Recently I looked at the overall collapse of UK car making in Britain. Today I want to look at an iconic UK car brand which has experienced falling volumes for a while. Jaguar cars have been in retreat for some years. This April they saw sales 44% below a year earlier with just a 0.94% market share. The brand still has a loyal fan base that like the history and traditions of the cars, with many owning older vehicles as reminders of past glories. It also has a growing list of former fans who will not buy a modern product, failing to see in some of the designs much of the “Grace, pace, space” of the E type or of the Mark 2 saloon or the XJ, XK or S type of later years.
Jaguar’s sales and marketing strategy is partly to blame. Their dealers had a penchant for selling down, trying to persuade XJ owners to buy an S type, or S type owners to buy an X type, as various sales promotions were doubtless offered. When they replaced the S type with the XF they allowed journalists to write that they were appealing to a new younger audience, turning their backs on the older supporters of the S type who they thought were passe. It proved easier to lose the old supporters than to find the new enthusiasts in sufficient numbers. The XF was a pleasant looking car, but arguably Vauxhall had already done a similar style well with its Insignia at a lower price than the Jaguar. The XF was not distinctively Jaguar in the way the thoroughly modern S type was on original launch with genuflections to the Mark 2. The well supported XJ with its own evolving styling was then changed substantially to look like a fattened version of the XF. The arrival of more Sports Utility vehicles led Jaguar into competition with its sister brand, Range Rover where many thought Range Rover did it better. The Sports Utility look had little in common with the past glories of the sports, GT and sporting saloons of the historic ranges.
Now today they scramble to make electric cars without defining what it was about previous ranges of their cars that people liked about Jaguar. Styling and image were an important part of it . When Jaguar cars started to look more like other cars they lost some of their fan base. Briefing against those who used to buy Jaguars was also a bad mistake.
May 28, 2022
Good morning.
When looking for a new car I first considered, Jaguar. I was looking for a PHEV as I do a lot of short town milage and some long distance motoring. Their offering was, at the time, not particularly attractive to me, so I unfortunately looked elsewhere.
With the demise of Rover there does not seem to be a UK brand that makes and sells cars at a price point I can afford.
Perhaps when I am next back in the market I can give Jaguar another look.
It gets harder each year to by British.
May 28, 2022
Why should any cars be made in high tax, high cost of living UK? Cheaper to make them in the far east and ship them half way round the world.
May 28, 2022
Yes, Tory policy has brought down the car industry. It appears JR has forgotten some of his previous blogs how his govt policy has traduced the buying of petrol and diesel cars because of the idiotic green zealotry by Johnson, his misses and Goldsmith types. Lord Frost made it clear Johnson has the wrong direction and surrounded by greenies. Now they are intent on wrecking farming and building by getting rid of red diesel! No good reason other than looney green ideology.
JR, has the answer to all his woes, get rid of Johnson.
I was a supporter to get Brexit done. He failed and miserably lied about that. In itself a reason to oust him. Covid lockdown, money printing in excess, HS2, accelerated mass immigration- visas about a million last year, wreck economy, highest taxation, highest debt, highest deficit and worse disposable income. All good reason to oust him. Disgracefully Run away from Afghanistan then engages in another war in Ukraine! Madness.
He has turned out to be a complete disaster in every policy area. I was hoping those around him might keep him on the straight and narrow. Sadly a criminal and a liar.
Scrap EU contribution (by getting rid of N.Ireland protocol and ECHR), overseas aid still wasting into multiple billions, HS2 costs sky rocketing further, wasteful NHS £242 billion to heal the world! Come on get him out.
May 28, 2022
Hope, you paint a bleak and damning picture of the state of Johnson’s Britain. Alas, it is all too true. And we could all add to the list. For example, the decline in law and order and strong, unbiased policing; and just about everything in Education.
May 29, 2022
Indeed it is all too true.
May 29, 2022
In Bridport there is a Police Car in a car park next to the Police Station (is it ever open?) with ‘Police’ tape all round it. The reason. A seagull has built a nest on the roof and is sitting on eggs there. I kid you not. If this site allowed photos, I would post one.
May 28, 2022
Aston Martin finds itself faced with precisely the problems you highlight in this article. Heavily indebted balance sheet and a brand product that has become tired and dated. I believe AM will succumb to bankruptcy in the next few years as its sales falters and its indebtedness drags it under.
The State’s ‘demonisation’ of certain types of vehicles doesn’t help either. It seems even the motor car isn’t beyond the reach of politicisation but then those demonising the private sector (oil, gas, cars etc) are those who feed off the private sector ie those who work for the State. The rancid, parasitic hypocrisy is nauseating
Government has now total control over the private and that should concern everyone
May 28, 2022
Aston Martin has gone broke seven times so far. Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian billionaire, has part funded the new Aston Martin F1 Team which could revive the brand’s sales.
