We are often accused of being biased towards the British car brands at Autocar, and every time we are it makes me chuckle.
I can honestly say that, hand on heart, I have never consciously shown any bias whatsoever towards a car because it’s British. And the first person to point out that Jaguar is, in fact, owned by an Indian company and is therefore technically not British can pat themselves on the back for being a jolly clever chap, and then go and face the wall in the corner with their hands behind their back for the next hour and a half.
But the fact that some commentators have reacted negatively towards Jaguar’s recent results in the entirely independent JD Power survey – Jag was voted first for both customer and dealer satisfaction, to which some people on this site have cried 'cheat, foul play' or strangest of all 'who cares, they are still a lost cause' – makes me wonder whether the bias isn’t ours but, in fact, theirs.
As a neutral observer who merely enjoys driving and writing about cars, I can’t help but feel pleased for Jaguar in light of the JD Power results. Not that long ago Jaguar was in a dark place, and the writing on the wall did not read well.
But in recent years it has turned things round. The range has expanded sensibly and, by and large, the cars have improved beyond all recognition. That’s basically fact, and me writing about it has absolutely nothing to do with bias.
Indeed, if we were biased towards Jaguar in any way, why would we have published the story in this week’s magazine, in which a Jaguar loses to a Mercedes in our main cover story?
So what I’d like to know is this: if you are one of the people who genuinely believes Jaguar to be a lost cause, or think that we’re biased towards Jaguar simply because we’ve reported the results of an independent survey in which Jaguar has done quite well, maybe you could try to explain, in response to this story, why you feel the way you do.
And that’s not a challenge by the way, but instead merely a polite request, in order that we can all understand a little bit more about one another. Agree to disagree and all that...
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well for start my comments
Nice article, well written but my God what strange comments
Your article
Dear Steve,
Thanks for your article. I think the matter is not that readers are disdainful towards Jaguar, but rather that Autocar's coverage does sometimes seem a little biased towards JLR as a company.
I have no problem with patriotic automative journalism and feel that JLR gives Autocar a great deal to legitimately praise; the company is experiencing exceptional commercial success during an economic downturn by exploiting emerging markets, has an admirable commitment to reinvesting its profits into research and development, and is making some really superb vehicles.
The problem is that the reporting sometimes feels sycophantic and the vehicular analysis a little one sided. Whereas you are frank in your criticism of other cars, with JLR products it is necessary to read through the lines in what you say to get a true picture. I think that is a shame because it compromises the trust your readership place in you, and is wholly unnecessary given the standard JLR (certainly Jaguar) have now attained.
I think your praise for Jaguar is justified; I cannot personally speak for reliability, but JD Power reports suggest it is now quite good, and certainly from driving the new XJ I can objectively concur that its power delivery and dynamics are class leading (and I say this as a long time S-Class and 7 series owner).
On Land Rover I think you have been and continue to be far too forgiving. I remember a dealer telling me that Range Rovers were supposed to leak oil! Historically, you should have taken them to task on reliability particularly given the avaricious pricing, but you never truly did.
I hope that the current generation turn out to be more reliable; we can only hope that the engineers from Jaguar were involved. Two issues that you should be raising are the exorbitant prices which the vehicles do not appear to justify and the dynamics which are still not up to standard : Over £30,000 for a manual Ford power Evoque, £50,000 for a Range Rover Sport with a dumbed down four wheel drive system "to make it affordable," £70,000 for a base level Range Rover?
In terms of dynamics, I was not impressed to see you drive a Range Rover on a country lane and to almost lose control of it on a comparatively mild corner. I don't expect a Range Rover to be sporting, but I do expect it to be safe to drive in normal conditions. I am also not impressed to see that Autocar have ranked the Range Rover Sport no1 for "Sports SUV" ahead of the Cayenne and X5, when you say that the dynamics of it are inferior to those vehicles and that the Sport is "comfort focused." It is great that you have honestly appraised the vehicle, but how on that basis can you justify placing it above the Porsche and BMW in the category "Sports SUV?"
I hope that helps answer your question.