[NON-BUSINESS] Jaguar Cars rant

[TheButcher]

My favourite cars have always been Jaguar, especially the XJ, it was the vision of Jaguar's founder Sir William Lyons, and the last great evolution was the X308 built from 1997 to 2003. Now let me be clear Jags were never the most reliable of cars, but they had, to quote one of their past marketing slogans, "Grace Space pace."

They had character and charm, and the X308 versions had quite decent reliability. It was never a direct competitor for the Mercedes-Benz S Class nor the BMW 7 Series, but they were a good car in their own right. Ford owned Jaguar and when Geoff Lawson died in 1999 Ian Cullum took his place.

In 2003 Ian Cullum designed the Jaguar XJ (X350) and then the 2007 face lifted XJ (X358), both aluminum bodies that to me resembled the previous (X308) but taller uglier and my first reaction upon seeing the (X350) it's as if someone put an air hose to the beautiful car before and inflated it.

As if that was not bad enough, Mr Cullum decided in all his great wisdom to design the XJ (X351) in 2010, this thing looked nothing like an XJ, lasted until 2019 until the boys back in Coventry realized it was not selling as they hoped for and cancelled it.

I do understand why Cullum thought changing the old look of the XJ was a good idea for him, but what most people did not understand at the time who had any say in this departure from the traditional XJ look was, people bought XJ's knowing they could have a much more modern and sophisticated S Class, 7 Series or Audi 8 series because they liked the bloody look and feel of the XJ.

Great cars do not get a revolutionary change between models, they evolve. So unfortunately Jaguars today with the expcetion of the F-Type could pass for any Japanese brand if you changed the badge. At least when VW bought Bentley and BMW bought Rolls Royce they did not try to mess with the look and character of the cars.

And don't get me started on the XF that quite honesty is a boring Japanese looking car. Now the F-Type is a hit and I love it, that is about the only Jag I would buy today.

End of my rant.

[misterporn]

The F Type convertible is hot, you can see them all over LA everyday.

[Emil]

The F-Pace is nice especially in black.