When The British Copy The Japanese, Things Get Ugly

Twins?

By Gunnar Heinrich

READING two somber reviews recently that focused on Jaguar’s XF got me to thinking that it’s been some time since anything has been written on the midsize cat, herein.

When I found the above picture posted on ThePassionatePursuit.com, I knew it’s been far too long.

But let’s come back to that later and first discuss some other recently published pictures.

In their melancholic review, The New York Times did post some appealing [P.R. sourced] shots of one XF sedan finished in Blue-Hair blue. Some might be given to calling the paint’s color “Calypso” but I think that’s being charitable.

Regardless, some angles of the cat that hasn’t ever crawled out from its conceptual forebear’s shadow show traces of elegance and even sport. That rounded roof line that summits before the B-pillar and then gently slopes into a short boot is, true to Jaguar form, graceful.

The muscular hood is another fine aspect of art that managed to sneak its way past Ford’s ugly mill. There’s ample surface tension present and the central power dome suggests that this car did plenty of lap time at the Nurburgring.

But that’s where the excitement ends.

FRUMPY

The XF looks as everyday common as the Ford Five Hundred Taurus. And when the high gamma, PhotoShopped images give way to the bargain lot shots that trickle in on Ebay, more people will get a very clear picture of how frumpy the Jag really looks.

And now back to you the aforementioned image up top that shows the eerily similar profiles of the Jaguar XF and Lexus GS.

The image is sourced from ThePassionatePursuit.com (a nicely done blog, by the way) to Le Blog Auto whose people rightly observed that the production model XF had a little too much in common with its competition.

To rip one off of Sammy Davis, Jr., I’d say their too close for comfort.

TWINS

From the five spoke rims, to the angled lens of the headlamps, to the door sills, bulky rearview mirrors, triangular C-pillars – you name it – this is an example of severe design overlap.

Was it corporate espionage?

Or a tryst between designers in rival departments that led to one copying another?

Or are Lexus and Jaguar plotting to mainstream a joint design of the Vanilla executive sedan in an effort to woo Acura RL drivers?

Hard to say for sure. But what isn’t is to know that when the British copy the Japanese, things do get ugly.

[Linked: NYT | ThePassionatePursuit.com]