Where's the Jag?

[jsfbond]

The new Jaguar commercials show three cars zooming around looking sporty and such, but they don't look like Jags! Is Rover repackaging an existing chassis as the new Jag?

 

[Roger]

Rover has nothing to do with Jaguar these days. What you see are the XF and XJ saloons, and the XKRS coupe. They've been around for a while.

 

[jsfbond]

TaTa Motors?

 

[StagByTriumph]

It is actually "JLR" for Jaguar Land Rover owned by TaTa. TaTa bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008 fro $2.3 billion US.
https://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/officially-official-tata-buys-jaguar-land-rover-for-2-3-billio/

The designs you see today for 2010/2011/2012 are still the Ford influenced designs from when Ford purchased Jaguar and Land Rover in 1987 and from what was planned in 2008 forward for those model years. Both vehicle lines have benefited significantly from Ford's high quality programs that have seen to both the Jaguar and Land Rover model lines now having the best quality ever in their history.

TaTa is not necessarily influencing the designs per se, but managing - allowing the JLR engineers to more or less follow their roots. Maybe they will get back to more traditional styling that actually look like they came from their heritage and ancestry.

Ford also owned Aston Martin, sold to a British consortium in 2007 for $925 million US.

Cheers!

 

[tk421]

Hate to bring up a dead thread, but am I the only one that thinks that Jaguar commercials are in the wrong places?

I just saw one on Comedy Central at 3:30pm. Also, they barrage NFL games.

Not trying to stereotype, but the kind of people that buy Jags are at the game, or probably not watching football. Out of all my friends that watch NFL games, none of them own anything close to a new Jag.

I also hate the whole "Jaguar at Play" concept. I know this will sound like crap, but my idea of a Jag commercial would be the fact that my cake didn't move at all in the trunk at Christmas. You can't get that from most other cars.

And finally, I realised that I'm 20 and I gripe like I live at a nursing home.

 

[Steve]

I rather like that commercial. The current Jaguars were designed by Ian Callum, the guy who did the Aston Martins. TaTa Motors allow Jaguar and Land Rover to do their own thing, and keep all revenue, but will not put any money in to the companies. In three years they have received more than in the eight years under Ford.

They are pitching Jaguars as being more entertaining and involving to drive than their competition, and being better value for the money. Hard to argue against that. I must agree with the odd timing for the showing of some of their ads, I've seen them on cable TV and on the programs that I enjoy so it's not just NFL and middle-of-the-night shows. They're spending big money in trying to improve market share, especially here in the Midwest.

And no, you don't gripe like you're in a nursing home.....

 

[spudboy999]

I went to a Jaguar Drive Experience in Houston TX last October. At the event you were allowed to drive brand new vehicles in situations that stressed the performance, handling, and safety of the various models. One part of the event was to see who could get the quickest lap times around a small and twisty track (probably no longer than 1/8 mile) after receiving cornering instructions from professional drivers (racers perhaps). Lap times averaged around 28 seconds or so. We were allowed 3-5 practice laps before the timer was used. The quickest lap for each group was awarded a very nice hand drawn picture by an artist they had hired for the occasion. Another section allowed you to do a tire spin on wet tarps stretched out over the asphalt. Then you would attempt the same thing with the traction control enabled. This was to promote the acceleration of the vehicle on slippery surfaces. The highlight of the event was driving the new XKR-S (550 hp!) from zero to eighty to zero. That car accelerates quite aggressively. When you reach 80 (or more) you then get to stand on the brakes as hard as you possibly could. The noises that came from the front were somewhat frightening, however the tires would not lock up, and the vehicle slowed down as straight as an arrow in a very prompt manner. Needless to say I was impressed with the performance of the new Jaguar line. I feel their new ad campaign is in line with their current attempts to highlight the performance of the new line up.

David Boudreau
1967 Jaguar 420 Saloon
https://jaguar420registry.com

 

[elrey]

My kind of fun! Yes. Where do I sign up?