May 28, 2022
I still love mine. But it’s sad to see that government policies have damaged the company.
May 28, 2022
You don’t think perhaps the skyrocketing of fuel price/the enormous cost of first year tax and the fact your Gov. is going to end the sale of ICE engines could be factors?
May 28, 2022
I think it’s more luke government policy to destroy the last vestages of manufacturing un the UK.
Next it will be the likes of JCB and the remnants of the steel industry.
Net Zero is the only game in town even if it means bankruptcy for the country.
May 28, 2022
+1
Not just bankrupts but those skilled workers lost forever while Johnson dishes out over a million visas last year! Where are they all going to live, get health care etc. Johnson and co have lost the plot with Labour laughing their sockets off every time Johnson and Sunak out spends them by floating one of their looney socialist ideas.
May 28, 2022
+1
May 28, 2022
So many cars degrade into alike when so-called designers lack imagination. They cop out and merely copy the majority of other cars, assuming those are popular. They lack inspiration, stifle creativity and drag deeper into dullness.
Difference is the essence of design excellence. Today’s output is routinely dull and undesirable, creating only a uniform traffic jam of no choice like wading through tatty treacle.
Yesteryear’s Jaguars led the open roads to excitement, quality engineering and pride of ownership. Now they’ve lost it.
May 28, 2022
I believe you’ll find that design and build specifications and parameters are set in europe by the EU….individualisation and imagination are out the window
May 28, 2022
The EU’s obsession with pointless uniformity is headed like E M Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’.
When everything and everywhere have become the same, there’s no purpose in travel.
May 28, 2022
The electrification of vehicles is making what is a luxury car unaffordable for most people. Even the run of the mill cars are more expensive because of this. Any car costing over £40k has an enormous tax burden dumped on it for the first few years. What is that about? It’s just an envy tax. I would love to have stayed with either Jaguar or Land Rover having driven the latter for a number of years. They are brilliant cars and I miss mine but the cost of them recently and the service costs are beyond us with other cost of living commitments now. It woukd seem that net zero and taxes are killing off many things.
May 28, 2022
The iconic world beating Land Rover Defender stopped because of EU regulations! Why was Ford vans transferred to Spain? What country owns Jaguar?
Come on, leave the EU properly, no level playing field on state aid, employment etc and give UK industry the freedom it needs to succeed. Level playing field rules with EU Not even mentioned by JR. UK lost steel industry because of EU, UK hamstrung by labour laws and environment, ECHR etc.
When is Johnson to give industry the boost it needs to cut red tape, bureaucracy taxation, etc etc. get mining for coal, gas and oil. Obtain energy independence and security, food security etc. act in the national interest putting UK foreign policy at forefront of UK interest not UN, WHO, WEF or any other body.
May 28, 2022
I agree with the sentiment Hope, but Ford van production went to Turkey, the move being funded by the EU. I considered that a real kick in the teeth by the EU against the UK. Turkey wasn’t even an EU member, but the EU didn’t mind ripping off the UK to help Turkey. A double blow is that as second highest net contributor OUR money was used to fund that move which took jobs and taxes away from the UK!
May 28, 2022
Well said.
May 28, 2022
Attempting to pander to younger customers who have no interest at all in your product and thereby losing your older customers is fairly common. You can see it for example in the BBC, subsidised theatre, and the Conservative government.
May 28, 2022
So true.
May 28, 2022
With their current value I wish I still owned two cars of my youth, a Mk V and an XK140, both bought 2nd hand and much loved.
Now, in the next few months I will need to buy a car and it will be an ICE vehicle which will see me through to the end of the decade to then be replaced (God willing) by another ICE vehicle to see me through the rest of my motoring days.
I will not buy electric or hybrid, pushed on the basis of lies on climate change. Also vehicles that are no greener and in many instances worse. We now see that electricity will not be cheaper than diesel or petrol. I cannot see how pushing technology built on lies can ultimately be successful in the market.
May 28, 2022
Indeed the only reason electricity is cheaper than petrol/diesel is that the latter is hugely taxed and discouraged by government market rigging.
A “posh” new all electric car will cost circa £80,000 with charger(s) after about 7 years and 80,000 miles it will need a new battery and be virtually worthless. Keeping your old £1000 petrol or diesel car makes far more sense. With loss of investment return on the £79k for seven years and depreciation it will cost you about £2 a mile all in to run and more if you do less than 11500 miles PA. Your old car will prob. cost less than 25% of this sum.
