When Jaguar announced the arrival of an SUV a couple of years ago, I thought – Oh no, please don’t do what everyone else is doing!!! Why would they do that?!! Then I saw the pictures… oh my… then I saw it in person at the auto show and I was smitten. Then I got to drive it… This isn’t just an SUV – this is a JAGUAR SUV – it’s an F-Type on stilts, but it drives like a sport car!
A couple of years ago I tested the 2015 version of this vehicle. I actually wanted to try out the regular wheelbase version but there weren’t any available. For the 2016 model year Jaguar upgraded and refreshed the XJ – not wanting to miss the opportunity to drive one of my favourite cars for a week, why not drive the new refreshed version. Note: the 2016 and 2017 models are virtually identical other than a $1,000 msrp price increase.
The 2016 Jaguar F-TYPE S AWD COUPÉ can be summed up in one word: Purrrrrrfect. Seriously. When you’re driving this car and you’re a man: you’ll have to beat the women off with a stick, and if you’re a woman… let’s just say you won’t be considered just a cougar – you’ll be a magnet.
If you read my previous road test with a Jaguar – the XF (here) you’ll know how much the brand has been ingrained in my past. This time I had the opportunity to drive the biggest Jag of all – the 2015 Jaguar XJ L … not just a regular XJ, but the long version, the “Royalty Version” if you will. This car isn’t just long – its loooong! Yet surprisingly it drives like a much smaller car – like the XF. You never realize how big it is until you get out and look at it parked beside a regular-sized car.
My love affair with Jaguar cars goes way back to when I was knee-high to a grasshopper… I have vivid memories in 1971 of playing in my uncle’s 1950’s era Mark 2 Jag – thrilled at the time to even be in the presence of it! I can still remember the smell of the leather and the details of that car today. A few years later I got the opportunity to sit in the infamous Jaguar E-Type at a car dealership while my parents were shopping for a new car. I can still remember the pale-yellow convertible that The Daily Telegraph newspaper includes in a list of the world’s “100 most beautiful cars” of all time. Only 8,626 of those beauties were ever made and I got to sit in one – what a thrill! A number of years ago my wife and I got a surprise invitation from BMW to test their new 5-series against several competitive cars – the Jaguar S-Type was among the choices and I immediately grabbed the keys to that. …
While Jaguar itself was releasing videos of the new F-Type in camouflage, a member of the Teamspeed.com forums unloaded high-quality pictures of the drop-top. Also published at: Flagworld
CANADIAN VEHICLES PREMIERES – JAGUAR C-X16 Concept The Jaguar C-X16 concept is a bold statement of Jaguar’s future design and technological intent. The C-X16 takes the traditional front-engined, rear-wheel drive formula that Jaguar defined over decades and reinvents it for the 21st century in a performance-oriented hybrid drivetrain with 50:50 weight distribution. If anything can be said to define Jaguar designs it is one word: drama. The C-X16 is no exception, taking the traditional two-seater sports car template and redefining it in the Jaguar idiom.
Road-Test.org 