Forget 'Go Woke, Go Broke' — Jaguar
Went Stupid Instead
PJ Media,
by
Stephen Green
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
7/1/2025 5:01:52 PM
Pity poor Jaguar. The British-based luxury and performance carmaker has had a rough go of it this century, but nothing could prepare anyone for the most bone-headed move in corporate history — and I don't mean Jaguar's woke "Reimagine" ad from late last year.
Let me bring you up to speed.
As recently as 2018, Jaguar sold 180,833 cars annually. Last year, they sold fewer than 33,000. In April — the most current sales figures available — Jag sold just 49 cars in the massive UK/Europe market. U.S. sales figures aren't available yet, but they aren't any better.
Jaguar went from selling 1,961 cars a month to 49 in just six years.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Hazymac 7/1/2025 5:23:00 PM (No. 1971794)
Jaguar (pronounced JAG-you-were) eliminated ALL its internal combustion engine vehicles, and went 100% electric at a time when most everyone who wanted an e-car already had one. The subsidies, currently at $7,500 of American taxpayer money per e-car or e-truck sold, had to end, the sooner the better. The government should never have tried to force us into hicles that don't meet our needs, and are very dangerous besides.
Where I live, at four feet elevation above the Gulf of America (a mere eighty yards away), an electric vehicle of any type should be avoided if the Gulf gets out of its margins again, as it did last year. Every car left in a carport floated away, as far away as 250 yards inland. Any e-car, there were none then, would have burned itself and probably the whole unit down, plus the neighbor's. You can't evacuate in an electric vehicle if the power is going to be out for any length of time. The main problem is that if you leave an e-vehicle in your garage, and the battery, low in the chassis, touches seawater, your entire house might burn in 4,500 F. lithium ion battery flames. Naturally, my new next door neighbor has an e-car, parked right next to mine. I have warned him that his car is a fire hazard here, and that he should get an ICE vehicle. Nice fellow, but he doesn't know.
32 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
NHChemist 7/1/2025 5:23:16 PM (No. 1971795)
My mother drove two XK-E roadsters in the 1960's. They were wonderful but high maintenance. My dates were always impressed when I picked them up but complained that the high step-over into the front seat was too revealing in a short dress. One problem was that driving through a mud puddle often caused the ignition to quit until it dried out. No good for a British sports car!
27 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Hazymac 7/1/2025 5:25:47 PM (No. 1971797)
"hickles" ... haha ... That should be "vehicles." I may have to write that one down.
15 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
chumley 7/1/2025 5:27:38 PM (No. 1971798)
I remember when a Jag was something special. They had it all; power, style, handling, the works. I guess those days are over. Now they are just a plug in virtue signal for weirdos. Where do they find these CEO's? The Dylan Mulvaney School of Failure? Gad.
49 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
klezmer 7/1/2025 5:44:58 PM (No. 1971804)
Had a 1988 XJ6 and it was meh. Had a1998 XJ6L and it was a fabulous car. A real driver's car.
16 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 7/1/2025 5:46:25 PM (No. 1971805)
Re #2, a high school buddy was able to purchase a used E-type Jag roadster in 1968. Great, fast car, I rode in it a lot, drove it a few times. But I do remember that the big puddle under the RR overpass in that small Florida city would fill up every rainfall, and if the Jag went thru it over 2 mph, the distributor got drowned. i learned how to pop off the distributor cap, and dry out the inside after pushing the car out of traffic.
PITA.
I rented a Jag in Britain a few years ago for a vacation. We had friends and he was scared of driving, so I got a bigger vehicle that I would normally get to carry them when we were going to the same places. Nice vehicle, but nothing remotely like the old E-type roadster.
And now they just suicided. Incredibly stupid, but typically British business management. Whether you went to the right school is far more important in Britain for getting a high end job than whether your IQ is 75 or 150; and whether you can do anything useful.
Goodbye, Jag. You used to make some pretty damned exciting cars.
24 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
peebster 7/1/2025 5:47:24 PM (No. 1971806)
I wondered where that Bud Light marketing VP chick landed…
28 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 7/1/2025 5:48:14 PM (No. 1971807)
Clarification to #5.....we had American friends who met us in Britain, so we did the driving.
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 7/1/2025 5:56:53 PM (No. 1971811)
I guess I'll never have that V-12 now. Oh well.
18 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 7/1/2025 6:20:48 PM (No. 1971822)
Wow! A classic management screw-up!
Jags were always cool, but maintenance nightmares. The joke was always that, if you bought a Jaguar (or a Triumph, MG or Lotus) you needed a “Jaguar Repair Kit” - it was a little Chevrolet truck full of money, that followed you around…
25 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
mc squared 7/1/2025 6:21:03 PM (No. 1971823)
Bad electrics are part of the charm of Jags, and may other Brit cars.