The old car also (by not causing a new large new EV and expensive battery to be constructed, nor needing recycling) will actually save CO2 too. So where is the Gov. logic here for subsidies and scrapage schemes? If they just want cleaner city air then hybrid cars (that have batteries 1/12 of the size/cost and do just the city miles on battery) make far more sense. Much faster to refill and far more flexible too.
May 28, 2022
Re built on lies…
There’s an interesting video and transcript in TCW this morning. “The green agenda is not about saving the planet but is about gaining wealth and power.”
Ben Pile presents the video.
Evidence shows that green activists started it all, Trump and Brexit scuppered their plans, and they’ve been using philanthropists to fund their cause. They have targeted the energy industries and finance companies and pretty much blackmailed them all, to serve their cause. These philanthropists have hidden behind charities etc and have effectively bypassed governments- who are now powerless to put things right.
What the greens thought they were saving us all from (because of the climate) has, because of their actions – come to pass. Poverty, food crises, energy crises, collapse of industry etc. Even without the lockdowns, which has speeded things up, we would have got to this point sooner or later.
May 28, 2022
Rather like this “Conservative” Government trying to win votes from Labour voters, and in the process losing their traditional ones.
May 28, 2022
They figure there traditional voter have no where effective to go given first past the post – which is largely true alas.
May 28, 2022
People used to have lives.and fun.
They drove their E types up to London to go to the theatre and were able to PARK!
They came out of the theatre and went for a meal and their car was still in one piece and unclamped!
My uncle took his E type on an empty M1 and got up to 100 mph.
What’s the point of a car like that in a femocracy where room in an SUV for buggies etc etc 🥱 is the order of the day.
May 28, 2022
The EU is introducing speed limiters so there will be no point buying a car that goes fast as I’m sure Boris will be following this regulation to keep us in line and further control our lives. I also notice our local motorway is being upgraded to a digital motorway. I expect this is so authorities can control our speed and charge us for using the roads. They have to start clawing back the money they are losing from zero road tax as more electric and low emission vehicles now use the roads.
May 28, 2022
+100
Yes. There are already inbuilt speed limiters in some cars I believe.
I also understand from someone who is taking driving lessons that safe driving ( mirror, signal, manoeuvre) is now secondary to saving fuel and emitting the demon exhaust fumes.
Smart motorways are good for population reduction I imagine and yes…all of it is aimed at control.
Controlled by dreadful uncontrollable people and our only option as bad if not worse!!
May 28, 2022
From July 2022, the speed limiter will be set at 112 mph for the cars that can reach such a speed: 179 km/h.
The maximum speed on UK roads and motorways is supposed to be 70 mph. Would a potential 60% higher speed from the 70 mph speed not be enough for you?
When and where were you using the range 112-155 mph on your BMW, Audi or Mercedes on UK roads? On German Autobahnen?
May 28, 2022
In true Trump lunatic style, I say, limiting my Audi to 150 mph in the engine software, is against my constitutional rights. It’s not the car that kills, it is the driver. As the Donald said at the NRA, it’s not the gun that kills, it is the [brain dead republican voting red neck] shooter. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” the former President said; repeating what (lunatic squared) Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said, minutes earlier.
May 28, 2022
Did you know that New York and Chicago, both controlled by the Democrats, have some of the strictest gun control laws in the USA. They also have some of the highest murder rates.
Fact over fiction.
May 29, 2022
Compare the gun death rates of the UK with the US. You can’t just walk across the border into this country carrying guns like you can between US states.
May 28, 2022
Hef,
Meanwhile those promoting a green petrol free world hop on a rocket to space to see the world! Best way to see German Autobahnen!
Clink, cheers from No.10. Johnson telling us what we can eat and drink as well is a further insult and act of hypocrisy from our obese overlord!
May 29, 2022
Look, a flying squirrel.
May 28, 2022
Good days
May 28, 2022
+1
Oh yes!
May 28, 2022
Well government regulation makes nearly all new car very similar indeed and usually inferior to new one too.
May 28, 2022
As an example I recently had to change a battery on my wife’s six year old Merc C class. As it has the irritating start stop system (which makes you stall if you set off too quickly) the different battery needed costs nearly £300 rather than what it would be on an older car of perhaps £70. Not only that it has two batterys. The start stop when stationary (for most users) saves trivial amounts of fuel almost certainly less than it costs to manufacture the batteries with just a six year life! If I know I am in a long jam I switch the engine off anyway. Carrying the extra weight of these two batteries also increases fuel use.
