Jaguar’s “Bold” Rebranding. What Do You Think?

VR3 · November 21

https://www.edmunds.com/jaguar/f-pace/2023/cost-to-own/

nooshinjohn · November 22

This is a picture of the EV Jag that was scrapped. The only picture I have seen of the car without the dazzle camouflage treatment…

gmcman · November 22

I've always loved the X350,6,8 series XJR. Timeless classic IMO. Facelift version here but somewhat partial to the X350 without the slight "smile" of this one. All are fine though

jdjohn · November 22

"Kex wrote:

Not sure I’d put that much faith in a YouTube mechanic with enough free time to make 175 videos… any serious mechanic I know wouldn’t have the time or the patience for that.

Well, he has clearly been successful with his business, having two locations, and with so many mechanics, he has admin time to do the videos. It appears that his son does most of the leg work on the videos anyway.

"Kex wrote:

Even so… he appears to be measuring the average cost of repairs at his shop over two years. That’s not a gauge of reliability per se. He doesn’t mention what age the cars are, how many miles they have been driven, how they have been serviced in the past before these repairs at his shop became necessary, nor how many years they were driven without any repairs at all.

You're right, and he qualifies much of that at the beginning of the video. This is just average cost of repair, and average Jaguar/Land Rover repairs are $200 more than second place.

"Kex wrote:

He makes the claim that all European cars leak oil. I currently have three in my possession, aged 18, 17, and 16 years old, with mileages ranging from 92K to 164K. Two Mercedes-Benz and one BMW. None of them leak oil. None of them consume oil between services which are at 13K mile intervals minimum. If I include family members, that would add another 4 Audis that also have never leaked oil. Cost of repairs most years from new? Usually $0.

He does not say "all". He just says it is common in the repairs they do, and I think his sample size of several hundred (or thousands, over many years) is more impressive than yours of 7?

"Kex wrote:

I’d be more interested in measuring the total cost of maintenance and repairs combined in the first ten years of the life of the vehicle, and then the second ten years of ownership after that — when most repairs are likely to occur, as some components will exceed their expected service life by then.

Agreed. But again, he states his objective at the beginning of the video, which is a quick and dirty calculation of average repair price over a two-year period. It is not an exhaustive study, and is not intended to be.

For the record, I do like the look and performance of many European vehicles (I owned a BMW years ago), but I have gone with Japanese vehicles for several years now, mainly for the reliability, and cost of maintenance.

Emlyn · November 22

My dad had a Daimler Sovereign (Jaguar in fancy dress) in the early 1980s. Pile of junk for reliability but a good driving car for the time. The gear shifter came off in his hand when he was driving, among many other things. Pretty cool and beautiful car anyway though and I still remember the leather interior smelled awesome.

mhardy6647 · November 23

as seen Somewhere Else...

nooshinjohn · November 24

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-reinvention-of-jaguar-needs-a-miracle-to-succeed/?utm_content=sf208079334&utm_medium=spredfast

Kex · November 24

I’ll just add the content of that link here, for those who don’t like following links. From Haggerty 🇬🇧:

When it comes to ****-ups, mismanagement, and hoping for fair winds and following seas, Jaguar is right up there.

If you haven’t heard, the Jaguar part of JLR—Jaguar Land Rover—is in a pickle. Earlier this year, it stopped selling the XE and XF sedans as well the F-Type sports car. Now it’s pulled the plug on the I-Pace electric car, the E-Pace junior SUV, and its primary cash cow, the F-Pace SUV.

This means you now can’t buy a new Jaguar in the U.K. And that means Jag dealers can’t sell you one. The last time this happened was when bombs were falling on factories, during World War II.
Yet for reasons best known to Jaguar executives, outside of the U.K., some international markets—America among them—will continue to sell new Jaguars.

The bosses at JLR say the blueprint for success is simple if challenging: Reinvent Jaguar. Imagine a time when Jaguar will soar high above the likes of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes—which, let’s not forget, it once did—as a maker of more exclusive, and more expensive, motorcars. The new-age Jaguar will be electrified, luxurious, and limited in numbers. The hope is a Jaguar might supplant a Bentley or Porsche in the driveway, without stepping on the toes of JLR’s epic money-spinner, Range Rover.

The first evidence of this reinvention has broken cover across Jaguar’s social media. The brand’s new slogan is “Copy Nothing,” which is ironic as the initial advertising campaign looks like something Benetton might have tried during the ’90s. The effort has been met by an astonishing outcry, as the Jaguar faithful question the decision to erase the past (quite literally, on social channels) and start with a clean sheet of paper. But how many of those commenters have actually bought a new Jaguar in the past decade?

