Mindbogglingly stupid. Not only do i not like the branding itself, i think that’s going to be the beginning of the final chapter of Jaguar. I know quite a few people won’t like the way i’ll spell it out now, but there’s two proper moronic things happening here. A: the marketing itself. Antagonising the “old white man” in favour of “liberal young empowered youth” is absolutely bonkers when you consider that the first new car in the line up is going to cost north of £100k. Blue haired Kevin the Starbucks Barrista and IPA connoisseur is not going to be able to afford it. So they essentially ditch their established customer base, because no one there is going to click with drag queens or whatever the frick those androgynous things are supposed to represent – and the people who do click with it, likely Gen Z, can’t afford it. Not even close. B: british exceptionalism. It’s as stupid as american exceptionalism. No, Jaguar isn’t a big player anymore, and hasn’t been for a long time. They should act accordingly, accept humbly the position they’re in, and then work from that. There was nothing wrong with the brand itself, it was even meme-worthy (for youngsters) with Clarksons “Jaaaaag” comment that even established itself in the US. What was wrong was A: using ford parts in places where you’d expect Jaguar parts, leading to people simply calling them “prettier fords” and B: thinking themselves better than any other premium manufacturer, and not offering a volume model while not understanding the importance of 4 cylinder engines and diesels in the market for way too long. Jaguar isn’t Rolls Royce.
They did try a mass market car with the X Type but that had too much of a reputation as being a Mondeo in drag.