I found this article on the net... Any opinions?

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/heres...100-1796172721

 

I think the guy's an idiot but I give him props for trying!

 

Funny thing is, Mr. Tata does not want to raise Jaguar sales by 1000%. He wants the car to be exclusive. He wants the car to have prestige to it. He doesn't want to see Jaguar make over 1 million vehicles in a year world wide. So, if he is happy with how things are, then it is going to be that way.

I do have to agree that how the C pillar is done could be done in a much better way. But, that is how the car comes and if you don't like it, there are options. This sort of idea has been being done for a long, long time. Look at Ford Expeditions and their D pillars (rear most pillars next to the liftgate). Those are all black, regardless of the body color. They are except on my Expedition. I color matched mine and everyone wondered how I got mine from the factory that way. $30 in paint and I had something that everyone else wanted. You can do the same thing to your XJ. Now there are many more options like simply putting on a vinyl wrap over what you want in a different color. Cost you a little bit, but then you have the look that you are after and when you go to sell the car, if the new owner doesn't like it, they simply peel the vinyl off and back to factory.

 

It was my understanding that the reason the C pillar is black was that the rear window looked too small when flanked by the body color. The C pillar s a plastic piece that is easily removed. I was initially going to paint mine but afer seeing the car decided to leave it original. Here are a couple of pictures I took back in 2012 when I made my initial order.

 

Their chart doesn't go back far enough. Actually XJ sales for US peaked during the beautiful Series 3 at nearly 20,000 units. This was despite the awful reputation for frequent and costly repairs, thermoplastic paint issues, etc.

But given that the modern competition doesn't have any significant advantage in styling (there are several threads on this forum with many theories), I suspect the main reason for the sales nosedive is much more basic. Probably #1 is that the XJ series got so much larger during a time when families that wanted "big" were switching to SUVs.

 

SUV sales in general are driving all car sales down. It is much more prevalent in the luxury car market as people are more willing to spend $70K+ on a full size "luxury" SUV like the Lincoln Navigator or the Cadillac Escalade than on a Jaguar. Granted, the luxury between the two is night and day if you ask me. But, for most, what the SUV's offer is more in line with what they think they can afford. Granted, what the SUV owners do not realize is that they are not getting a true "leather" interior, they are merely getting leather seating surfaces with faux leather everywhere else where the XJ is true leather everywhere. That little different means a lot in the price.