The worry for onlookers and fans of the brand is that Jaguar has form when it comes to muddling through and getting away with things by the seat of the pants. From the 1940s through to the 1960s, Jaguar built a reputation that few could touch, drawing in passionate engineers and daring executives who shaped a golden era not only for the brand, but for people like us who cared about cars. With William Lyons at the helm, beginning in the mid-1930s Jaguar became known for upsetting the status quo, turning out cars that were prettier, faster, cheaper, and had more sex appeal than anything the establishment could muster.

There was the SS100, which hit 100 mph, the “magic ton,” in 1936. Then the XK120, which wowed the crowds—and the rest of the world—at the 1948 Earls Court motor show. Three years later came the C-Type, which would go on to secure Jaguar its first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 24, to be swiftly followed by the potent D-Type, which won Le Mans in 1955, ’56, and ’57. The end of that decade saw the launch of the car that, for many, is the most recognizable sedan of the time, the Mark II. And even before writer Piri Halasz coined the phrase “Swinging Sixties,” Jaguar had knocked out all of us with the E-Type.

These cars broke new ground and in doing so set new standards for drivers. They would be followed in the late 1960s by the elegant XJ6 and, from 1975, the avant-garde XJ-S. Like it or loathe it, the XJ-S could only have come from a company that was confident in its values and what it stood for (just don’t mention the “R” word: reliability).

Compare that track record with more recent efforts. We all know how Jaguar managed to royally upset its wealthiest clients over the XJ 220 debacle, U-turning on a V-12 engine and all-wheel drive for a twin-turbocharged six driving the rears only.

More recently, I remember testing one of the very first S-Types, in 1999, and being appalled at the poor quality of the cabin it shared with the Lincoln LS. Of course, there came quick reassurances from the PR people that it was a pre-production car and not representative of the finished thing that would be much improved. Unfortunately, it was and it wouldn’t be. A facelift was rushed through and into production by 2002.

When the X-Type came out in 2001, its role was to help grow Jaguar’s volume. But it was hampered by awkwardly conservative design and the decision to only offer it with all-wheel drive and thirsty V-6 engines. Where were the front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder versions or diesel models that fleet buyers across Europe were buying up at the time? Jaguar executives are said to have become fixated on the large U.S. market, to the detriment of everywhere else.

Then there was the time engineers embraced aluminum for the construction of the X350 XJ in the early 2000s. Its bodyshell was 40 percent lighter and 50 percent stiffer than the previous XJ, which is something worth showcasing with bold design. But management pushed for conservative cues, so to anyone not in the know—which, let’s face it, is the majority of the car-buying public—the new XJ looked like an old XJ. An Audi A8 or BMW 7 Series spoke of modernism and technology; the Jag simply said “old man’s motor.”

And as the world fell head-over-heels for remakes—think Ford Mustang and GT, Mini Cooper, Fiat 500, and Nissan 350Z—rightly or wrongly Jaguar couldn’t bring itself to revive the E-Type nameplate. Or find a way to create a production-feasible C-X75 supercar.

Jaguar’s one recent glimmer of first-mover advantage came with the all-electric I-Pace, which hit the road way back in 2018 as one of Europe’s first luxury electric SUVs to rival Tesla. However, the electric crossover was plagued by reliability issues and a failure to provide timely updates in the face of new competition. Now it’s dead.

The big roll of the dice, put in place by Thierry Bolloré in 2021, is to reposition Jaguar as a maker of all-electric luxury cars, using a new platform called JEA (Jaguar Electric Architecture). But hands up who’s been reading the recent reports from the likes of Aston Martin, Bentley, and Ferrari saying buyers in the luxury car sector have precious little appetite for all-electric cars. Forecasts are being revised, production plans walked back, profit warnings issued.

Bolloré went out the door after two years at the top of JLR. Draw your own conclusions. Now Jaguar has to pick up the pieces, and rumor has it the first car, said to be a four-seat super coupe (set to be previewed as a concept at Miami Art Week on December 2) is having to be reconfigured to somehow accommodate hybrid running gear. Whether that is true or not, the fact remains that these are troubling times for a once-great brand.

If necessity is the mother of invention, but drivers of luxury cars aren’t buying electric cars, it’s going to take more than reinvention for Jaguar to survive. It’s going to take a miracle.

Kex · November 24

Some more commentary, this time from the 🇬🇧 Sunday Times (a center-right news organization owned by News Corp and the Murdoch family).

Replacing the leaping] cat with a double J logo has infuriated traditionalists. A bigger issue for boss Rawdon Glover is, do drivers want to go electric yet?

If you believe the old marketing adage that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, Rawdon Glover should be the happiest man in business. More than 100 million keyboard warriors have posted, read, liked or shared social media messages about the brand he runs, Jaguar cars. They include Elon Musk, America’s most powerful motormouth, and Reform UK MP Nigel Farage.

