All Entries Tagged With: "Jaguar XJ"

What Makes a Jaguar, “A Jag-u-ar”?

• The essential elements of Jaguar design
• Ian Callum’s team should avoid Germanification
• Keep the sex please, Jaguar’s British

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG  Jaguar Cars

NO, seriously.

What makes a Jaguar a “Jag-wharr” “Jag-u-ar” or a “Shagwharr, baby, yeah!” ?

Coming down from the summer’s high of witnessing the troubled Brit car maker launch something – anything – that could be considered exciting, fresh, and new, yours is compelled to pick up a fresh blogger’s grenade, pull the pin and…

Can’t throw it. Won’t.

The world needs Jaguar now more than ever. We need a car company that promises to deliver what we’ll call the “everyday exotic”.

“Everyday” meaning a car that’s produced in some volume with a wide range of engine and trim options that inevitably includes a low-spec variant that has a euro-zone friendly diesel engine and an interior trimmed in velour.

By “exotic”, I refer to an automobile that makes your hand stand on end or at least prompts a second, lasting glance.

Neither BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus are in the business of building everday head-turners.

The latest generation 5er, E-Class, and GS and their higher and lower stablemates are quite doomed to automotive anonymity thanks in large part to their ubiquity and that they share the same design elements from like-minded studios.

Jaguar’s team, led by the talented Ian Callum, is badly tempted to follow this terribly efficient Teutonic trend. They’re prepared to sacrifice the marque’s quintessentially British heritage by playing ze Germans’ game; borrowing heavily from Audi’s middle-of-the-road German aesthetic while pitching an emphasis on technology.

Technology isn’t sexy. Sleek, lean, power and grace is. Which brings us nicely back to our nugget: what makes a Jaguar, a Jaguar?

It’s sex appeal, ladies and gentlemen.

Time’s up. Throw the grenade!

Family Ties? Picture of XJ, XF, XK Boots Shows No Relation

• All three cars are Jaguars
• Could you tell?
• A call for some cross lineup continuity

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Jaguar Cars

ASIDE from all three Jaguars – XJ, XF, XK – sharing obvious features like, well, similar trim, LED tail lights, exhaust pipes, faux-chrome badging, and a gentle lip that acts as a spoiler to nature’s air currents, what common element(s) announce these three cars as Jaguars?

From this carefully composed shot: nothing.

The XJ’s lofty boot lid with vertically slatted LED lamps seems borrowed from the Lancia Delta. Likewise, the XF horizontally generic lamps with broad chrome strip seem to reveal a Brit interpretation of the cleaner Audi A6.

The XK, sadly, with its busy mishmash of fat and skinny lines, complicated rear lighting, and Aston-like shape is the closest to casting ties with Coventry’s past. But that, too, is approximate at best and features nothing that carries over to the newer saloons.

Not even the circular, quad-pipe exhausts enjoy cross-marque continuity. The XJ features the same dual, plastic, horizonal bumper vents that we find on the Lexus LS.

Allowing for continuity is key to crafting an image. That’s fairly basic. And, to be fair, we can see more of something akin to familial ties when these cats are positioned differently and from a frontal aspect.

Ian Callum’s team should consider further integration going forward as Jaguar seeks to remodel itself into a hell-with-tradtion modernist luxury car company.

In Defense of Last XJ’s Staidness

Before the revolution

By Gunnar Heinrich

“DON’T be fooled by the fact that the styling of the latest Jaguar XJ is so evolutionary – for which read, if you will, staid [...] beneath the shape there’s little danger of the XJ being anything other than an excellent car.”

So wrote CAR magazine, the great defender of the scions of the British Automotive Empire. The year was 2002 and the “excellent” XJ in question was the rather unremarkable X350 generation XJ (2003-2007).

In those days, nearly a decade ago, Rover was still on life support, Bentley was busy unveiling the Continental GT, and Jaguar was part ‘n parcel of a London based subsidiary of FoMoCo called the “Premier Auto Group”.

Ford had strictly classical views for the marque and seemed to provide a development budget to match; that is to say, one that didn’t quite reflect decades inflation.

One thing that did seem to inflate with Jaguar was that the initial sticker shock when the company was bought in the 80s and the subsequent half-hearted maintenance of one of Britain’s finest cost Ford a billions of greenbacks.

But all that’s beside the point, really.

What matters is that what made the X350 so unremarkable wasn’t the “staid” styling but in fact that the quality did not match the look of heritage. The XJ had become a cheap imitation of its venerable, if quirky forebears.

And for all the ground made in technology and practicality (aluminum frame and new V8), Coventry’s quintessential Britishness – the heavenly Connolly leather scent, the cast iron feel of interior bright work, the heft to a door that didn’t feel like it was made from a recycled coke can – all were conspicuously absent in the new car.

