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What is it?

This may be the most significant Jaguar in 42 years – except that we’ve become rather too used to epoch-making Jags. The XK of 2006 was first to find a post-Lyons style and make an issue of the aluminium lightweight construction. The XF of 2008 was first to show that Jaguar’s new-age saloons could preserve ‘sporting luxury car’ values.

Still, the new XJ has an extra significance. It remains the essential Jaguar, the reinvention of a car whose own revolutionary st...Read the full article

Although it's fine to see the video of the car I'm reserving my final opinion of the exterior styling until I've viewed it in Standard Northern Daylight (I'm an ex paint technologist).

Croppers' views are usually pretty well my own in most cases, although he naturally gets to try the cars on a daily basis over a period. My guess is that he will snaffle one for himself quite soon!

The interior is as different to the XF as the XF was to the rest of the previous designs. I have to pinch myself to realise the new standards for clarity and controls' design with each new iteration are the work of a company which was a byword for conservatism until very recently.

The coupe-like rump and extended glass area we've seen. For me they work but it will take a little while to "see" them as a Jaguar motif. At the front the new grill and low headlights challenge one's existing Jaguar preconceptions.

It will take me a little while yet to accept them I think.

Seems this new XJ drives as well as we all hoped it might when judged solely on looks - well done Jaguar. Still, as it's based on the "old" XJ I guess it shouldn't be otherwise. It has distinctive looks outside but I would certainly buy one on the looks of that interior alone - so much nicer than the slab of upright dash stretching across the whole width of the car that seems to dominate the luxury market. Those dials alone do it for me even though they are not real, just a TFT screen (that is right, isn't it?). Fabulous car. I'm guessing that Mr Cropley will be getting one of these as a long-termer as soon as he hands back his recently acquired Ferrari in about 6 months - nice timing, sir!

DSP123:

At the front the new grill and low headlights challenge one's existing Jaguar preconceptions.

I do wish they could do something about that bonnet shut-line that runs over the top/front of the grille. It looks so prominent on virtually all the pictures I've seen; I'm guessing it has something do with EU pedestrian safety rules, but I do wish they could have sloped it down between the lights and the grille and then under the grille so that the bonnet and grille all lifted as one. I do like the backend though, nicely uncluttered and so different that it will be easy to spot an XJ as it sweeps past. Can't wait to see one in the metal.

Am not too sure about the back end... And its all well and good that it drives brilliantly but there is no word about any amazing new technology like a 7 series review or S class review

Having been sandwiched between two of these on a recent drive past Castle Bromwich I have to say that I was very disappointed by the styling (both front & rear).  I never understood why the old shape got slated by the motoring world so badly for looking outdated.  It was a timeless shape that still looks attractive & probably will do for several years to come.  I can't image that this design will remain looking 'contemporary' for very long...

I have no doubt though that it has an incredibly high chance of being the best long distance touring 4 door saloon in the world & it's interior will be second to none - which is good because I certainly wouldn't want to look at the exterior for very long...

stavers:

I never understood why the old shape got slated by the motoring world so badly for looking outdated.

Because sales went into freefall!

 

It would have been interesting the read something about the interior space in the back for the normal (non-LWB) version. The old XJ was (very) cramped for its size, and I have read some initial reports saying the same thing for the new car. As regards the good pricing, before saying its a bargain in comparison to the competition, lets see what the leasing prices will be like, which are usually heavily influenced by the depreciation (which risks to be (much) higher than that of comparable (German) saloons).

 

 

 

 

 jaguar has a very small market left in the uk, and an even smaller one in europe / usa. the JLR company is heavily in debt. If jaguar had half a brain they would have developed a competent 3 series rival. we shall see how many of these monolithic monsters they manage to shift.

kcrally:

jaguar has a very small market left in the uk, and an even smaller one in europe / usa

 

 

I tend to agree that Jaguar's future looks rather grim - as I have written elsewhere on this forum they have not made any profit for many years now, and it is difficult to see how a small volume car like this is going to change this overall picture. I guess they simply do not have the money to develop a competent 3 series rival, which would involve also the development of an all new platform as well as small engines they currently do not have ...

 

 

'Grim' is exactly right. This is not a Jaguar, this is a Citroen that has been involved in a head-on collision with a Peterbilt truck. Jaguar made their name by producing some of the world's most elegant and enduring automotive shapes. This XJ is an absolute eyesore and William Lyons would be utterly horrified if he saw it.

I would love to own a Jaguar but the deja vu XK is noisy, uncomfortable, expensive and not particularly quick. And the XF is just a re-badged Mondeo that looks, at best, like a bland Volvo/Lexus mongrel. The most elegant saloon on the market today (both inside and out) is the Merc CLS - which was informally codenamed the Jag Fighter by Mercedes themselves. Mercedes did their homework about what Jag drivers want and got it absolutely spot on.

Goodbye Jaguar, you provided a great deal of pleasure for many people for many years. But you have completely lost your way and the brand has now been irrevocably damaged. I have no doubt that this incompetant, unimaginative management will finally succeed where the militant unions and their workforce failed.

Faustcar:

I guess they simply do not have the money to develop a competent 3 series rival

Faustcar:

I tend to agree that Jaguar's future looks rather grim

Jez, you English sure know how to poop a party! no wonder your heading
to third world status fast, have any of you read the review of this
sweet new Jag? Every review I've read so far has been almost 100%
positive, this maybe the best car in not only the large limo class
but also the 4 door GT class, outstanding achievement in my opinion,
yet 99% of the posters on this forum are positively vitriolic.
Porsche's share of the market is smaller than Jaguar's and until they
got carried away with themselves there profit margin was healthy.

I couldn't disagree more about jaguar's future, let's see brilliant new
XK/XKR with the power it now deserves & a diesel on the way for European
market, brilliant new XF/XFR with the power to take the fight to the Germans
(hell, those international awards have to mean something!) and it's selling
well, now this potential world beater!

and you Brits are all doom and gloom? I know the weather is probably sh*t
there, but lighten up or you may as well raise the white flag now!