All Entries Tagged With: "x350"

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.