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Jaguar's next turnaround plan outlines a major shift to upmarket luxury

Jaguar wants to reinvent itself again, this time as a purveyor of EVs that competes in the luxury space dominated by Bentley. It outlined a turnaround plan written to help it move upmarket while launching a new range of models. Company boss Thierry Bollore, a French industry veteran who briefly ran Renault in the late 2010s, told British magazine Auto Express he wants Jaguar to represent what he described as "modern luxury." He added his vision of modern luxury is "extremely reductive" in terms of refinement, modernity, engineering, and technologies. Jaguar said it will go EV-only, yet it scrapped the next-generation XJ at the 11th hour in 2021 because the sedan didn't fit its image of a re-imagined brand. Making Jaguar synonymous with "modern luxury" requires starting from scratch. "The situation at Jaguar was really a concern from outside," said Bollore after revealing Renault looked at purchasing Jaguar-Land Rover in the late 2010s, "and more than a concern from inside, because the brand has been damaged to a certain extent." That's why the turnaround plan calls for a blank slate to rebuild Jaguar on. Design work for an entirely new range of Jaguar models has been completed, the executive affirmed, and Auto Express speculates the portfolio will initially consist of three models: a two-door sports car (likely a follow-up to the F-Type) and a pair of crossovers. Note that there's no sedan on the horizon. These three cars will ride on the same modular architecture, though it's too early to tell if it will be developed in-house or shared with another carmaker. They'll wear a new design language that was forged by holding an internal contest three teams participated in. Competing with Bentley, among other carmakers, will require convincing customers to pay six-digit sums. "Luxury starts not far from GBP100,000," said Bollore, a figure which represents about $140,000 at the current conversion rate. As of writing, none of Jaguar's models start above $100,000, though some cross that threshold once options are piled on. Its cheapest model, the E-Pace, starts at $39,950. Its most expensive is the electric I-Pace at $69,850. No one would pay $140,000 for an E-Pace, even if it's electric and brimming with tech, so Jaguar's upcoming models will all be relatively large. That doesn't mean Bollore will put a leaping cat emblem on a Land Rover Range Rover and call it a good job well done. He wants to ensure the two sister brands coexist without overlapping.

Harry bravely drives Jaguar XJ-S V12 1,000 miles to Monaco

There are a great many cars we'd like to take on a transcontinental journey – especially across Europe. And a good portion of them would probably be grand tourers with twelve-cylinder engines. We're just not sure we'd be as brave as Harry Metcalfe, who drove his 1980 Jaguar XJ-S V12 from his home in the UK all the way down to Monaco. Don't get us wrong, the XJ-S looks like a rather comfortable ride, and with the V12 is surely both smooth and powerful. It's just that Jags didn't have the best reputation for reliability back then, and we'd have been at least a little worried that we wouldn't make it all the way across France on this trip. Nor are we sure we would have wanted to without air conditioning. The model in question, as you'll find out if you watch the video, is an early 1980 example, produced just before Jaguar updated the line with the High-Efficiency versions. As such, it's got a bit more power and shorter gearing than later models. The XJS (as it would later be labeled) would undergo a number of updates over the following years, and would stay on the market until 1996 when the XK came along to relieve it. By Harry's reckoning, his early XJ-S was every bit as good as the Porsche 928 and other front-engined GTs of the era, and would have been more fondly remembered if it hadn't had to live in the shadow of the E-Type that came before. You'll want to watch the 17-minute video of the journey, undertaken for a cover story to appear in the September issue of Octane, to see for yourself. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 1995 Jaguar XJR

It's not too difficult to find discarded examples of the supercharged-V8-powered Jaguar XJR of the X308 generation, but the earlier X300-based XJR with its blown straight-six is a much more elusive Junkyard Gem. Here's one that just turned up in a Denver self-service knacker's yard. For many years, the Denver Pick Your Part was a funky, muddy operation on an industrial stretch of Federal Boulevard. I bought a lot of parts for various projects and documented dozens of discarded vehicles for this series there. On April first, LKQ moved that operation to a brand-new location a half-mile away and I showed up early to experience the grand opening. I'll miss the old Denver Pick Your Part, even with the treacherous footing, but sometimes even junkyards get junked. The new location is set in a vast asphalt parking lot, which should make it easier for shoppers to get around and extract parts. One of the employees drives this seriously cool Scion xB project, so that's a good sign. As I walked the rows, this two-tone Jag caught my attention immediately. What's going on here? The VIN says it's a genuine XJR, complete with supercharged 4.0-liter straight-six rated at 322 horsepower and 378 pound-feet. That beat the 313-horse V12 in the XJ12 that sat next to it in the showrooms. The supercharger is a member of the same Eaton family that was used in the Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe. This makes sense, because Ford had purchased Jaguar in 1989. The U.S.-market X306 XJR was available only with an automatic transmission; a few hundred with five-speed manuals were sold in Europe. The version we got here was good for 14.9-second quarter-mile times and ran 0-60 in 6.6 seconds— not bad for a car that scaled in at 4,215 pounds. The MSRP was a cool $65,000, or about $134,206 in 2024 dollars. The 1995 XJ12 listed at $77,250, which comes to $159,499 after inflation. This generation of XJR was sold here for just the 1995 through 1997 model years, after which it was replaced by the V8 XJR. Just 6,547 were built. This one received a heavy customization at some point, including big SUPERCHARGED badging. The bonnet is covered with faux carbon fiber, which was all the rage during the early Fast & Furious Era. The upholstery has been redone in well-executed two-tone embroidered leather. I knew there had to be some traces of this car online. Sure enough, Mecum auctioned it in Denver back in the summer of 2015.