It also has a low tapered in roof as most new cars do – to save a tiny bit more fuel on wind resistance – so I constantly bang my head on it!
New cars also tend to nag you but I can take my wife with me for that if I want to thanks very much.
May 28, 2022
Matt Ridley is right as usual:- “A WHO pandemic pact would leave the world at China’s mercy”
May 28, 2022
+many
I reckon the world already is.
All the leaders are frit.
Unpleasant consequences for those who defied the covid doctrine.
May 28, 2022
E,
Clink, cheers from No10. Save lives save NHS every night from Johnson between drinks while Carrie attends govt meetings! It needs to be asked,Why was she invited with a babe in arms?
May 28, 2022
Sir Bob Neill today (lawyer & doubtless a remainer) is surely wrong :- “If the Tories are to win the next election, Boris has to go. I cannot accept that the PM did not know what was happening in No 10 during partygate. He has lost the public’s trust, and I don’t think he can get it back”
Has he looked at the appalling list of the people likely in the betting odds to replace him? Who is he suggesting (they never dare to say who they want).
I am no fan of socialist, green crap pushing Boris nor his economically illiterate side kick the tax to death, windfall tax pusher Sunak. But Boris surely has the best chance to keeping the appalling Labour/SNP Stramer/Sturgeon out of power. And very few English voters want that disaster to come about do they?
Boris needs to ditch net zero, cut taxes hugely become pro jobs and pro business and he will win!
May 28, 2022
With the appalling fool John Major (post ERM) it was very clearly “no change no chance” and he buried the party for three+ terms. With Boris we just need him to adopt sensible JR type real Conservative policies. The ones Boris used to espouse himself pre-Carrie!
May 28, 2022
@ Lifelogic – yet Boris’s flaws have been repeatedly paraded and burnished for all to witness in conditions that have kept his talents well-hidden. Beyond that, voters resent being fooled and over lockdown compliance they know they have been and in serious ways.
May 28, 2022
THE SATURDAY INTERVIEW Stella Creasy in the Telegraph today.
‘J K Rowling is wrong – a woman can have a penis’
Do people really think that the “take the knee” tedious dope Starmer, Labour/SNP/LibDims/Plaid will win the next election against Boris and the Conservatives? Even against these tax to death, green crap pushing, socialist Conservatives?
May 28, 2022
So,LL,what do you make of the latest harebrained scheme endorsed by your favourite lump of lard-discussed at Davos but not covered by the UK press:
Corriere della Sera,26/5/22,Frederico Fubini:”Boris Johnson’s secret plan to divide Ukraine from Russia and the EU:The European Commonwealth.”
“The European Commonwealth model that Johnson has in mind would have Great Britain as the leader and would include in addition to Ukraine,Poland,Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania as well as potentially Turkey at a later date.”
“It is also likely that the British project has feet of clay:London does not have the capacity of the EU to financially support Ukraine……..”
It is also covered by the news website imalbania.com:”Boris Johnson’s secret plan for a European Commonwealth as an alternative to the European Union.”
It sounds to me like a plan to resurrect the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of old but under British leadership.Polish nationalist,Jozef Pilsudski, tried to do the same after WWI(Intermarium project);it didn’t end well-to say the least.
Perhaps our host would also like to comment.
May 28, 2022
Oh my goodness!! Megalomania rules OK.
I wonder if the Tories have seen the latest YouGov poll?
Terrible reading. Would deliver us straight into Labour’s lap.
May 28, 2022
+1
May 28, 2022
Jaguar was sold by Ford to Tata and so took a tumble.
At some point it gained a reputation for unreliability.
And the new cars ( there’s an electric one….oooooooo) are just too expensive.
I see that their ads are very 60s ( nice I think) so probably not WOKE enough despite the “zero emissions” model.
Plus..when a car is iconic and expensive people tend not to upgrade very often.
May 28, 2022
Ministers and Civil servants enjoy riding in Jaguars as they evoke the best of British quality on many dimensions especially when compared with Russian, Chinese and even USA big but forgettable offerings.
However they fail to look after the Private Sector that produced them, ignore STEM importance and crash dreams of aspiring enterprise on many levels instead of so it seems.
May 28, 2022
A fighter jet always looks better that any car IMO.
That is because the balance between the importance attached to what designers have to say, and what engineers do is correct in the first case but often not in the second.
May 28, 2022
In the case of the car what they have to do is largely comply with misguided EU and endless other government regulations and still come in as affordable for customers. More like buying a fridge now!
May 28, 2022
Where are the European Union rules on style, appearance, aesthetics?
There are none whatsoever, are there?
