All Entries Tagged With: "XF"
Jaguar Losing Its Way With Wagon & CUV?
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via IMCDB ::: Jaguar XJ-S
THERE‘S a scene in Clint Eastwood’s 1997 Savannah-based whodonnit Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil where the main characters, Jim William (Kevin Spacey) and John Kelso (John Cusack) take a ride into the night in a Jaguar XJ-S V12 coupe to seek guidance from a black-magic witch doctor named Minerva (Irma P. Hall). Why do they seek out voodoo medicine? At this juncture in the movie, our leading characters feel like they’ve lost their way. Perhaps the same can be said for Jaguar execs…
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.
Sedan or Coupé? Jaguar XF
By Gunnar Heinrich
WHEN discussing a luxury two door (sometimes four), low slung, performance oriented auto, you don’t use the American coupe (“coop”) but rather one implements the more Continental coupé (“coopay”)- as in Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé.
The accent aigu over the “e” really ties the name together.
There’s been plenty of chatter in the blogosphere over Audi’s foray into the four-door coupé market (that Mercedes reintroduced from Pre-War years) with the A7 concept. CAR magazine and others have compared this sleek, lesser-than-an-A8 but greater-than-an-A6 thought to the obvious – Mercedes’ CLS – but also to Jaguar’s XF.
Is that really a fair comparison?
The XF is a saloon. Jaguar calls it as such (it’s a “sedan” in America).
And as if to prove the point, Jaguar made the poor mistake of raising the C-XF’s roof to be more accommodating so that the cat could play the practicality game and go grille to grille against mid-sized Teutons like the aforementioned A6.
Marketing a four door coupé would have really, really played to Jag’s three strengths – pace, grace, and sex.
Did Jaguar miss the coupé speedboat to riches for the practicality ferry to also-ran island? Let’s hope not and watch the labels change.
[Linked: Jaguar USA | CAR]
The Big Tease > Jaguar XF Production
(img: Victoria’s Secret)
There can be no doubt that a core ingredient to Formula Jaguar is sex. Appeal.
One former Jag owner and confirmed bachelor/playboy put it to me plainly, “I’ve had Bimmers, Vettes, Porsches, Benzes and none of them attracted women like my old XJS.”
But like many owners of British models yesteryear, his old V12 GT spent more days in ye olde shoppe than it did prowling the boulevards. Could it be that’s why his current voiture de choix wears the roundel badge?
History has both hurt and helped Jaguar sales. The cat owns a very sultry past – who can deny that the penultimate E-Type is one of automordom’s most seductive rides? And most of the current designs borrow heavily from that former mystique – which helped – for a while.
But then there’s that sobering cold shower period under British Leyland that left its haunting shadow through the mid-90s. Unreliable, unsexy, and badly engineered cars made for tough times for the marque. It’s a turn-off that lasted for years in during periods (like now) when Jaguar’s are proving reliable as daily transport.
Then the retro-craze hit in the late 90s and that’s where Jaguar fit right in. And then as soon as the fad came – it went – and the marque was once more looking down the barrel. The insipid Gorgeous ad campaign did nothing to assuage buyers otherwise.
And now Jaguar, after all the highs and lows, has one last hope – the XF. The XK has proven both sexy (to most) and popular (ditto), but it just isn’t selling in necessary volumes to carry the company.
Which means that everything rests on the XF – but even then it may be just too late. Time may have already passed Coventry by and Ford may yet resort to liquidating one of the best nameplates the world has ever known.
I doubt it will come to that, but the situation is as dire as ever. Which makes Jag’s latest marketing tactics all the more cheeky. The internet has been treated with a deluge of spy shots of XF mules in various test scenarios.
The question tingling the tongues of journalists, enthusiasts, and would-be buyers: How close will the production model be to the saucy concept?
They have our attention.
We’re not telling, says Jaguar. Smiling slyly…you’ll have to wait.
But the pressure’s building! How much longer must the agony of suspense last?
A moment or two more…
