gives them on sale or return basis . I think the ssangyong models are a terrible idea. They are flying in UK but not competitive here. Maybe harris didn't move with the times . He also didn't succeed with kia

Well wherever he got them it's been many years since some of them were manufactured / have been sitting up in a port / poorly painted.

goochy

Indeed you have a point . Why are ssangyong flying in UK but not here ? Could be sterling as not competitive here . They are not cheap enough to ignore their faults

colm_mcm

I don't know that they're flying. How many cars did they sell in the UK?