May 28, 2022
Correct – the EU doesn’t set union standards on style, the call it ‘safety’ instead….consider the design of the car ‘headlight’ which a car manufacturer can make in any style it likes but must adhere to the https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:42014X0822(02)&from=DE regulations (which accounts for 99% of design ie it’s materials, size, usage, maintenance, fitting and in some conditions its colour and position on a car)….car designed by EU committee which we still haven’t repealed
May 28, 2022
+1
May 29, 2022
So you can’t blame the European Union for duff styling can you?
May 29, 2022
Yes you can because all the EU regs (and to be fair) regs in other world markets restrict most designs to the ones we currently see in order for them to be compliant.
May 29, 2022
As ever, tripe, Peter.
May 29, 2022
Another hilarious response from you NHL full of data, facts and information to prove you right.
If only you knew what you were talking about.
May 28, 2022
We went to a Maple Flag exercise at Cold Lake in the days when the F16 was new and the pan had Phantoms, A6s, Corsairs etc galore. A passing Yank looked at us and said ‘Gee, your aircraft sure is ugly”.
‘Ansom is as ‘ansom does my ‘ansom. The Bucc was a little challenged in the glamour department but it went like greased weasel droppings off a non-stick shovel.
JF
May 28, 2022
It’s difficult to find a modern car that I covet. Jaguar isn’t one of them. Bland looking.
When going for an expensive badge you want a bit of WOW ! factor with it. Otherwise there are much better ordinary cars out there and I’d be inclined to go East.
May 28, 2022
I think Jaguar cars is a minor issue.
I am more interested in the changes to the Ministerial Code.
I seems that the chancer type politicians are becoming even more brazen.
May 28, 2022
+many
Agree absolutely.
Where is the outrage?
This is truly terrible!
May 28, 2022
Droit De Seigneur will be back before you know it.
May 28, 2022
And what does Sir John think of the new ministerial code? Is that a step towards more democratic oversight of the PM, ministers and MPs?
May 28, 2022
We have the government -and currency-of a banana republic-without the capability/motivation to grow the bananas and much else besides foodwise.
Ghana and Uganda are banning exports of grain and other farm produce.Ukraine expects it’s harvest to be reduced by half this year(leaving aside blockade issues);Crimea will however be bringing an extra 10,000 hectares under the plough now that it has control of the water supply from Kherson-that harvest is unlikely to be coming to Europe though.
Services for breakfast,lunch and dinner-not very nutritious I fear.
May 28, 2022
So much for free markets eh?
Ten thousand hectares is an area just over six miles by six miles, incidentally.
May 28, 2022
Agreed. Also, dropping the 3L. V6 from the XF and offering a choice of a 2L. 4-cylinder petrol or diesel is not what a ‘traditional’ buyer of Jaguar expects of the marque. Sadly, our manufacturers do not appear to have the long-term commitment to produce good quality British products. The Germans have that commitment in their country.
May 28, 2022
I have enjoyed owning, over the years, an S-type, an XK8 convertible and an X-type. The X-type was basically a Ford Mondeo chassis and components. The XK8; the most unreliable, filled the gap between the E-type and the F-type, was also full of Ford Lincoln bits. Which is useful because you can buy Jaguar spares cheaper in the US.
And yesterday, I was out in what I consider to be the best of last centuries Jaguars, a classic XJ X350 after it had its air spring suspension reversibly replaced with coil springs.
May 28, 2022
On the subject of British manufacturing, today’s Times notes that US officials are threatening us with non-cooperation if we do not sell them our Ultra Electronics company. Is that true, Sir John? Are our American allies really being that offensive? Wasn’t Cobham enough? If it is true, might it be a matter for open query in Parliament?
May 28, 2022
The Civil Service led Parliament’s implementation of the pointless, unnecessary and unworkable Net Zero Strategy will ensure the collapse of almost all UK car making.
The Strategy requires the electrification of all transport, which means that not only will the vehicles be sub-optimal and expensive but worse we will be almost totally reliant on China for the raw materials and components for motors and batteries, if not eventually the compete vehicles.
A Government minister has already told us not to expect to be able to afford a car in the future.
A better way forward is to use GREEN methane/CNG instead which ALSO has net zero CO2 emissions. The technology already exists and is in use throughout the world, including the UK. Existing internal combustion engines can be converted to its use (so not scrapped earlier than necessary, which includes HGVs and caravan towing cars, for which battery technology is not yet able to power. Even using non-green methane/CNG will reduce emissions.
Vehicles can be quickly re-filled at existing filling stations and there would be no need for the expensive roll out of chargers and the massive increases necessary in electrical energy production and grid capacity.
