Unveiled The New Jaguar XJ

I’ve just finished watching the live stream of the unveiling of the new Jaguar XJ, A car which is being described as the latest in the line of futuristic, and class leading models to come out of Jaguar in the last 3 years (following of course the XK and XF), a sentiment echoed by Jaguars boss, Mike O’Driscoll; “We’ve remade Jaguar over the last 24 months. The XJ’s the third of our new model range. The XF, the XK, now the XJ and we’ve got three great models that will set Jaguar forward for the future.”

And frankly he better hope he’s right because Jaguar is in the midst of a deep financial problem, TATA Motors, Jaguar’s owners say the company has been losing £1,000,000 a day for the last 18 months. And this financial problem has triggered talk of job losses, so Jaguar really have to hope that the new XJ is going to be a success, certainly its continuing Jaguars step into the future, a far cry away from the days of the depressing S-type, its fully digital interior and roof structure are all revolutionary, the shape of the car is rather pleasing on the eye, and so is the front end, but as many people have said and moaned the rear of the car is at best, “different”, it’s hard to really like, but that according to the designer, Ian Callum, that’s the whole point,  ”I know you’re struggling with the rear end of this car,” says Callum. “Lots of people will. That’s the point.” He feels that this is how cars will be in the future and that over time and once seen in the flesh people will start to be seduced by the XJ’s extreme rear end design, and I have to come clean that when I first saw that back end I wasn’t sold, but the more I see the more I like, I still find it kind of weird and ugly but maybe that may just pass when the car comes on sale in late December with prices starting from around €62,000.

One thing’s for certain the new XJ proves that Jaguar is ready to leave behind the days of S-types and horrid grill covers and move full flight into the future, even the unveiling of the car was done to accommodate this change in its consumers and its own company, by having it streamed live online, having Jay leno the talk show king of America and well-known car fanatic present it, it really was an event that looked more like a Hollywood movie premier then a car unveiling, but I like that, why can’t car unveilings be huge social events? Maybe Jaguar have set the ball rolling, but lets first see if the XJ can make it three in a row for this future moving car company