I cannot afford the Type 01. That is not the point. Even if I could, I would not buy it. That is the point.
My love for Jaguar is gone and the rebrand killed it. Not the reliability issues. Not the price tag. Not even the Type 00, I thought it looked pretty cool. The moment they told me their future had no room for someone like me, I stopped wanting in.
What They Built and What They Buried
The Jaguar I grew up loving had a specific feeling attached to it. A well-dressed man pulling up to a grand estate in an E-Type. Good taste, enough money to spend on something beautiful, and the sense to choose Jaguar over something louder and less considered.
That image was not accidental. Jaguar earned it over decades.
That version is gone. What replaced it is a brand chasing a completely different audience. And honestly? Fair enough. If that new audience gets a car built for them, good for them. But I am not that audience, the new Jaguar is not for me and that is the way they want it.
Jaguar
Stop Calling It a Pivot
People keep calling this a pivot, trying to market it like a startup that found what worked and changed.
A pivot respects what existed and redirects the energy toward parts of the company that are working. What Jaguar did was different. They told us themselves in the first rebrand video. They were not adjusting. They were ending one brand and starting another. New
That is not a pivot. That is an execution.
Jag Did Pivot Back in 1945
S.S. Cars Limited changed its name to Jaguar after World War II because the initials carried associations nobody wanted anymore. They looked at the market, focused on what their customers want luxury sports cars, and the XK120 was born. They preserved the craft and the soul. They just changed what needed changing.
That was a pivot. The 2024 rebrand did the opposite. They changed everything and kept nothing.
The One Thing They Cannot Buy Back
The new Jaguar wants to sit alongside Bentley and Mercedes. But those brands sell something no spec sheet can capture. Emotion. History. The feeling that the car means something beyond its price.
Chinese luxury brands are attempting the same right now and mostly falling short for exactly that reason. You can match the features. You cannot manufacture 70 years of feeling.
I Am Already Watching
I am not hoping Jaguar fails. But I am watching closely. I have already put out my interest in whatever the next chapter looks like, because if this brand needs rebuilding again there is a real opportunity for something amazing.
Imagine a genuine Jaguar rebirth. Not a rebrand. A return to what made people feel something in the first place.
I wont buy a new one but would still love to restomod an old XJ6 one day. Maybe that says everything about where my loyalty actually landed.
