I just returned from an 8 day trip in London to watch the Saints beat the Dolphins. I stayed in Central London, Mayfair, and traveled throughout the city.
I did not see any XKs the entire stay. In fact I only saw one XF.
I saw many Rolls, Porsche, Bentley, Lambos, Ferrari, Range Rover and Aston Martins. Tons of Audi, Mini, VW, Mercedes and of course lots of London Taxi.
Apparently Jaguar is not the preferred marque of Londoners.

 

Since you DID see some Audis and no Jags, clearly that proves the London Population has zero class.

 

There are quite a number of us Jag owners but personally I avoid driving in or through the centre like I would avoid the plague... If I have to go into the centre for work then I use public transport due to the problems of congestion & parking. Surprised you didn't see lots of XJ-L's near the high end hotels, glorified taxis

 

Lets see, just covering the aluminum chassis spotting for me this week not including my own car.

Monday: Beige XJ
Tuesday: White XJL
Wednesday: "Bentlyesque blue" XJL,
Thursday: Black XKR and Silver XF,
Friday: Black XF

I live in a part of the US where Jaguar's are more common than Porsches.

 

You wont see XK's in central London anymore. They are old and outdated. Go to council estates in the East End, you will see plenty there.

 

Ouch.

They are seemingly not that old and outdated if they cost more than a council flat.

Taking a car you love to London like the xk is quite perverse on multiple levels.

 

I have been to London twice for about 9 days total and only recall seeing a handful of XKs. I'd expect to see more, but it wasn't any less than what I see in the states

 

You wouldn't see many XK's in London. Anyone 'normal' person that lives and works in London will have travelled in by public transport or headed in early hours and parked underground somewhere.


All those fancy cars you see are the celebs, the rich and the wanna be's. They wouldn't be driving XK's , too old and not as poseurish as a lambo, Ferrari, roller, Bentley, etc...


Get out and about around London and you'll see them being used outside the congestion zone, but not that commonly because they're not a car now that someone would normally have for everyday commuting, but kept for fun.

 

The one & only time I drove the XK through the centre (actually west) I came through Knightsbridge over the Easter weekend. Had the Lambo spotters all taking piccies of the car so clearly they thought it looked nice
Had a smug grin on me the rest of the journey home.

 

They were hoping for

 

Aren't there a lot of rich Arabs in London now driving their fancy exotic cars? Kind of like the nouveau-riche Mainland Chinese in their Bentleys, etc. here in L.A. Rarely do I see them in Jags (F-Type mostly). Sorry but other than F-Type & F-Pace, Jags are still perceived as old men cars i.e. uncool & outdated. Jaguar seems to have problem shaking off this image unlike its Land Rover siblings that are selling like hotcakes.

 

London has indeed been the playground of the sheiks since the mid seventies.
It kept London alive for a long time. Harrods for instance was rescued twice by billionaires. The money for the art of lavishness always came from abroad. You cant have things like the Ascot when the average pay in UK is on par with Israel, and things cost a king's ransom. Not a lot of folks know that.

Jaguars were never 'old men's' cars, just the opposite.
They were the working mans ultra-exotic. All the way from the 120 to Mark 2 to the e-type. Each one of these cars were what any man or woman in their prime wanted, and they were earth shattering. At a time when you had to be a sheik to own a SL. They lost their way for a while, as did the entire British economy, particularly dominance in automotive. They seem to be back, with the XE, Fpace, Ftype, Evoque, Discovery, Velar, all of which are decidedly not for the pipe and slippers crowd.

 

Speaking of "working men's exotics", is Jaguar still the official car of the British royals? I seem to always see them in an XJ on official functions. Never seen them in an XK
All the royals seem like nice down to earth people.

 

 

The Queen trained as a mechanic and a truck driver during the war effort, not a lot of people know that. She has had 30 land rovers.

 

A necessary skill for ANYONE that wants to own a Jaguar.

 

"Were" being an important distinction.

Jaguar is building high-performance cars again but there was a long stretch when nothing exciting and performance-oriented was offered. And the advertising (in the USA at least) put lots of emphasis on style and elegance. I think the brand developed a reputation as a refined transport for the opera-and-country-club crowd.

Anyhow, in my neck o'the woods Jaguars are a rather rare sight but you can't throw a rock without hitting a BMW or Audi.

(Aside: the market is so flooded with used BMWs that you can get some very nice cars for small money. Tempting. Lots of car for the money....just like used Jags!)

Cheers
DD

 

Made me spit coffee all over my monitors

 

Put your thinking caps on, I am going to blow your minds.

Jaguar has a phenomenal ace up its sleeve.

Ubiquity can be a bad thing- when one becomes a victim of their own success, particularly true in high-end. For instance Mercedes had to use a separate brand (Maybach) to launch their competitor to Bentley/RR....

Problem is that no one (other than Don Johnson) could make the correlation between Maybach one of the founding fathers of Mercedes and Ultra-Luxury.

Jaguar/Tata have a far more world famous brand that they havent used YET.
Daimler. Its the next competitor to Rolls Royce

See the black car at the Queen's coronation- its not a Jaguar, is a Daimler.
Yes it received the Royal Warrant in 1900's to produce all the royal's cars.
This heritage is huge in the Far East (where majority of the ultra luxury sales are in including Maybach)

It may be confusing to some. You know Daimler AG as the company that produces Mercedes Benz. But just like Rolls Royce and Bentley were recently sold to Germans, so was Daimler sold to Brits when they got into trouble very early on.

Tata has already indicated it plans to bring Daimler back with a vengeance.
Based on that they have done with Land Rover: The Range Rover, Velar, Evoke. And with Jaguar the XE, Fpace, Ftype. Holy Smokes- its hard to believe that this is all coming from a company that has no pedigree so to speak of. Put it in context, all of Italy, France and Japan combined cannot produce any of those cars on that list, sans the XE which has been matched by Alfa.

Ps, how bizarre is this world-and how everything is connected. Daimler and Maybach were the founders of Benz. And lucky for Jaguar they decided to drop the Maybach name and promote Daimler.

 

Considering many British royals are/were of German ancestry (from the House of Hanover), perhaps this is not as bizarre as many people think.

I think British styling + German tech are a winning combo!