In the wake of the launch of Jaguar's Hybrid range i feel its time to fly the flag at half mast, dress in black, salute, remember and mourn the passing of the Worlds greatest car company.

Born in a Blackpool shed in the early 20s making motorcycle side cars, Jaguar became the most prominent symbol of British automotive magnificence with the distinctive round headlights, sumptious leather interiors and thoroughly British walnut dashboards. Fused together with large engines, automatic gearboxes and the Leaping Jaguar flying tall and proud signing Land of Hope and Glory in tune with your singing V8.

Gliding through Britains countryside, with the capability to effortlessly swoon as well as aggressively blast up and down our green and pleasant land. Even the badly remembered British Leyland portion of Jaguar's history was unable to dent its coolness, despite being ruined by communistical northerners the roaring animal carried on producing great cars, ok they were awfully made, even Jag's managers wouldnt take an XJS for free but it was still better than anything German. And thats an actual fact.

Jaguar are the finest symbol of British magnificence. The sort of car which can exude class wherever it may wander. When people took delivery of their first XJ6's they knew they had made it in life, a car which appealed to everyone from printing firm managers to sinister murderers but most importantly to the caddish man-about-town in the middle. The slightly untrustworthy tax dodger, the Arthur Daley, who actually did have a Jaguar. If you bought a Jaguar owners car, there was always the risk of sawdust in the gearbox and thats what made it brilliant. Who wants a boring reliable Asian car? Nobody.

The breed was revived by Ford's intervention for the 2000s, putting components which actually worked behind a Jaguar body, they kept the styling and tradition of what a Jaguar should look like. But i will now explain what makes Jaguar uniquely special in my heart....

They were one of the last manufacturers to buckle and make a diesel model, they were one of the last to throw away traditional styling and conform to the modern world of zinc kitchen surfaces, sleek minimalist furniture and one tone fixtures and fittings. We may want that in our house but Jaguar knew we didnt want that in our cars. It resisting conforming to black uncluttered interiors in a car with 'low profile tyres' and a head up display. Jaguar's are supposed to be big, heavy, dark on the outside, light on the inside, full of walnut, leather and buttons. Its supposed to be fuelled by petrol with a big V shaped engine behind round exterior lights. It is not supposed to be a conformist Lexus lookalike owned by a company nobodies ever heard of.

So im afraid, with the advent of conformist styling and horrifyingly...an environmental conscience that Jaguar is dead. Let us pray silence now and mourn the passing of Jaguar, the greatest car maker in the World.

RIP Jaguar.

Jaguar died when the XF was launched as far as im concerned. I want to see Jaguar being Jaguar not pretending to be Lexus.

German cars are horrible conformist endless black, blue, silver and grey shapes. None of them interest me at all.

Tell me specifically why a German car is better? And leave out any unimportant rubbish like reliability...or build quality....or residual values...or engineering superiority...or anything like that!

Jaguar's have always been the best cars ever made and thats an end of it.