Jaguar has been heavily criticized for a rebranding effort that has culminated in the unveiling of the Type 00 concept car. While I get that complainers will complain, somebody needs to cut through the noise and confusion and speak the truth. And since Indie Auto is dedicated to offering a “refreshingly independent” look at the automobile, we must be a lone voice in the wilderness.
To be fair, not the only voice. Keith Adams (2024) of AR Online has offered a positive take on the Type 00. I have a lot of respect for his writing and appreciate how in this instance he is willing to risk spitting into the wind. However, I must also admit that his endorsement of Jaguar’s new direction has a rather tentative quality. That’s not what the moment demands.
I think that the Jaguar concept is nothing short of the most brilliant industrial design to come from any automaker in the last decade — if not longer. A key reason why is that the car’s designers drew inspiration from some of the most iconic shapes in contemporary society, such as microwave ovens, garbage trucks and even waste-treatment plants.
Take a close look at the images of the Type 00 — no one could accurately accuse the car of having a me-too design. Jaguar has boldly staked out new stylistic territory rather than continuing to repeat the tired retro look of recent models.
When casting your eyes on the car’s instrumental fascia, you can almost hear the soft drone of a swimming-pool pump motor on a summer afternoon. That’s a prescient symbol of luxury in a world getting too hot to handle.
Perhaps even more importantly, the brutalistic quality of the Type 00’s styling relentlessly mocks those who have pointed to Jaguar’s declining fortunes as epitomizing Great Britain’s “industrial disease.”
How can one not see the family resemblance?
Adams (2024) argues that the Type 00 gives “traditionalism the middle finger” and gets ready “for the new world order, where many of the old values and mores are rapidly disappearing,” by appealing to a “new tranche of buyers” with “something new and radical.”
I can appreciate Adams’s attempt to sound encouraging but disagree with his punchline. There’s nothing particularly radical about the Type 00. Like all Jaguars, it sits low to the ground and looks like it is about to pounce. The main difference is that instead of displaying an animalistic face, the Type 00 looks like an air-conditioner compressor purring in the grass next to a house.
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The feral quality of a Jaguar’s styling has been a major factor in drawing loyal buyers to the marque for generations — and should continue to do so despite the more contemporary design language and planned move upmarket.
Simply put, Jaguar has rewritten the script on what it means to be a high-end, luxury-car brand in the second half of the 2020s. You can bet that in just a few short years everyone else will be copying the Type 00’s industrial look — but by then it could be too late.
If Jaguar can build its cars with the same attention to detail it has given to the Type 00’s design, it should dominate the upper reaches of the luxury-car field for years to come. And if critics such as Peter DeLorenzo (2024) fail to see the car’s brilliance, that just shows how out of touch their pontificating has become.
Not only is Jaguar back in the game — the Type 00 shows every indication of becoming the most legendary design in the marque’s storied history. This car will surely return Jaguar to good health and once again make Great Britain the preeminent maker of luxury cars. May industrial disease rest in peace.
NOTES:
This is a satirical essay. For further discussion about what is real, go here.
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RE:SOURCES
- Adams, Keith; 2024. “Concepts and prototypes : Jaguar Type 00 – why the controversy?” AR Online. Posted Dec. 3.
- DeLorenzo, Peter M.; 2024. “Jaguar’s Hail Mary.” Auto Extremist. Posted Dec. 1.
That is a stunning design, simultaneously retro and not retro. No chrome doodads, bumper fascias or other cladding but the same shape as the XK-E. That would be on my list of things to buy if I win the lottery. Wonder what the folks at Top Gear think of it?
I totally disagree that this is some great design to be revered. Bob Lutz in an interview with Hagerty made an apt comment:
“The idea was good, to break out of the run-of-the-mill, dog-eat-dog, Mercedes-BMW-Audi-Cadillac-Infiniti-Lexus [segment]. Breaking out of that and going up into the stratosphere like Cadillac is doing with the Celestiq. But the Jag [Type 00] concept has nothing. It’s just boring. It could have been done in five minutes by any gifted 16-year-old who knows how to sketch cars. The ad campaign did them no favors, either.”
While true that Jaguar needs to do something to make themselves of interest to new potential buyers again. I seriously question if they actually bothered to realistically consider who their target audience is. Do they really expect there to be enough buyers that look like the models in their promotion to be candidate buyers? Does that group look like who their real potential buyers would want to aspire to? They are not sufficient to keep any production plant open. This reminds me way too much of the “style presentation board” Detroit Design studios used to indicate the “typical person” to be associated with the design proposal.
What Jaguar hase shown is their desperation in trying to grab at something, anything to try proving they are different. Their attempt to justify all this with words is further proof of the desperation to justify that which is nothing more than a sophomoric thought balloon.
McGovern has done far better design work at other car companies. This is one he should be embarrassed to be associated with. Jaguar may not be long for the world if this is really their future direction and those involved in this ought to be looking for some good exit plans.
The problem I have with this design stems from its visual heaviness.
From the front or rear the low-hanging squareness gives the impression of immovable, immense weight. Okay, we all know electric cars are heavy for their size, but why accentuate that through the design? I don’t get it.
And yet the large wheels and massive arch flares imply that it is, in fact, mobile. The roofline implies that it can move fast. It gives the impression of overcoming that immense weight with even more immense power; brute force, in fact. But there is a tension between the message of the blocky shape and that of the huge wheels, almost more of a contradiction than a tension. A rational disconnect. To my mind that automatically flags up a No.
Jaguars always used to be about delicacy: delicacy of style, delicacy of appointment, delicacy of control. This design seems all about being blatant, in your face, maybe even to the extent of being up your nose. This is like seeing something like, say, a 1971 Cadillac Eldorado decked out for IMSA racing: given enough budget you could do it, but why would you?
If I were going there, I wouldn’t start from here.
Trouble is Jaguar is trying to find a new niche. They began as an upscale sports car that could compete with the Bristols and Frazer-Nashes at an affordable price. Then as it acquired Lanchester and Daimler it moved into the burled walnut and fine leather crowd. Now that bunch is dying off they have to find a new niche. However this car has a Matchbox car look and the ad was just weird, and pointlessly changing their logo is stupid.