It also means that we continue to have transport security by not being dependent upon China, a hostile state.
May 28, 2022
They’re scrambling to make electric cars because of your ICE car ban in 2030 (8 years) but the people aren’t scrambling to buy them…..outside the London bubble nobody wants net-zero, including car manufacturers
May 28, 2022
100% right glen. It would be interesting to see who exactly is buying electric cars. Suspicion would surely fall on those who live in urban environments and rarely move more than a few miles or public bodies or those avoiding the tax on company cars. Comprehensive data is needed to form opinions.
May 28, 2022
The poor taxpayer is funding/subsidising the rich to buy EVs, apparently they selling like hot-cakes, so why the need to subsidies them….remember the new home subsidy, which upon post analysis study reported that only the rich took up the option to buy…and they could already afford it without subsidy…so why the subsidy
May 28, 2022
Driving around the south london roads there seem very few green-strip number plates. My son who flits between Gatwick and Southfields says there are a fair view EVs but they’re all the big ones. So only a wealthy persons hobby?
May 28, 2022
I see the US, our greatest ally and friend, is trying to bully the UK government in to allowing Ultra Electronics to be bought by US Private Equity. I hope the government will tell the US that after the disastrous sale of ARM Holdings to Japanese private equity, they have learned their lesson and in future foreign spivs will not be given the green light to render this country yet more denuded of its intellectual property and highly skilled jobs for the sake of a few shekels.
May 28, 2022
Perhaps UK should tell America to vacate Menwith Hill and all other bases currently under American occupation.
May 28, 2022
In my experience, the salespeople aren’t interested in selling cars. I went to my local Jaguar dealer and there was no one available to even show me a car. I had to beg the receptionist to give me a key to even sit in one. I asked for a business card so I could ring and make an appointment. She had none and wrote her number on a scrap of paper. She took my number and said she would get a salesperson to ring me to arrange a test drive. That was over a year ago and I’ve heard nothing since. I know it’s a small example but Jaguar didn’t come across as professional.
May 28, 2022
Ipswich? If so I had the same experience.
JF
May 28, 2022
No, Preston.
Maybe this problem is widespread. In which case no wonder their sales are dropping.
May 28, 2022
JLR do not have a good enough record on longevity is a quote from their new CEO.
Reliability must come a very close second. The scare stories that surround the brand are frightening, but a lot all trace back to electronic components.
Customers now expect all the bells and whistles with a 7 year warranty the latter sadly omitted from the JLR package. A lot still go for build quality thicker gauge on body panels and all round comfort.
Instead of the envy tax quoted by FUS earlier, if the taxes on new vehicles was reduced JLR and all UK manufacturers would sell more cars on the home market, their production would expand, more jobs and higher profits which would indirectly reclaim the tax discounts.
But to do that Government needs to declare it wants a car manufacturing operation based in the UK. The way it is heading they do not especially with the total commitment to Net Zero. Which at the end of the day will achieve three fifths of sweet FA.
May 28, 2022
I drive an Audi A5 coupé, and Jaguar make nothing that would interest me. I will stick with Audi/BMW/Mercedes, and buy another ICE car towards the end of this decade to see me through to the end. I habitually keep a car for 15 or 16 years, and the German ones I mention are of a quality that allows me to do that.
Why buy an expensive electric car for added inconvenience – low range and a wait of an hour every time it needs charging up.
May 28, 2022
The electric car is die on arrival in the UK, should went for UK 7 petrol engine with small batteries and without batteries, no comon sense with the kids in charge, all in there heads, not FACTS.
May 28, 2022
As you stated when you wrote about Jaguar before, there is no reason why it cannot offer attractive vehicles when the likes of BMW are able to do so.
Tata today might be better off switching Jaguar production facilities over to Range Rover. How many would notice the loss of the Jaguar brand and how many would care?
May 28, 2022
As a long term but past Jaguar owner, I agree with what you have posted.
The XF was a fine car but the XJ was a trifle too large and unwealdy.
Unfortunately developing a new car to compete with Mercedes, Audi and BMW is beyong the ability of Jaguar to finance, hence the XF limps on with few buyers as it is now very long in the tooth.
The Full electric iPace remains a brilliant car but it is made in Austria, not the UK. It also has completely different architecture to the new all-electric models Jaguar-Land Rover is now developing !
It is now looking like a very expensive cul-de-sac.
Going all electric in 2025 is going to severely dent sales because nobody wanting a sports car like the F Type is going to be able to buy a new Jaguar ! It would have been far better to turn current models into mild hybrids and continue to sell them until at least 2035.
