2015 Jaguar F-Pace Would Be A Rose By Any Other Name

FOR A long time, sports cars and SUVs were incompatible: this is now irrelevant. The question is how to mate them successfully. Yet the potentially awkward marriage of two opposites has been enough to delay Jaguar’s entry into the market for a decade. Such is the restraint often forced by mindset. Yet it is hard to see how Jaguar could have made a convincing SUV using pre-XF styling cues: Jaguar needed a chunkier design language in order to accommodate niche models, which despite leaving the sedans open to criticism at last manages to bend enough for an SUV.

The Jaguar F-Pace uses the bodyside theme and rear lights from the F-Type with the face introduced by the XF. The result is a pleasingly voluminous design that though simple, is well-resolved and well-planted. Welcome, too, is the absence of an undercut shoulder which leaves German rivals feeling mainstream. One crucial way in which Jaguar is successfully building up its identity is through the super-high belt-line: it could barely get any closer to the glasshouse. This theme was introduced by the XF and has been successfully applied to every Jag since, lending a solid, quality impression, if not exactly as light and lithe as they once were.

The carry-over of F-Type cues is pure Porsche philosophy, but the F-Pace name is less agreeable. It reflects a horizontal model strategy as Jag grows out as well as up, but sounds as if rational marketing thinking has missed the character of the car: it is a little nouveau. And while there is still some debate whether the F-Type is rival to the Boxster or 911, there is no doubting that the F-Pace has the Cayenne firmly in its sights. Yet step from the Jaguar to the Porsche, and there is a richness to the bodyside of the Cayenne that leaves even the Jaguar F-Pace feeling a little flat. This impression continues inside, where the investment differences between Porsche and Jaguar are far more apparent. Given the theme laid out by this show car, there seems to be a strong chance that the interior of the production SUV will borrow from the heavily-revised XF. The five seat layout of the concept also falls two short of rivals from Mercedes-Benz and BMW. But with a delete-badge option (including JAGUAR on the tailgate) all will be forgiven: Jag has given us another stunner.

2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe Strikes Midnight In A Perfect World

"THERE IS no scientific discoverer, no poet, no painter, no musician, who will not tell you that he found ready-made his discovery or poem or picture – that it came to him from outside, and that he did not consciously create it from within.” So said William Kingdon Clifford, a Victorian mathematician from a time when mathematicians looked like arctic explorers with empire-building middle-names. More recently, JK Rowling declared that the notion of Harry Potter simply strolled into her mind, and in Endtroducing..... DJ Shadow confides that the music is coming through him.

Such effortlessness can be hard to do in car design. Scores of designers are endlessly tasked with drawing new cars alongside bodykits and facelifts, sketching to the twitch of the manager’s eye. The analogy of monkeys writing Shakespeare given enough time has been made before, only time is the first thing to go with model ranges expanding so rapidly.

So how does pure design survive, and not lose its simple majesty when the whip is shouting ‘keep drawing’? It comes down to the designer as much as the design, and a chain of managers who recognize beauty in simplicity. Or, for the designer, keep drawing the same thing. Give them no other choice! And so it is with the F-type Coupe. A simple, clean, pure design. Quite heavy, admittedly, but one whose curves you are likely to relish. It isn’t really new, although there are novel touches, and the rear lamps could have come from any one of Jags concepts ten years ago. It matters not. The cynic in me often mitigates superlatives by declaring cars merely attractive, but the Jag is, in fact, beautiful. Not eye-of-the-beholder beautiful, but universal Scarlett Johansson pulchritude, the Jaguar F-Type Coupe lets you count the ways.

2016 Jaguar XE Is Sincerest Form Of Flattery

IT ALL started with the XF. Out went the long, low silhouette with spring-board like rear end; in came conventional architecture with full hood, fast windscreen and tall trunk deck. Everything you would find on any other mid-sized saloon. Purists baulk at the thought of a Jag being pumped up to an SUV; truth is Jags already are pumped up. This metamorphosis permitted the CX-17 concept, and has now been used to bear the XE. (You try creating a long, low short, tall car).

Despite the glamour of the F-Type (and Jag, like Merc, is a brand that just has it), sales are not up to Land Rover heights. The XE aims to rectify that, so if it looks like a BMW 3-series, don’t be surprised, Jag is targeting that discerning only-a-German-will-do customer with a vengeance.

The front looks like it would avenge. It also mimics a 3-series. Why? Because that's where the eye rests most when looking at a car. Rest your eyes on the rear, however, and Audi will spring to mind before any feline associations (marketing has requested both a leaping cat and JAGUAR spelled out in case anyone draws similar conclusions). 

It is at the back however that you will find the closest link the car has to any other Jaguar. The tight fillet blending cabin to shoulder and trunk deck faithfully apes the Mark II. It is a useful little feature than means there is more sky-facing surface to break up the volume and reduce the visual height of the car. It may be a bit snick-snacky with the swage-flare, but it is distinctive, and distinction is hard to find in a class whose values are so convergent.

Speaking of convergence… the interior. Sorry, but Jag really needs to sort this out. The basic counter-sunk volume is fine (the dashboard sits below a wrap-around cowl), but the detailing and organization of the vents and switchgear and trim is just so underwhelming. A lot of this has to do with money: there is only so much, and engines, new platforms and marketing will have eaten great chunks of Tata’s dowry. But spare a thought for the place where you sit. Indeed spare a thought for Jags of yore with wood and chrome, not cheap leather with miserly scrim. I don’t want to sound bearded: the BMW i3 shows how this can be done in a contemporary manner.

Maybe there could have been more sculpture; maybe a little –just a bit –more originality, but this was always going to be business case first, designer whim second. It doesn’t matter. Nepotistic British press will ensure the car sits (wins!) in every group test, and there is enough Bavarian to lure the rest.