Jaguars are all about how they make you feel–inside and out

The F-Pace SVR isn’t the first Jaguar I’ve gotten to know this well. When I was very young, my grandfather purchased a black-on-black 2001 Jaguar XJ8 as a retirement gift to himself. I vividly remember standing out front of my elementary school, observing a sea of Volvos, Acuras, and Lexuses pulling up to pick up my classmates. As I waited for my mom’s Honda minivan to show up, once in a while, if I was lucky enough and if my mother had to work late, my grandfather would pick me up instead. When that sleek, shiny black XJ8 pulled around the corner and up to the curb, my heart raced in such a way that only another Jaguar could ever replicate.

Almost twenty years later, I bought my very own 2001 XJ8, painted in dark blue over an ivory white leather interior with gorgeous burl walnut wood strewn about the cabin on just about every surface you could imagine. Once again, as I sat behind the wheel and cruised around on sunny summer days, I felt that same feeling in my heart that I had almost entirely forgotten. Now, driving the 2024 F-Pace SVR, even though it’s an entirely different driving experience compared to the early 2000s XJ8, that feeling in my chest remains unchanged–and unmatched by any other brand. That feeling, that only those who have experienced the greatness of a fine Jaguar product and fallen helplessly in love with it could ever truly understand, is what I’m so terrified of losing as Jaguar abandons its heritage in favor of flashy electric cars designed to stir up controversy on social media.