why was the XJ220 a flop?
 

i remember clarkson saying that financially speaking it was one of the biggest flops ever, and i remember "the world's fastest cars" explaining why as well, but i can't remember exactly why the marketing for it went wrong and such. just wondering if anybody could refresh my memory or just explain

not important, just popped in my head not too long ago and now it's bugging me that i can't remember

By the time Jaguar started developing the car economies were on a high. By the time they finished it, they weren't. It's much like the situation we're in now. Lots of supercars, but the economies are down. Apparently car companies take the decision to build an ultra expensive supercar too late.

Jaguar had another problem, which was the engine. At first Jaguar planned to fit it with a V12, but eventually opted for an V6. Not that it wouldn't deliver, but when the competition has V8s (F40) and quad turbo V12s (Bugatti EB110) it doesn't sound big enough for the public they wanted to sell it to. Also, in comparison to competitors it just wasn't good enough. Handling an especially brakes were no match.

Not all XJ220s were sold for the original price. To shift them all Jaguar had to put the remaining cars on 'sale' and finally got them sold for way under the initial price.

BTW, McLaren's F1 wasn't much of a commercial succes either.

EDIT: made a stupid mistake, changed inline six to V6.

Yeah apparently McLaren did not even make any profit...but I would have thought that after winning Le Mans they would have got a whole lot of money for winning from advertisments and stuff like that

The money from sponsors is just being spent on running the car and the team. Racing teams and manufacturers rarely make a profit on that. It's about selling cars. And there they didn't make a profit as well.

it seems they didnt as they dont produce cars for the public any more. I wish they had another "go" on building the ultimate supercar once again.

I remember a british review/documentary(not clarkson or tiff) saying it was an engineering genius but it had bad timing.

I remember McLaren saying that despite not making any profit on the cars, he do it all over again just because he loves it so much. I wish the car community had more people like that.

If your talking about Mclaren technically they are building commercialy available cars again.

Gordon murry would do it all again, hes not so much interested in the profit

Yes, but the SLR is quite different from the F1...


The XJ220 had a V6 not a straight six, which made it much less desirable than the V12 originally planned, even though the turbo V6 was able to achieve more power, torque, better mpg, less weight and better emissions than the V12 they were planning to use. I understand why some potential owners were upset, they were promised a thumping V12 Jaguar supercar, but instead they got a rather 'ordinary' V6, that sounds more like a cement mixer (as some reviewer put it) than a finely tuned supercar engine such as a V12.

I'm not saying it's the same car but they do build consumer levels cars again.

Thanks for correcting me on that as well.

thanks for explaining stradale. now it rings a bell :)

and thanks to everyone else for throwing my thread way off topic, as is a custom here at jw

i dunno about that...i think the SLR is a more of a benz w/ a mclaren badge slapped on the side. yes i'm sure that mclaren had input, but no where near as much as they would have liked ie being forced to use sensotronic braking sys, front engine, auto trans etc. IMO getting Mclaren involved was more of a gimmic because it'd be inevtible to draw similarities to the F1 in quality, performance etc that'd help sales and the bottom line.

You said exactly what I was thinking...