I fear that the company will end up making all Jaguar models mere clones of Land Rovers. Ironically they will be badge-engineered like British Leyland cars back in the 1970s.
May 28, 2022
When did Jaguar, when did the British motor industry, when did the British owned motor industry last produce an iconic vehicle? Jaguar is the choice of retirees with fat pensions. It’s staid and comfortable but lacks panache; for that one has to look over the Channel to Germany where engineers are considered a higher form of life that Arts graduates.
May 28, 2022
You sound like a disappointed enthusiast. It is a marque in which you make a statement in the golf club car park.
Enzo Ferrari got it right when he described the early E-types as the most beautiful car in the world. Some later models with their upright intrusive windscreens were not so pretty and at well over a hundred MPH the front end tended to waft about a bit. My experience of driving various saloons was that the steering was akin to a yacht in a chop.
A friend who got me into serious rallying, used to race a Mark 2. Driving that was a different ballgame. I think it had a D type engine. I know it had very responsive precise steering, modified suspension and gear box, a real car in fact. Jaguar could do it, as their racing record demonstrated, but it didn’t extend to their production cars. Their great virtue in the 60s/70s was that they were inexpensive. Now they have joined the computer designed bland but expensive. If they go all electric by 2025 they need to sharpen up their design appeal.
May 28, 2022
Sir John, let me bring hope to petrolheads everywhere. On Monday I will get a lift to a friend to a small business in Larling, just up the road. There i will collect my 1967 Midget which has had various bits and pieces fettled, including the engine. The crankshaft was worn square, the piston rings were loose and rattley, the wiper box was seized, the indicators no longer cancelled, the radiator (the second one it’s had) was leaking at all seams… and so on. I’ve been delayed picking it up and it has been kept in the shed with the rebuilds, the Rolls, the MGAs (ah, MGA!) the Alfas, the Sprite, the perfect MGBs. Most are better than new. After 40 years working on it I’ll trust them to keep the old girl roadworthy until I can no longer bend enough to squeeze into the cockpit.
If you want a Jaguar, any Jaguar, just take a pile of rusty metal and they’ll turn it into the car of your dreams. It will cost you, but it’s only money.
JF
Did I mention the Maserati? As new. Almost worth a second mortgage.
May 28, 2022
I dislike modern cars, too much plastic and fragile electronics.
My 25 year old Volvo still ticks all of my boxes but if Mayor Khan has his way it will soon cost me £12.50 every day to use it. No doubt the GLA and Carrie’s government will continue tightening the restrictions until all but the wealthy are driven off of the roads.
May 28, 2022
You are right. I dumped my low mileage ten-year-old Volvo onto one of these internet buyers of “any car” and good riddance, for exactly those reasons – flaky electronics, which periodically shut the car down for no substantive mechanical reason, and beyond the ken of the dealer’s garage mechanics to resolve.
May 28, 2022
Need a new name for the UK. I was thinking Fantasy Islands or Fantasia. CO2 back to 1888 levels in the UK.
May 28, 2022
Nobody is suppose to be reporting the government DEIS report proclaiming our co2 and clean air is back to 1888 levels….if the message gets out it could stop the ‘green revolution’ dead
May 28, 2022
Energy Cost per Kiolowatt hour per Kg impact the design of cars. All cars are seeking better aerodynamics, logically the designs will converge, unless one accepts a tradeoff for a difference.
A raindrop falling through the air is pretty much one shape, even though dynamic, for the weather conditions.
Get energy right, and grace pace and space may make a comeback.
Until we implement a carbon even playing field with goods service imported from abroad, we are exporting jobs , manufacturing and allowing the UK to bought by the same. There is no strategic independent policy setting to enable an sovereign democratic state, rather the opposite.
The problem is mostly a lack of UK competitive productive capacity in the UK, that is allowed to produce at a price point the local wages can afford.
Hell-bent on net-zero. Implement.
a) a carbon import taxes on goods and services.
b) a complete ban on private aircraft etc, using kerosene for any flights landing or taking off from the UK. Emergency flight excepted. No loopholes for “elites” and charge a carbon sales tax on first class aircraft tickets.
c) all said carbon taxes should be ring fenced alternative energy production, storage(gas,ammonia,hydrogen,other synthetics) and technology from domestic resources with a view to maintaining surplus UK capacity. Geo-thermal,tide,wind,solar, existing nuclear and fossil plant.
d) temporarily nationalize away problems of old plant e.g. coal being mothballed in summer and used flat out in winter.
e) incentives for high mileage commercial users to switch to new technology, car-hire, taxi, bus, rail and ship.