The snag is, most of the comments lack the grace of the great Jaguar sports cars and saloons of the past. “I predict Jaguar will now go bust. And you know what? They deserve to,” said Farage.

Critics’ tyres are smoking at Jaguar’s radical rebrand, unveiled on Tuesday. Out goes the aggressive leaping cat on the bonnet of its new cars and also the predator’s face on the roundel badge. In its place is a soft, golden double J logo. Teaser images of Jaguar’s sharp-edged, all-electric, £100,000 new concept car, which will be unveiled at Miami Art Week on December 2, have been dismissed as looking like Musk’s brutal Mad Max-style Tesla Cybertruck.

Did Glover, managing director of Jaguar, part of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), expect the backlash? He didn’t “expect to be the number one and three trending topics on X on either side of the Atlantic”. But he welcomes it. “We wanted to start a debate — to get people thinking and talking about Jaguar in a different way.”

Glover, who is sporting a cornflower blue shirt in his Midlands office in anticipation of his trip to Miami next week, sounds pleased that Farage, the personification of the dated gin’n’Jag set, does not like the new brand. “People love us for our history and our heritage, but that has not led to huge commercial success. The average age of the Jaguar client is quite old and getting older. We’ve got to access a completely different audience. That audience isn’t centred around people of the demographic of Mr Farage.”

“Not a huge commercial success” is putting it mildly. While sales of snazzy Land Rover and Range Rover models have soared in recent years, Jaguar’s attempt to compete with the German luxury car giants has been an epic failure. It has sold only 60,000 cars annually in recent years. That’s a rounding error for BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which each sell more than two million cars a year. It’s time for “dramatic change”, says Glover.

Dramatic is one way of describing what he is trying to pull off. Bonkers is another. Ahead of its relaunch as an electric-only brand in 2026, Jaguar has stopped selling all its models in Britain, including the popular F-Pace SUV, F-Type sports car and the pure electric I-Pace, which was voted the best car in the world when it was launched six years ago. It is pinning all its hopes on a new four-door grand tourer, which is likely to be followed by an all-new saloon car and an SUV — although Jaguar sources say they have not ruled out a sports car. All will be designed and built in Britain.

“Not a huge commercial success” is putting it mildly. While sales of snazzy Land Rover and Range Rover models have soared in recent years, Jaguar’s attempt to compete with the German luxury car giants has been an epic failure. It has sold only 60,000 cars annually in recent years. That’s a rounding error for BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which each sell more than two million cars a year. It’s time for “dramatic change”, says Glover.

Dramatic is one way of describing what he is trying to pull off. Bonkers is another. Ahead of its relaunch as an electric-only brand in 2026, Jaguar has stopped selling all its models in Britain, including the popular F-Pace SUV, F-Type sports car and the pure electric I-Pace, which was voted the best car in the world when it was launched six years ago. It is pinning all its hopes on a new four-door grand tourer, which is likely to be followed by an all-new saloon car and an SUV — although Jaguar sources say they have not ruled out a sports car. All will be designed and built in Britain.

JLR plans to build a combined total of 50,000 of the new Jaguars a year in its Solihull factory. That’s a tiny fraction of its former sales target, but with each priced at more than £100,000, the company thinks it can make money. Glover points out that “there are 2.5 million luxury car buyers in the world”. Jaguar only needs a tiny fraction of those to decide they must have the new Jaguars — or they will die! — to thrive.

Given the mountain that Jaguar has to climb, the first of the three new models has inevitably been dubbed Jaguar’s “last-chance saloon”. Glover understands the joke but believes he will have the last laugh because the cars, designed by Gerry McGovern, Britain’s most fêted car designer, will be modern icons, just like the E-Type, the MKII and the XJS, and will save the marque.

“We’re our very best when we copy nothing. Look — we’re unveiling the brand at an art fair, rather than a motor show. This is Jaguar being bold, doing things differently.” He added that all the new cars “will drive like a Jaguar”.

Billions of pounds of investment in the new Jaguars is guaranteed, Glover said, thanks to the whopping profits that Land Rover and Range Rover make. JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, netted a record £29 billion in revenue in the last financial year, up 27 per cent on the previous year, and pre-tax profits rose to £2.6 billion, the highest since 2015. Adrian Mardell, JLR’s chief executive, has pledged to invest £15 billion across the group over the next four years.

Fine. But isn’t Glover’s timing off? Sales of electric vehicles, especially luxury ones such as the Porsche Taycan, have cratered as customers turn back to petrol cars, worried by many EVs’ limited driving range, a spotty charging network and plunging residual values. Some luxury EVs lose half their value in their first year of ownership.

