It’s one of the biggest questions for gearheads the world over: Have cars already peaked? With new models persistently getting heavier, packing in more tech—including active safety assists—and massive touchscreens to contain it all, it often feels like things really were simpler (and indeed better) in the good old days. Whenever they were.
Well, one Jeremy Clarkson has weighed in big-time on that issue in a fascinating chat with motoring journalist, car collector, and fellow farmer Harry Metcalfe on the latter’s Harry’s Garage YouTube channel.
You can find the full video below, but in case you don’t have 47 minutes to spare, here’s the JC wisdom…
“My initial reaction when I saw the advertisement that didn’t have a car in it was, ‘What are they doing?’ And we remember the outrage it provoked, but the truth of the matter is no one was buying these [F-Types] or XJs. They weren’t selling any cars. So I don’t think there was any point in going down that road because that road had come to an end for Jaguar. So they had to change direction.
“Here’s the fact that lives in my head: 63 million people in America voted for Kamala Harris. That’s Jaguar’s biggest market, and they’ve got 63 million people of that disposition who are likely to look favorably on an electric car, and think an electric Jaguar is quite cool. So I can see there is a market for the thing they’ve made. I’m not going to buy it in a million years, but I can see why they would do it.”
“I took [an F-Type] to Mauritania on The Grand Tour and sort of thought it would fall to pieces, because Jaguar’s reputation sort of lives in everybody’s head. But is it a fair reputation? It transpired as I drove across the Sahara Desert that it isn’t a fair reputation—because that car was unbreakable.”
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“I do blame governments for the decline, because by law, you must perform a series of functions before you can turn the speed limit or lane-departure warnings off. Now, you have to turn them off before you set off. When you drive a different car every week—and I appreciate this doesn’t apply to everybody—it takes me 10 minutes to work out on those menus how to do it, and that drives me to distraction.”
“Once the glass screen became the cheap way of providing buttons, they’ve gone berserk. In the new M5, you’ve got effectively 30 different apps you can scroll, and the options are insane. You used to have a sport button that made the car uncomfortable. In that M5, the options were just lunacy. It’s like the graphic equalizer on a ’70s hi-fi.
“With right-hand drive, you’re having to use your left hand, and as I’m right-handed, I’m not as accurate with my left hand as I am with my right. Therefore, I’m always hitting the wrong thing, then you leave fingerprints all over the screen, and you can’t see what you’re doing, and I don’t want any of it!
“The reason I drive an 18-year-old Range Rover and a 12-year-old Jag is it’s got buttons. If I want to change from navigation to music or turn the heating up a bit, I don’t have to go into a menu—I just do it.”
“I said when I packed in The Grand Tour was that I’m just not interested in electric cars, and I saw that was going to be the future. I thought, ‘How can I be enthusiastic as I drive along when the damn thing’s not making any noise?’
“I had that electric Renault 5 the other day, and I thought that was a cracking-looking little car, and I really liked the splashes of yellow inside. Really nicely done…if only it had an engine!”
“I think everybody’s lost it now. I think they’ve lost that idea that a car represents freedom, glamor, speed, danger, be it through legislation or a shift in public perception. The car is no longer viewed as something that’s exciting. And that’s represented in the amorphous blobs that pass for car design today.”
“Here’s the thing: It works. So there is simply no reason for selling it. I get into it every day—sometimes the [electrically motorized] vents creak a bit when it’s coming up, but other than that, it works all the time. And I adore the F-Type, so I thought, ‘I’ll get one.’ It was £20,000 (around P1.51 million) with 20,000 miles on the clock. I was so startled to find you could buy this car for £20k.
“I’m 65—I’m not sure I need to buy another new car, and I just don’t think I’d want a new car.”
“Cars got to a point when they were very well made—they had satnav, air-conditioning, they had roofs you could fold away when you were driving along. They reached a point when they had everything you could reasonably expect from a car, and now they’ve all gone electronic and idiotic.
“So I think about 10 years ago, if you bought a car from 10 years ago, it would be reliable, comfortable, refined, well-equipped, fast, relatively economical, and spectacularly green because nobody’s had to build you a new car.”
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
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