Jaguar isn’t just for fat cats anymore
For decades, Jaguar traded in a sort of erudite tweediness, appealing to status-conscious epicureans who wanted to flaunt their success.
With its latest model, Jaguar is hitting the brakes on its heritage focus and taking a U-turn toward the young and urban, not just the urbane.
Shedding its Eton image for a style that’s more Gen X and Jay-Z, Jag is trumpeting its newest car with an unprecedented array of sleek billboards and stylish TV spots. The three-month “City Takeover” looks to fuse the Jaguar brand with L.A.’s youthful energy and bare-all sexiness — a campaign that will soon roll in to New York and then Miami to continue the all-hours Jag party.
The car at the center of the 500 billboards now looming over our fair city is the 2011 Jaguar XJ — an icon that has been overhauled to show that Jaguar has, in fact, joined the 21st century. It wasn’t only the 42-year-old glamour puss of a model that had gotten a bit long in the tooth, but also its core buyer, which is why Jag has gone lean and sporty with its redo, even adding a bit of cheetah to its big cat sedan.
The XJ marks the completion of Jaguar’s updated alphabet soup of X models: the redesigned XF sedan that came out in 2008 shortly before Ford sold the brand to the Indian auto concern Tata; the XK coupe and convertible released last year; and now the XJ, which is the most refined of the three models and which marks the culmination of the modern Jag mandate to build beautiful, fast cars or “sporting luxury.”
The model I was testing was cashmere in color, a fitting hue for a car that wants you to not only touch it but also try it on. Dry-clean only? I think not. While the XJ’s quite the looker from the outside with a profile so lean and low it almost seems extruded, this large and luxurious sedan wants to be driven. Fast.
Pressing the ignition button triggers a gear-selector dial to rise effortlessly from the center console, James Bond style. Standard? Winter? Dynamic? My intuition directed me to the latter and a checkered flag icon that made me feel victorious even before I floored the pedal.
The heart of this cat pumps with a 5.0-liter V-8 that, in its normally aspirated state, boasts 385 horsepower. The supercharged version I was driving pushes out an even more impressive 470 horses without heavy breathing and 424 pound-feet of torque that really makes it pounce. The supercharged XJ can hit 60 mph in 4.9 seconds, reaching a top speed of 155, and it includes an active rear differential — stock — to improve traction and agility when cornering.
Off the line in dynamic mode and rocketing straightforward, I found the supercharged XJ to be a satisfying substitute for civilian space travel, that high-octane space shot into the stratosphere I’ve dreamed of but will never be able to afford. However, high-speed cornering requires some expertise because the XJ doesn’t just look long, it feels long as well.
The XJ comes in two wheelbases, the standard XJ (119.4 inches) or the XJL (124.3 inches), which is the version I was driving and the version Jaguar anticipates will be its bestseller, even if it does cost an extra three grand. The additional five inches on the XJL add just 42 pounds to the overall weight of the car but open up a substantial amount of leg room in the rear bucket seats. That’s a nice feature for a vehicle that will be used as a limo in some foreign markets; wealthy Americans who drive solo will still enjoy the extra room, even if it’s only for their Hugo Boss and Barneys bags.
The four-door XJ is sumptuously comfortable. It is probably the quietest car I’ve ever driven — at least it was until I turned on the 1,200-watt, 20-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system to tune in XM and had a Maxell moment. I was blown away.
The audio system is just one of the many tech goodies that make driving the XJ almost akin to a vacation. Taking standard luxury fare to the next level, the climate control system senses not only temperature but also humidity. The seats aren’t just heated; there’s also air conditioning that blows cool air through the perforated leather. They can even give you a massage. Seriously. There’s a massage setting for both the driver and passenger that gently rolls pressure on the lower back and shoulders. It isn’t Burke Williams, but it also doesn’t cost $85 every time you turn it on.
As much as the XJ is angling for moneyed youngsters with a need for style and speed, its greater appeal is to those leading pampered lifestyles. It’s for drivers who want to save their workouts for the gym. The driving experience is so engineered, its operation so effortless that owners could easily be swept away by the luxuries and forget they’re even behind the wheel. That might be why Jaguar has also equipped this car with stability and traction controls in addition to its standard antilock brakes.
While sporty in style and substance, the XJ most impressed me with its creature comforts and attention to detail. The XJ I tested was trimmed in a gorgeous, biscuit-brown leather with clotted-cream piping that carried through in the inlaid wood dash. The dashboard display was a trio of circular gauges that appeared to be analog but were in fact digital. Analog dials are easier to read, but digital provides more information because the gauges aren’t mechanical and can disappear at the touch of a button.
Using steering wheel controls, the tachometer gauge vanishes and becomes a menu to operate the stereo and other systems; the gas gauge can also fade at the touch of a button, to be replaced with a line-of-sight navigation screen. My favorite dashboard feature? The speedometer, which rings the vehicle speed in a halo of light — the better to see how ungodly fast one might be traveling.
What’s not so obvious, at least from the front, is that the XJ is a Jag. Like the modern XF and XK, the classic “leaper” hood ornament no longer adorns the bonnet. In its place is a fanged medallion in the center of the front grille, a flat cat on the trunk and a new “cat’s claw” taillight assembly that looks like the XJ backed up into an angry feline.
Meow?
Most definitely.
Meow.
