Are We Missing Something?

The first time I voyaged to the United Kingdom I was astounded by the sheer wealth of vehicular finery.

However, I did notice something rather peculiar: every Jaguar that I saw (in London there were many) lacked the fabled “hood leaper.”

Now in terms of the XJS, XJ220, XK8, or XKR coupés and convertibles, the Jaguar on the hood is not missed. However on the saloons, it is the pièce de résistance.

The cat on the hood completes the cat as whole. A Jaguar saloon without the hood leaper looks naked.

It would only be until years later when I stopped into Rossleigh Jaguar in Edinburgh that I was to learn the reason.

The incredulous salesman was baffled that we in the United States still had the fabled leaper considering our “litigious society.”

I asked for further explanation and duly received.

There were law suits in the United Kingdom pertaining to car-pedestrian collisions.

The hood leapers have impaled more than one victim due to their design; they fold side to side, but not backwards like the Mercedes-Benz star or the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy.

Apparently, the driver, dealer, and Jaguar Cars, Limited could all be held liable. As a result Jaguar stopped the installation of hood leapers on European Jaguars as far back as the 1980s and continues to install hood leapers on the saloons only in a select few markets (North America being one example).

The measures in the UK are so extreme that no Jaguar dealership will install a hood leaper for the customer. Nor can the customer sign a waiver dissolving the dealership or manufacturer of fault.

Let us hope it will not come to that on this side of the Atlantic.


For more information, click the link: Rossleigh Jaguar