2008 Wish list part 1

Jaguar XF



With the end of the year rapidly approaching you can be sure that lots of retrospective views of 2007 are being readied for publication. Rather than look back (which I will do) I would rather look forward and think about some of the cars I’d like to drive in the next year.

Top of the list is the Jaguar XF, and I’ve stepped into the deadly trap of falling for the car purely based on how it looks and the badge it wears. It is a dangerous position to be in; if I like it, how do I know it isn’t because I am under its spell; if I do not, is it because I was simply expecting too much?

The most appealing aspect of the XF is the interior and particularly the rotary control knob for the automatic transmission. It is such a simple, yet sensible idea that I’m surprised no-one has done it before. The console in which the knob is set looks like a work of art – although it does remind me of the consoles fitted to American muscle cars of the late 1960s.


Jaguar XF console


Plymouth GTX console, can you see why the Jaguar makes me think of this?

Big cat spotting in Coventry

Coventry isn’t the most glamorous of places but if you want to spot Jaguars, particularly new and not yet released Jaguars it is the place to be. Over the years I’ve been in Coventry I’ve seen prototypes of the XK8, XJ8, S-type and X-type.

Today I wish I had been able to take a photograph of a distinctly non-standard looking S-type. Wide of track and apparently held together by sticky tape I wonder if it was a development mule for the XF or a sporting XF-R.



I also caught a glimpse of an XF; the more I see the XF the more I like it. It succeeds in looking like a Jaguar without looking like any past Jaguar. There is a strong link to the current XK, which is no bad thing. If, as some people complain, it looks like a Lexus GS then remember that the first Lexus GS took its shape from a Jaguar design study by Giugiaro.

Style-wise all new Jaguars are overshadowed by what I think is the best looking Jaguar of all, the 1975 XJ-C – the coupé version of the series 2 XJ saloon. There was a sober but slightly menacing, dark green XJ-C adding a touch of class to the morning traffic.