ā¦ and not for nothing, I could imagine HAL speaking in that car the way cars ātalkā to drivers today. āIām sorry, Dave. Iām afraid to drive that.ā.Its giving me eerielyyy long Lagonda vibes, and that car for its time was an ugly wedge of a mess, but trying to be futuristic, this is just plain horrid.
Going retro was no longer working for the brand. They have to change up and do something completely different to survive. They can try and keep the essence of the 'Jaguar driving experience' without the baggage of trying to look like something from the sixties, which is a tired old trope for them. No one who was buying Jaguars 60 years ago is buying them now, they've got to try and appeal to a different clientele.
MARGINNSSSSSSSS
Have they ever gone retro though? They've used some styling cues from older cars here and there, but not more than that. I'd say they've been about as retro as BMW.
They need to appeal to someone for them to retain/obtain a clientele. Sadly, I think they're in really big trouble with this rebrand. They've massively overestimated interest and massively underestimated their ability at creating a new design philosophy that works.
The X300/308 was more or less a continuation of it's predecessors, but I'd argue that the clean-sheet redesign X350 was pretty retro, as was the X200 S Type. But those have been out of production for nearly 20 years now, and nothing they've done since has been retro. Unfortunately, nothing they've done since has been really appealing either. They went from Regal Kitsch to Inelegant Anonymous overnight with the X351 and have never really been able to find their footing in that period. I understand the brand wanting to do a major reset, but I think they leaned in the wrong direction. It's interesting because Range Rover has never lost it's USP but Jaguar definitely has.
While you're not wrong, I'm not sure who this is supposed to appeal to. A large EV with bulky exterior styling, minimalist interior styling and no really clear message other than "this ain't your granddaddy's Jaaaaag" is targeting... ultra-modernists? Cyberpunk cosplayers? People who liked the 1970's idea of what the 2020's would look like, minus the permed hair and polyester flare pants? I just can't figure out what demographic they're going for here.
I dunno. Honestly, I thought the new interior at least looked really good - though from a functionality perspective, the minimalism is probably going to be a considerable downsideA rare instance when the interior looks better covered up for testing
2027 Jaguar Type 01 review: prototype drive of the brand's new luxury model
British brandās all-electric flagship is well under way and we get behind the wheel of a prototype to find out whatās in storewww.whatcar.com
Neither can I, and I can't imagine any demographic being all that enthusiastic about buying a luxury vehicle that doesn't appear to have anything remarkable about it to give you that experience of owning one.
It really hasn't done any one thing in excess, including minimalism. I think a reasonable criticism of the final product is that it has pushed too many elements to extremes which its contemporaries have pushed one or two. There's something to be said for incrementalism.
www.bbc.co.uk