Couple those lackings with staggering depreciation and the chorus of cranky car journalists who bemoaned the fact that the package looked to similar to its predecessor and its easy to see why the car faltered in the face of Teutonic competition.

But on that last point I’d like to counter it with this alternative: so what?

So what if the X350 looked so similar the X308 which preceded it.

That sedan was the most elegant post-war saloon yet built. What it lacked in space, it made of up in grace. And why not carry such eloquent design language forward? It was unlike anything else on the road in a market where there remain too many cars that look and feel like everything else.

And why can we forgive Porsche for the subtle evolution of the 911, an iconic shape if a simple descendant of the VW Beetle, and not Jaguar for evolving a sexy icon from the 60s?

Given that the 2010 XJ shared next to nothing with Jaguar’s glorious past, you can’t help but feel that the company has caved into a pressure that stemmed from a complete misunderstanding.

To be classic is to be timeless. Jaguar buyers get this which sets them apart from say, Lexus, Audi, Mercedes, or BMW buyers.

The X350’s shape, for all the saloon’s other pitfalls, had the aesthetic qualities of an excellent car.

Castle Bromwich’s Too Quiet Campaign

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Jaguar Cars

ARE we having fun yet?

It’s been some months since the XJ launched in a posh London art gallery amidst summer’s heat and Jay Leno’s chin wagging wise cracks about the ill economy. And what more have we learned of Jaguar’s latest flagship since?

Precious little. Another storied marque that’s operating perilously below the radar.

On Jaguar’s main site – jaguarcars.com – there’s a tiny spittle of information about an XJ “boutique” installed at The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge. That, plus the standard boilerplate details about lighter than-its-rivals specs and too-many-electronic amenities with a few glamour shots and that’s all there is too know.

Apparently.

Too paraphrase Mad Men’s Conrad Hilton, show us a little wow!

Here’s a thought – how about one of the Jag test driver’s “challenge” one of BMW or Merc’s test drivers to duel? You know, something like pitting the 510 hp, supercharged XJ against an S63 AMG? Hell, come to think of it, Cadillac pulled off the same stunt with marketing the CTS-V against the M5 with R&T playing host. And marketing maven Lutz has made a similar challenge since.

But then again,  such comparison events tend to highlight the rivals a bit too much and the rivalry a bit too little. There’s nothing quite like paying for the other guy’s air time.

Hmm… Jaguar’s people need a rethink on how best to market their sleek new exec, lest it be forgotten in advance of the 2010 delivery dates.

2010 Jaguar XJ Unveiled!

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG from Jaguar Cars

JAGUAR has unveiled, at long last, the next XJ sedan.

Former Tonight Show host and car collector exemplar Jay Leno emceed the event gratis. Or at least that’s what he inferred when he joked that Jaguar was looking to him for money.

Tony O’Driscoll, Jaguar’s chief executive, provides proof to pudding that unless you’ve got the oratory skills of Ronald Reagan pitching GE Progress, corporate types should stay the hell off the stage lest you kill the carefully crafted buzz.

But it was Ian Callum, the soft spoken Scot who spoke of his Jaguar dreams as a youth – particularly his lust for the original ‘68 XJ saloon – who hit the ball out of the park. The audience was practically spell bound as the director of Jaguar design mouthed the words sensual styling, curves, and “you won’t forget me” in describing XJ style.

Indeed few will forget the new car. It’s different yet manages to retain a feline elegance. And while this new XJ seems to take some cues from Audi, Citroen, Lancia, and even Nissan, it appears nonetheless a car cut from an original swath of whole cloth.

With style, that most critical aspect of Jaguar’s sensual essence, confirmed as standard equipment in XJ’s going forward, everything else – including the 1200 watt, 20 speaker sound system- seems ancillary.

Coventry just hit a home run in London tonight.

***Jaguar Unveiling Live Event ***

Tap this link >>> http://www.jaguar.com/allnewxj/video.html

You’ll be transferred to the live unveiling of the 2010 Jaguar XJ at Saatchi Gallery in London.

Because 1984 Won’t Be Like 1984?

Illustrative example of an 80’s XJ in fine fettle.

By Gunnar Heinrich

NINETEEN thousand, five hundred dollars.

That’s the asking price on Hemmings Motor News for one “sage green” Jaguar XJ6 Vanden Plas with “111,000 original miles”.

Now, Hemmings is known for… ahem… price inflated listings.

This is usually due to a) overzealous sellers looking to turn a steep profit or b) emotionally attached collectors having to part with their treasures.

But considering that the Jag in question hails from the dark days of British Leyland and that a Ford-era X300 generation (far more reliable) XJ6 in either “fair” to “good” condition can be had for around five large, there’s room for thought that the seller was toking on some serious ganja when he posted the classified.

For good measure, there’s no picture of the aged Chicago-based cat that’s had its front end “completely rebuilt”. We’re only left to dream with the above picture.

Caveat Emptor.

Linked: Hemmings