Car brands come and go. However, sometimes we lose a car brand, and it feels like we are losing a building from our hometown or something. Some brands carry with them a cultural weight that is hard to describe. According to Gear Patrol, some of these icons are in danger of getting the old leather boot. Here are the five huge car brands that might not make it much longer. 

Jaguar might not make it

It’s hard to believe. Jaguars have been the butt of many reliability jokes for years, decades. Despite its long, smoky history, Jaguar is more than a car brand; it’s a cultural pillar. And, not for nothing, but Jaguar is responsible for a few of the coolest cars ever made. Gear Patrol explains that Jaguar Land Rover announced in 2021 that the brands were kicking off the “Reimagine” strategy. Land Rover took this as a chance to shift to electric SUVs. For Jaguar, this meant a total brand rebuild. 

The big cat says it will be a purely electric car company by 2025. Jaguar plans to rebrand by selling only upmarket bespoke electric vehicles hoping to rival the like of Bentley. 

The problem is that 2025 is quickly approaching, and unless Jaguar has kept their cards extremely close to the vest, the plan feels scattered. Not to mention, the CEO holding the reigns of this plan just resigned. While this is certainly speculative, the evidence isn’t inspiring much confidence in Jaguar making it another 10 years. 

Is McLaren in trouble? 

Certainly, McLaren is fine, right? McLaren has enjoyed massive success in multiple areas of automotive manufacturing and racing. However, despite these wins, Gear Patrol mentions that McLaren suffers from a cash-flow problem. 

If you don’t buy it, then McLaren themselves will sell it to you cause its selling everything else. Well, maybe not everything, but the British brand recently sold its headquarters. Not only that, but McLaren also sold many of its prestigious race car collections. 

Some people point out that the sports car brand has yet to build a “practical” SUV like the Urus. And as we know, if you ain’t selling SUVs, you ain’t selling nothing. 

Polestar is great but ignored

Polestar is one of the newer players in the luxury EV world. A spinoff performance brand of Volvo, Polestar has struggled to create enough of its own gravity away from Volvo. Gear Patrol points out that the EV makers just took a $1.6 billion handout from its parent company. This is not a great sign. 

Polestar’s future is quite murky at the moment, but we shouldn’t count it out just yet. 

Chrysler? No way. 

Way. It’s properly hard to imagine a world without Chrysler. We can chalk this possible downfall up to big business. FCA and PSA groups merged in 2021 to form Stellantis. This mega-auto group breathed life into some of the struggling brands in their care. Chrysler was probably one of the top brands many expected Stellantis to chop, but it hasn’t happened yet. 

Chrysler, like Polestar, isn’t a done deal by any means, but it is certainly in danger if the bigwigs at Stellantis feel the pressure to consolidate brands. 

I mean, no one buys them, but Cadillac can’t go away

Cadillac has been a shadow of its former self for decades now. That isn’t to say Cadillac doesn’t make some nice cars; it does. However, it’s been a while since Cadillac was the go-to luxury brand. That said, the transition to EV might be Cadillac’s last chance to reclaim some former glory. 

So far, the two EVs Cadillac is bringing to market are extremely cool and monocle-levels of fancy. However, the brand has admitted to considering letting the Escalade branch off into its own sub-brand of Esicalde-based vehicles. If that happens, it would be hard not to view that as an admittance that the Cadillac brand was sinking. 

Who knew Saturn would last as long as it did 

The truth is, even with the financial facts lined up, this is largely speculative stuff. We don’t have a crystal ball; anything could happen. However, if some major changes don’t happen for some of these brands, we might lose some seriously iconic marques.