12 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Hazymac 7/1/2025 6:34:16 PM (No. 1971830)
#11 reminds us that most British cars (Jaguar, Land Rover, Triumph, etc.) had Lucas Electronics wiring harnesses. Lucas is known as the Prince of Darkness. There are a thousand jokes related to that. Here are a few. "Get home before dark."
https://nuffieldtractor.com/viewtopic.php?t=4836
https://www.triumphexp.com/forum/spitfire-and-gt6-forum.8/lucas-prince-of-darkness-british.724819/
18 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 7/1/2025 6:54:35 PM (No. 1971834)
Two jaguars in my personal history. Both much loved. Plus The one that got away.
I bought a brand new Jaguar XK8 convertible when I was working in Switzerland and making more or less that kind of money. It cost me everything I had, plus maxing out several credit cards, but it was a gorgeous car. I drove it everywhere. Late at night if I couldn't sleep, I would put the top down and drive up the Saleve to the observatory. Great memories.
Second was a 1999 Jaguar XJR sedan. It was faster than the sports car I've had before and rode like nothing I've ever had before or since. Wonderful car. Had to leave it in Switzerland when I left. Ended up giving it away.
The one that got away: 1988 XJ12 in silver with black leather interior and only 10,000 mi on the clock (in 1995). The Equalizer's car. It sat in the showroom as I walked past it for my first year at work. On my birthday, I went to buy it in cash, and it was gone.
Fond memories of what Jaguar was, and no interest in Jaguar now.
17 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
mossley 7/1/2025 7:22:01 PM (No. 1971843)
Can't blame this on the British - Jaguar was bought by an Indian company in 2008, IIRC. And running an ad with no cars, just alphabet people, certainly didn't help.
16 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
crashnburn 7/1/2025 7:29:30 PM (No. 1971845)
No direct experience with Jaguar, but I always heard that you should never buy new, but two years old, as it generally took two years to get the problems straightened out.
I now have no wish even forming in my brain to buy a Jaguar.
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
downnout 7/1/2025 8:20:06 PM (No. 1971858)
Good heavens, I’m so old I remember the first XKE. It was and is a stunning design. To see a company go from the pinnacle to whatever that commercial represents is so sad. I hope they have a fork and know where to put it because they’re done.
7 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
red1066 7/1/2025 8:23:11 PM (No. 1971859)
Jaguar hasn't been a good car for decades. They are high maintenance vehicles which cost a lot to maintain.
4 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
voxpopuli 7/1/2025 8:27:42 PM (No. 1971861)
i had a 99 Vanden Plais and an 06 XKR
great used cars..
both under the best warranty around..
and.. since they were Jaguars no resale value
REALLY cheap...
except for gas,
they were cheaper to own than a same year Camry..
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 7/1/2025 9:39:25 PM (No. 1971876)
A once upon a time girlfriend had an XK-150. Great fun..power. I never owned a Jag but always heard that they were more high maintenance than a Hollywood starlet.
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Tennman 7/1/2025 9:39:27 PM (No. 1971877)
Jag seems to be doing everything possible to disappear. Should change the tag-line on the commercial to "Copy Nothing, Learn Nothing". Making Bud Lite seem 2nd rate for brand destruction.
7 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
MickTurn 7/1/2025 11:13:56 PM (No. 1971890)
Jaguar's are JUNK, they have always been a basket of JUNK waiting to FAIL. Oh, so they went woke to sell more JUNK and guess what Bankruptcy. Wokie Brokie!
4 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Newtsche 7/1/2025 11:38:07 PM (No. 1971896)
This begs comparison to those steering the British ship of state, a sad and not-so-slow motion disaster.
5 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
DanvilleBill 7/2/2025 1:51:35 AM (No. 1971905)
The Jaguar always kind of reminded me of a couple girls I used to date many years ago.
Nice looking. High maintenance.
2 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 7/2/2025 4:18:57 AM (No. 1971908)
Such an ignominious death of a once iconic brand brought about by business school wunderkinds who think their compensation package is a direct reflection of business acumen and marketing sense. Such CEOs, with their psychopathic afflictions, are ruining entire corporations all because they have no idea what their company's products are, and how to read and anticipate customer demands. They just become hopeless tools of the "Corporate Consulting Mafia," wherein they find a convenient excuse for the Corporate Board should any failures occur along the way... and they always do.
2 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 7/2/2025 4:26:20 AM (No. 1971912)
OK, since we're doing the British car schtick...
Q: Why do the British drink their beer room temperature?
A: Lucas (Prince of Darkness) makes their refrigerators.
3 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
PostAway 7/2/2025 7:16:59 AM (No. 1971958)
Q. Why don’t the English make TV’s?
A. They can’t figure out how to make them leak oil.
3 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
Old Army Vet 7/2/2025 8:03:45 AM (No. 1971974)
I've known a few people that have owned a Jag over the years. I never heard any one of them say that they would buy another one. You need to work on them every weekend so that you could drive them during the week. Lousy cars.
1 person likes this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
mc squared 7/2/2025 9:56:26 AM (No. 1972024)
The XK 120, circa 1950. Beautiful two seat roadster.
0 people like this.
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