Mercedes is not only a pioneer in car manufacturing, but also a model for the early automotive industry in terms of corporate structure and product planning, so for a long time, even today, Mercedes has been a benchmark for industrial structure.
Historically, companies that have been able to benchmark against Mercedes have been prominent, including Alfa Romeo and Jaguar. From luxury cars (even leaders' cars and royal cars) to civilian cars, these three brands have represented the hard power of the domestic automobile industry, and even in the field of racing, these three brands have many large-scale competition records, which can be said to be very similar.
However, in terms of scale, Alfa Romeo and Jaguar combined are not worth one-tenth of Mercedes, and one of the reasons for "success is also xiaohe, defeat is also xiaohe" is that Alpha Romeo and Jaguar are to a certain extent "state-owned enterprises" and cannot maintain independent identities after separation. Jaguar is affiliated with Leland, England, and receives funding and regulation from the British government, while Alpha Romeo has been part of the Italian government since before World War II.
In the 1980s, when Mercedes-Benz successfully transformed, Jaguar left Leland and entered a turbulent period of independence; Alfa Romeo fell into the "product door", various quality problems, and eventually lost most of the overseas market, was acquired by Fiat, and sent to the fence at the same time as the sworn enemy of lancia for many years. In the 90s, when Mercedes was expanding rapidly, Jaguar was acquired by Ford, and Alfa Romeo under Fiat could not recover its size, while Fiat, which owned Brands such as Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and Ferrari, entered its heyday.
After entering 2000, the gap between Jaguar, Romeo and Mercedes at the beginning was not so large, after all, almost every level can find competitors. And when the successor of 166 was cut, gtV followed by no car, and the product line became more and more streamlined, Romeo's weakness was revealed.
After Tata took jaguar Land Rover, Jaguar's situation did not change. The reason why Jaguar is tied to Land Rover is because without Land Rover, Jaguar is completely unable to take responsibility for its own profits and losses. Jaguar first cut the CX75, then XJ did not have a successor, and then the next transformation of the niche market, people had to sigh, that Jaguar may not really come back. Alfa Romeo and Jaguar, both have a bunch of die-hard loyalists. The British really like Jaguar, for example, the second-hand Audi RS5 and Jaguar XKR, in the country is definitely better to sell RS5, and in the Uk, XKR is easier to sell. Jaguar is still a symbol of success in the hearts of the British, but at the moment when the electrification transition is so rapid, it is unknown whether this older generation of brand symbols can last for several years.