GTP Cool Wall: 1997-2002 Jaguar XJR (X308)

  • Thread starter Thread starter GranTurismo916
  • 61 comments
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1997-2002 Jaguar XJR (X308)

  • Total voters
    131
  • Poll closed .
Tornado
Record yourself saying "Nicaragua". It will amuse me.
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Why would somebody saying a proper noun which is pronounced phonetically amuse you.

Would it also amuse you to hear me pronounce Korea or Finland?
 
In a time when certain other Jaguar's were being built, a Formula team under the name existed at the same time as this car and the XJR that followed didn't look as boring or old money...

I don't nor ever have seen how this car could be considered cool, but that's just me.
 
BREAKING: Different words with the same dipthongs, digraphs, diacritics or circumflexes are pronounced differently by different people.

I hate the Jagyouer/Jagwahr debate. See also: Lancia; Dacia; Škoda; Volkswagen; Porsche; Mercedes-Benz,
Citroën and pretty much any manufacturer ever for 'mispronounced' firms.
 
Liquid
BREAKING: Different words with the same dipthongs, digraphs, diacritics or circumflexes are pronounced differently by different people.

I hate the Jagyouer/Jagwahr debate. See also: Lancia; Dacia; Škoda; Volkswagen; Porsche; Mercedes-Benz,
Citroën and pretty much any manufacturer ever for 'mispronounced' firms.
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Daf.
 
Liquid
BREAKING: Different words with the same dipthongs, digraphs, diacritics or circumflexes are pronounced differently by different people.
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Still no excuse for Americans referring to Peugeots (Po-jo) as Poo-jots. That's just rude. (Even if it is appropriate for much of their post-2000 output.)
 
One of the guys in my French class pronounced it as Pew-Jit :lol:

Actually never mind I wish I could change my vote because if I owned one I'd just call it a Jaaaaaaag.
 
Tornado
Record yourself saying "Nicaragua". It will amuse me.
Click to expand...

Us Brits pronounce the last part of that the same as Jaguar, ie. Ni-car-ag-u-a. It has 5 syllables not 4. I'm guessing you guys say NicaraGWAR. Anyway kinda a moot point if a marque is named after something else, dictionary.com, wiki etc. I believe give "both" pronunciations of Jaguar, distinguishing between Brit and Murkan pronunciations. The US pronunciations of Nee-san, Poo-jo, Maaaahzda etc. are a little more inexplicable but there's a whole separate thread for all that.

As for this, had to give it SZ. Funny how Jag went back to the four round lights of the 70s and early 80s after the rectangular ones, though I have a soft spot for them too. This car is just badass, and looks awesome.
 
I really like these, but I don't really see them as cool. Great cars, but design-wise a case of Jag stretching 1960s styling well past its use-by date, and they still seem largely to be driven by crusty old guys.

All that said, I do like the way they look, and I'd quite like to own one at some stage. But it has to be uncool here.
 
I dunno. I think this particular generation wore it well. It was the following car that was pushing it past the breaking point (the S-Type not helping, either).
 
X308 = Big Cat
X350 = Fat Cat

The aluminium body/chassis kept the weight down on the mid-00s XJs. But the exterior amounted to little more than a bloated late-90s XJ. Much of the poise of was lost when they did away with the low roofline.

Tyger
But she says "Ni" not "Nee". "Ni-ssan". :confused:
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"Ni" in Japanese is pronounced the same as "knee" in English. So yes, it's correct.
 
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Wiegert
"Ni" in Japanese is pronounced the same as "knee" in English. So yes, it's correct.
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Odd, I just watched a bunch of old commercials on Youtube and it doesn't sound like an elongated "nee" sound as in knee, more "ni" as one might expect (it's also often mispronounced as "neh" which is different again), but I have little knowledge of the Japanese language so fair enough :)
 
0.jpg

Am I the only one who thinks that the guy looks like he's sleeping?
 
Tornado
I dunno. I think this particular generation wore it well. It was the following car that was pushing it past the breaking point (the S-Type not helping, either).
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While I agree from a purely stylistic standpoint (this generation XJ is still one of the most elegant sedans ever, IMO, and the one that followed was pleasant but not quite as well-proportioned), it was still a bit of an anachronism.

Love or hate the current XJ, I think it projects a much better image for Jaguar. It's still elegant, it's still luxurious (more so), it's still fast (more so) but it's also bang up-to-date inside and out. Whereas the generation being polled is why people around the world still think all Englishmen wear bowler hats, smoke pipes and work in the shadow of Big Ben.

As for the S-Type, that was definitely the wrong design direction to go, but it's a shape I've grown to quite like. The S-Type R looks fantastic and the rest of the range stands out nicely on the road among the legions of silver-painted German stuff.
 
homeforsummer
As for the S-Type, that was definitely the wrong design direction to go, but it's a shape I've grown to quite like. The S-Type R looks fantastic and the rest of the range stands out nicely on the road among the legions of silver-painted German stuff.
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So much this.

Except for the interior. That's just awful.
 
Dennisch
So much this.

Except for the interior. That's just awful.
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The early interiors are pretty bad as there's a bit too much similarity to the Lincoln it's based on. The later interiors are more or less like the XJs of the period and therefore okay. Very colour-sensitive though. Not keen on the light wood trim used in some of them, but some have a darker stained wood dash that looks great.
 
Indeed.

The S-Type needs the sinister colours to really achieve the greatness that's hidden in the design. Dark red. Black wheels. Dark interior. Supercharged V8.

Cargasmed.
 
Roger the Horse
Jag-u-ar?

You know. How it's spelt.
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The wisdom of the following post (and poster) knows no bounds.

Liquid
@Crash As much as I personally, as a language geek, am a stickler for accuracy and good pronunciation, I'm with you on this somewhat. When pronouncing a foreign car company one ought to be considerate. If a foreign person is trying to pronounce any English word one ought to be considerate, for example. I try to get the foreign ones right but I know I don't get Renault or the Korean manufacturers correct

Even with the AmE and BrE versions of Jaguar, the American one isn't 'wrong'. Where do you draw the line? The bath/grass argument even within BrE, for example. Neither is incorrect.

Now, personal preference is another matter. I might find Jagwaar grating from some American accents but again, that doesn't make it wrong. Not wrong, just different.
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And if someone insists that the only "correct" way to pronounced "Jaguar", even in American English, is "jag-u-ar", then I expect that person to pronounce every single other car maker in the world exactly as they do in the original language and dialect.

I will, however, make an exception for pronouncing "Jaguar" the following way:

Tornado
I thought the American pronunciation of Jaguar was "bro-ken"
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Hideous, dated styling, comically proportioned, horrible exterior detailing, terrible image problems. Jaguar/Jagwaar debate.

SU
 
I should buy one. 100k mile examples are only $4000-5000. I used to work on them at a Jaguar repair shop and recall them being pretty solid as long as you updated the timing chain tensioners. Cheap speed.
 
homeforsummer
Coincidentally, "Cadillac Seville" can be abbreviated to the same :sly:
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And then BMW and Audi both end up sounding the same as well.

Funny how the English language works. :D
 

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