Looking towards an uncertain future, prestige car maker Jaguar launched its
latest model, the XF at the Frankfurt motor show yesterday.
Bibiana Boerio, the company’s managing director, presented the car, which
Jaguar hopes will help maintain the brand's success.
Jaguar has been put up for sale by its owner Ford who are looking to offset
losses of $12.7 billion last year.
So important is the XF to the success of the brand that it was the only model
on Jaguar’s stand at Frankfurt’s Internationale Automobil Ausstellung (IAA),
the world’s largest motor show.
The XF range incorporates Jaguar’s traditional values of performance, luxury
and style alongside 21st-century aesthetics and technology, including
ultra-rapid shift-by-wire gear changing. The replacement for the S-Type, it
is certainly not another retro-Jag; only something of the original XJ6 about
its big radiator grille and the undulations of its bonnet are there as
tentative links to the past.
The XF will compete for market share with the Audi A6, BMW 5-series and
Mercedes E Class when it goes on sale in March, with prices expected from
£33,900 to £54,900.
It does has a similar look to a Ford Mondeo!
David, London, UK
Another bad design from Mr. C. team ! They are just destroying Jaguar.
F.L. XJ is horrific. Rear wing in X.K is horrific. And now ?! A mid japanese/Laguna very midlle class, very bad taste ! I owned 3 Jaguars (the real things). They had plenty of faults but were magificent cars. Now, no more faults (?) but horrific things. And it is a pity to all Jaguar lovers (what I remain).
J. Correa, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
nose looks like a cross between volvo (also Ford0 and an Audi. Can it save Jaguar by itself? Probably not. I hope it still has no traces of the old Lincoln platform as with Jag S. Bad planning like that of earlier models - the 6 cyl Jag that would not take a modified, enlarged Rover V8 (ex Buick, Olds, Pontia and before that derived from a BMW 3.2 litre V8) that this new car would not provide for the V8 Ford-Peugeot diesel.
I hope that Jag survives and prospers - but can it occur with manufacture in England? Design and finish there - but manufacture? I cannot see it succeeding. Disparitiy in currencies bettween pound and US$ - the gap is widening - must be a great hazard for sales in the biggest market for luxury cars in the world.
Donald MacDONALD , Hamilton, Brisbane , Queensland Australia
A lesson in what happens when you fail to listen your buying public or learn from your past mistakes !
sadly this isn't going to be the savior but is destined to become another undesirable model in the range which will have to be subject to some heavy discounting and a very early facelifts i suspect the odd ex rover 75 driver might end up in one
the problem jag face is the brand has become un cool so will not find its way onto consideration lists sad but true if only they hadnt ditched the F.type as a halo model who knows they might have had a renaissance like Aston
Tim Hanlon, Ormskirk, Lancashire
Oh no. What have they done. The car is ugly. It could be dynamically brilliant, but if it's ugly it won't sell. How did this design get through the focus groups?
Steve N, Orlando, FL
The concept version of this car was stunning.
What have they done to the front? Those headlights are absurd.
It's as if some corporate suit saw the original concept, then at the last minute bottled it, wading in with unhelpful suggestions about having at least *one* headlight just like on the old cars... what a dog's dinner the result looks..
It looks a lot less offensive at the rear and there's lots to admire in the final design, especially the interior, but the front is basically the face of this thing, and it looks like a startled hare. Horrific.
Please, Jaguar, fix this for goodness sake.
Andy B, London,