Yearly we are saying goodbye to good autos pulled from the Australian market, and 2024 was no completely different.
Whereas earlier years have produced an extended record of notable discontinuations, there have been a pair that left a very bitter style in our mouths this 12 months.
On one finish of the automotive spectrum, we misplaced an enthralling and well-rounded small SUV from a well-liked carmaker. On the different finish, we bid adieu to a sports activities automobile that represented a sure British model’s storied previous, because it prepares to enter a controversial future.
Oh, and we couldn’t overlook the demise of one other V8 icon. With out additional ado, these are the autos we’re saddest to see go.
Paul Maric: Jaguar F-Kind
This can be a automobile that propelled Jaguar into the fashionable age.
It labored so completely nicely with that sonorous supercharged V8 – and even should you went for the V6 model, it nonetheless provided an unbelievable word you gained’t discover on some other automobile right this moment.
However, a scarcity of funding (and care?) by Jaguar ensured its demise because the model heads towards a weird all-electric future.
Marton Pettendy: Ford Puma
The Ford Puma, as a result of it was the most effective mild SUV cash might purchase at any worth – definitely higher than the half-baked EcoSport it changed, in addition to the Hyundai Venue and Kia Stonic.
Regardless of being cheaper, Ford’s smallest SUV was additionally extra dynamic than the Toyota Yaris Cross, Volkswagen T-Cross, Renault Captur, Mazda CX-3 and Nissan Juke.
But it remained virtually invisible to SUV-loving Aussies as a result of Ford’s entrepreneurs and sellers most popular to take a position extra money and time on extra worthwhile Rangers, which can be what led to the demise of the Escape this 12 months, and the Fiesta and Focus final 12 months.
All of that leaves the Mustang as Ford Australia’s solely precise passenger automobile and, now that it has backflipped on importing the Puma Gen-E, the unloved Mustang Mach-E as its solely electrical SUV.
And apart from these plus the favored Everest, it places all the Ranger Motor Firm’s eggs into the business automobile basket.
James Wong: Jaguar F-Kind
Nowadays it takes a very particular form of automobile to stir my soul, and the V8-engined Jaguar F-Kind was one in every of them.
With a design that was as equally attractive because it was timeless, teamed with engine notes that made you squeal with pleasure, the F-Kind was a slice of high-end supercar motoring simply inside attain of many individuals’s attainable dream-car budgets.
Get it in the proper color (i.e. British Racing Inexperienced over Tan) and also you had a stunning fashionable basic, full with among the best soundtracks ever recognized to fashionable man and girl.
What a disgrace Jaguar’s electric-led rebrand (which I’m extremely nervous about, thoughts you) spelt the top for one in every of its most iconic and arguably profitable fashions in current historical past.
Could thee relaxation in peace.
Max Davies: Jaguar F-Kind
Though I’ve by no means actually been significantly taken by the British automobile business, I used to be genuinely dissatisfied to study Jaguar could be steering away from its roots and in direction of luxurious electrical autos earlier this decade.
What was most disappointing about that was the very fact it’d be killing off all its present fashions and nameplates to exchange all of them with brand-new, never-before-seen EVs as an alternative.
Whereas it wasn’t the one automobile to get the axe, essentially the most important to me was the F-Kind, Jaguar’s last petrol-powered sports activities automobile.
For a model that in recent times had constantly angled in direction of SUVs with each inside combustion and electrical powertrains, Jaguar’s F-Kind appeared like a much-needed palate cleanser amongst a spread of autos that, whereas nonetheless cool, didn’t actually really feel like correct representations of Jaguar and its iconic sports activities vehicles of the previous.
In distinction, the F-Kind had the flash and attract anticipated of a Jaguar sports activities automobile. It was a stunning automobile with an equally high-end inside, accessible in each convertible and coupe physique types.
It was a good nod to Jaguar’s previous too, one thing the model itself recognised with a handful of particular F-Kind editions paying homage to the legendary E-Kind over time.
Past that, it was one of many few “cheaper” soft-top convertible sports activities vehicles offered with a V8. You possibly can manually take away the roof on one thing like a Corvette, certain, however an American V8 sports activities automobile was all the time a very completely different kettle of fish to something the Jaguar of outdated might muster.
Rubbing salt within the wounds was Jaguar’s current revival… which speaks for itself. Because the F-Kind itself will seemingly now stay additional out of my attain than it was earlier than, I’ll proceed to admire the handful of circa-1990 Jaguar XJ Sovereigns nonetheless kicking by the hands of my family as a reminder of the model’s previous as an alternative.
William Stopford: Ford Puma
There isn’t one other automobile within the Puma’s phase – the “mild SUV” phase, as if any punter would name it that – that I like greater than this charming little European Ford. I loved it a lot I beneficial it to a member of the family who ended up shopping for one.
Its outputs are modest however its allure is immense, with genuinely pleasurable dealing with that makes this fairly enjoyable on a winding street. Inside house is respectable, the tech is sweet, and it’s cute in a frog-faced form of manner.
Alas, Ford Australia doesn’t appear occupied with competing in additional reasonably priced quantity segments because it turns into increasingly more of a business automobile model.
So, regardless of an up to date mannequin debuting in Europe – and an electrical model, the Gen-E, becoming a member of the vary – Ford Australia pulled the plug on the Puma earlier this 12 months, despite the fact that it was removed from the worst-selling automobile in its phase.
Josh Nevett: Jaguar F-Kind
With out wading too deep into Jaguar’s controversial rebrand, the F-Kind’s demise actually does signify the top of an period for the storied British producer.
However on a much less existential stage, it’s additionally simply the top of a superb automobile.
Developed as a non secular successor to the legendary E-Kind, the F-Kind launched in 2013 to essential and public acclaim, praised for its beautiful design and playful persona.
Initially accessible with a selection of V6 and V8 supercharged powertrains, the F-Kind sounded as attractive because it seemed, and people traits remained till the axe fell earlier this 12 months.
Certainly, an F-Kind wouldn’t look misplaced parked subsequent to unique steel twice its worth, particularly to the untrained eye.
I by no means acquired to drive one, however I’ll be sure that to control used values whereas queuing up for a lottery ticket.
Jordan Mulach: Jaguar F-Kind
The non secular successor to the attractive Jaguar E-Kind reached the top of the road this 12 months, as manufacturing stopped for the F-Kind.
It was by no means capable of absolutely seize what its predecessor stood for, but it surely gave life again to Jaguar in a time when it tried – and failed – to make itself a British BMW.
In fact, that’s not implying that it’s the rationale why Jaguar goes by its main rebirth, because the model has by no means actually been as profitable as some need to imagine it was.
Nonetheless, with the F-Kind gone the world now has one much less attention-grabbing sports activities automobile, which by all accounts was a good factor no matter which engine you picked – and there aren’t many autos the place you’ll be able to say that.
Jack Fast: Toyota LandCruiser 70 Collection V8
There’s nothing extra iconic than the LandCruiser 70 Collection in relation to pure hardcore off-roading as some fashionable equivalents simply don’t lower the mustard.
It’s an indication of the instances however the 4.5-litre V8 turbo-diesel engine is now not accessible and it’s a key cause why persons are nonetheless shopping for this automobile.
Certain it’s now accessible with a model of the HiLux’s 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, and it’s technically quicker, as we proved, but it surely lacks loads of character.
My final expertise with the V8-powered LandCruiser 70 Collection was the wagon that Paul reviewed earlier within the 12 months, and I used to be enamoured with it. Particularly I liked the way it was principally un-stallable.
MORE: Every part Ford Puma
MORE: Every part Jaguar F-Kind
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