Glover pointed out that the new Jaguars will have a 430-mile range on a full charge, and that it will take only 15 minutes to juice the battery enough to guarantee 200 miles. “Most EVs are nowhere near those statistics,” he said.

By the time the first new Jaguars are delivered to customers in late 2026, demand will have “evolved”, he predicted, adding that the timeline for sales of the three new models “runs into the next decade. Between now and 2030, we expect to see a quadrupling of the charging infrastructure”.

Many critics say Jaguar’s new logo and the decision to dump the leaping cat that has been its trademark since 1945 shows it has been defanged and gone woke. Glover insisted that the new brand and associated advertising campaign “is not about diversity and inclusivity”, but rather “breaking moulds, living vividly, and creating objects of desire that are distinctive and different”. He pointed out that the leaping cat logo has survived — albeit on the side of the car.

He is angry that some Jaguar executives have been singled out for blame for the “woke” rebrand. “Public personal attacks on individuals are not acceptable. I don’t want that.”

Jaguar’s new in-house social media team has followed the lead set by pugnacious Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, and is engaging with its critics. When Musk noticed that the brand launch did not show the full car and tweeted “Do you sell cars?”, Jaguar replied: “Yes. We’d love to show you. Join us for a cuppa in Miami?”

Glover knows that the new audience he wants to attract is more likely to come across Jaguar on X, Instagram and TikTok than by reading a car magazine. Ninety per cent of those who have come across the new Jaguar online “are new to our brand.”

All now turns on what those keyboard warriors write when they finally see the complete concept car at Jungle Plaza in Miami’s Design District next week. Few people outside Jaguar’s inner circle have seen the two-door that will morph into the four-door production model. But those who have report that far from being defanged it is big, bold and very aggressive – and nothing like the Cybertruck. Michael Quinn, the eldest grandson of Sir Williams Lyons, the founder of Jaguar, has seen the car and said last night: “I’m dumbstruck – in a good way.”

Glover hopes that Elon, if not Nigel, will feel the same way.

Game changers

Radical new models such as Jaguar’s new electric car can transform a brand. The fun, fast Peugeot 205, below, made the staid French car maker sexy almost overnight when launched in 1983. Christopher Lambert drove the 205 GTi through Paris in the opening scene of the hit 1985 film Subway.

Porsche became the first luxury car maker to challenge the mighty Range Rover with its Cayenne 4×4, unveiled in 2002. Critics said the maker of the iconic 911 sports car had lost its soul. Customers disagreed and now Porsche is a wildly profitable SUV maker with a sports car division attached.

Volkswagen’s failure to replace the Beetle left it on the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970s. It was saved by the hatchback Golf launched in 1974. It became VW’s best-selling model. David Bailey’s TV ad featuring Paula Hamilton discarding her estranged lover’s gifts, but keeping the keys to the Golf, was a classic.

Few people had heard the word “hybrid” before Toyota launched its petrol-electric Prius in 1997. It made Toyota the choice for green consumers for almost two decades.

Kex · November 24

The original story from:

Apple News (no paywall)

The Sunday Times Website

txcoastal1 · November 24

Here, I'll summarize it in 15sec....

EPIC FAIL!!

tonyb · November 26

If they don't fire that CEO soon, and most the board, you can kiss that company gone or sold for pennies on the dollar.

F1nut · November 26

treitz3 · November 28

Tom

pitdogg2 · December 2

Ferrari, Hold my beer.....

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ferraris-commitment-diversity-and-inclusivity-called-out-supreme-hypocrisy

nooshinjohn · December 2

I need Mr. Creosote's barf bucket.

F1nut · December 2

That's going to be a hard sell...lol

Viking64 · December 2

What a f@guar in your Jag-u-ar.

nooshinjohn · December 3

F1nut wrote: »

That's going to be a hard sell...lol

According to the press release that came with the launch, this car is an extreme interpretation of the new design language at Jaguar and does not actually represent any particular production vehicle.

mhardy6647 · December 3

treitz3 wrote: »

Tom

I think they have a companion product coming out next spring -- an insect repellent.

rimshot!

agingboomer · December 3

The new Jag concept design looks like the love child of a Cybertruck and a Dodge Magnum.

F1nut · December 3

nooshinjohn wrote: »

F1nut wrote: »

That's going to be a hard sell...lol

According to the press release that came with the launch, this car is an extreme interpretation of the new design language at Jaguar and does not actually represent any particular production vehicle.

So, they are testing the waters in order to know what not to build 🤔

pitdogg2 · December 3

They have the vision of Ray Charles....

mhardy6647 · December 5

F1nut wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

F1nut wrote: »

That's going to be a hard sell...lol

According to the press release that came with the launch, this car is an extreme interpretation of the new design language at Jaguar and does not actually represent any particular production vehicle.

So, they are testing the waters in order to know what not to build 🤔