By Chris Ward, November 9, 2024
I will always maintain Jaguar peaked in the 1960s with the E-Type being peak Jaguar-ness. It’s been a steady decline since as the magic of the 1960s wore off when cheaper better, more reliable alternatives began to flood the market from Japan. As the years progressed into decades, and running on steam, Jaguar tried replicating BMW. But that failed. Then they tried replicating volume manufacturing on a shoe string budget, but that failed. In the end they simply tried to self replicate.
Self-replication also failed.
No matter who owned Jaguar, no matter the billions invested, Jaguar could not resuscitate itself. Jaguar is broken and dwindled to just a brand without a buyer who is uninterested in a brand without any value. It now faces an existential threat, with its revival seeming inevitable only to lead to what will eventually become a terminal decline.
Jaguar is being reinvented by a board room without any real ideas by people who have no idea what they are doing. How can those responsible for Jaguar’s decline also be entrusted with its resurrection? Early December will reveal the final stages of this orchestrated decline and end of life care.
Who exactly will buy this “reinvention”? Apparently, Jaguar is transitioning to become a fully electric luxury brand. And guess which market is deemed the most important? Yes, the United States. But in 2023, Jaguar’s USA market share was a mere 0.05%, with just 8,348 annual sales
Jaguar is a brand with a gravestone already waiting to be inscribed: 1935-2024. Yet no one seems willing to admit it. One can’t help but feel that Jaguar isn’t being reinvented—it’s being slowly killed off. While this so-called reinvention may extend the company’s shelf life, the rot set in decades ago.
It’s simply time for Jaguar to be relegated to the trash can of automotive history.