May 28, 2022
Sadly all cars are NOT seeking better aerodynamics. The Volvo V40 was superb in that regard, later models awful, for instance.
No, it’s what some “designer” says “looks good” that seems to hold sway.
May 29, 2022
Ridiculous comment NHL
They absolutely are seeking better aerodynamics.
Many hundreds of millions are being spent on this topic.
Together with reducing weight but not reducing safety strength and rigidity.
It’s the way to get better fuel efficiency whether it is electricity or fossil fuels.
I reckon you have obvioysly never been involved in any engineering industries or automotive engineering.
May 28, 2022
The sales response at Jaguar is rubbish, we were looking for a new car and sent in requests through each companies websites, Jaguar didn’t respond, my husband followed it up because he was interested in one of their cars, still no response. I said if they can’t be bothered with you when buying what will servicing and problems be like lets not bother so we didn’t. The sales drop is down to poor quality customer services.
May 28, 2022
The big question of course is why does a Conservative Government actually want to destroy this Country?
(Net Zero, uncontrolled immigration)
May 28, 2022
Any response, JR?
May 28, 2022
You know, I know and an ever increasing number know.
May 28, 2022
I am not a car person myself , although I have had an X6 ( not a new one) bought for me by my ex husband.What a slop wagon , and talk about bad road holding i ice and snow. These sort of cars are just male ego boosters, although I do realise to pander to these feelings of projected power also gives people jobs.
May 29, 2022
I recently had to put my car in for repairs, but needed a car for a 300+ mile round trip, so I was forced to hire. None of the available vehicles had any reasonable load space, so I was forced to travel on my own. The petrol vehicle had every modern gizmo going – an automatic 7 speed box that even managed to work out that it needed to operate lockdown when descending steeper hills, yet could completely disengage into a coasting mode on a gentle motorway downslope; parking sensors/radar, camera with automated parking (I did not try that), adaptive cruise control that slowed the car over 100 yards back from the next truck to be overtaken, road sign recognition, automated lane keeping (that wanted to grab the steering when I was trying to avoid potholes – took a while to learn I needed a long press on its button to switch it off), automated headlights including auto full beam which worked surprisingly well mostly, and an assortment of nanny alarms to warn of other vehicles etc. (and I suspect automated braking if you didn’t take action, though I tend to drive with plenty of anticipation to make such features redundant), and of course a satnav that was useless to me because the hire company had not set it up to receive traffic or diversion information (although it was capable of it, I believe): I tend to know exactly where I am going and what the alternative routes are.
Not an EV (which would have left me with range problems with no easy access to charging at either end of my main journey), but clearly a long way on the way towards automated driving if you let all the gizmos run. Aside from the load space problems I ended up feeling I would never want one: after about 2 hours it became uncomfortable, and it was at times too much effort fighting all the automation to provide a smooth ride. An Asian product.
I longed for the comfort and engine torque of my diesel estate car, equally at home on the motorway or winding country lanes o’er hill and dale, and capable of 700 miles between refuelling stops. I recall the armour plated 4.2XJs I travelled in long ago were supremely comfortable even negotiating tight bendy mountain roads, although at altitude the extra weight did eat into performance somewhat.
May 29, 2022
I am on my third Jaguar, an XF Sportbrake following an X-Type and an S-Type. In an ideal world I would be looking to replace the Sportbrake – a reliable and enjoyable diesel car that has just reached 100,000 miles – with another in 5 years’ time to coincide with retirement when the annual mileage would tumble. However, I now find that Jaguar is apparently looking to wind down its production of ICE cars and “nudge” its presumed loyal customer base towards electric cars, at a time when electricity is exorbitantly priced and lacking cast iron guarantees for continuity of supply, and when the laws of physics make it highly unlikely that an electric car would ever enable a 550-600 mile range via a 5 minute visit to a garage forecourt. With the greatest of regret, I sense that Jaguar is in danger of losing my business when the time comes.
May 29, 2022
“It proved easier to lose the old supporters than to find the new enthusiasts in sufficient numbers.”
I’ve lost track of the number of retailers, manufacturers, programme makers and even arts organisations who have fallen into this trap – pursuing a yoof market that simply isn’t interested.
I used to buy smart casual clothing from a retailer called Hornes. Good middle of the road styling (neither tweedy nor trendy) and less expensive than, say, Austin Reed. Then some genius decided they weren’t cool enough. Within a relatively short time the company ceased to exist.
May 30, 2022
I read on a forum where the impact of the chip shortage on various makers was being discussed that if you ordered a new Jaguar now, the lead time was about a year. Perhaps JLR are prioritising the production of more profitable Range Rovers instead of Jags.