A radical makeover gives the formerly moribund XJ the stuff it needs to front up to Lexus and the big German
About our ratings
"That's a Jag?" Advertising people call it cognitive dissonance: a discomfort produced by an internal clash of ideas. With the current XJ, the latest chapter in Jaguar's bid to restore its stocks at motoring's high end, the company has used it to resounding effect.
The car doesn't polarise as much as Chris Bangle's radical 2002 7 Series, but it's enough departure from the past to draw attention back to a model that's long been wallpaper in its sector.
The last XJ hid its all-aluminium state-of-the-artness beneath a design language the company had clung since the 1960s. In the face of technology bellwethers like Benz's S Class, BMW's 7, Lexus's LS and Audi's A8, they had to do something. The planets were aligned, with impetus from renowned carchitect Ian
Callum's work on the XK coupe and XF midsizer, a substantial cash injection and a polite horse-whipping from its new Indian owners.
And they've done it. In this form, the XJ commands attention where it counts and, in this class, that means everywhere.
The bodywork is Jag-beautiful, with just enough controversy in those vertical ‘cat's-claw' taillights to protect it from the accusations of conservatism dogging Audis and post-Bangle BMWs. But the piece de resistance is the interior, blending its Brit heritage with 21st century technology and aesthetics to extraordinary effect.
Superior chassis dynamics keep just the right rein on an iron-fist 346 kW V8 bellowing through a velvet-glove ZF six-speed auto... and it all comes with the price tag to match.
While the XJ starts at just under $200K for the V6 turbodiesel, the second-from-top Supercharged is $311K plus options and on-roads. Big money for a badge that's still pulling itself out of the pity pit, but necessary for a headlong charge back on to some of the industry's most coveted turf; the high-profit upper luxury segment.
At this end of the price spectrum, objective ideas of value count for less than they do downmarket – that's why it's so competitive. It doesn't cost a car maker anything like three times as much to make a high-ender like this than it does to make a midsizer like the base XF. But they can charge that much more for it if it stacks up against competitors on subjective value criteria that mostly boil down to ego appeal.
And we have that in spades here, starting with the key fob. It's half-a-brick, tighten-your-belt huge. It opens the way – keylessly – to an interior melding radical and conservative like no other. An abundance of beautifully stitched leather, piano black and natural timber, top- quality suedette fabric and... no gauges.
That is, until you press Jag's now signature throbbing red Start button, whereupon a high-res screen lights up to welcome you before segueing into mock-analogue telegauges of the kind also found in Lexus's LS600hL and Benz's new CL.
The controls are complex and clever; the way it highlights the speedo figures around your current speed, flashes up the tacho as you head for redline and dims the screen around the fuel gauge to warn you of low fuel. Its functionality transcends its apparent gimmickry; here's hoping the entire system transcends Jaguar's old rep for reliability.
There are gimmicks too, like the same feather-touch glove box button I found annoyingly unreliable in the XF (it worked OK here). The timber and leather trimmed steering wheel is so laden with switchgear for audio, phone, trip computing, cruise and voice command they've had to go to dual-layering. But it's surprisingly intuitive, and familiarity comes quickly.
Most striking is the way they've sunk the dash a couple of inches below an edge-stitched sill over a skirting board of timber extending from the side window lines right around the front. It's like luxuriating in a sunken leather lounge with seating for four.
The quad-zone climate control system – with huge eyeball vents front and rear – marries with the big windscreen to give the interior a lighter and airier feel than the competition.
The rear seats get Falcon-like leg-room, even in this short wheelbase incarnation. (The LWB provides an extra 134mm in a shell that sacrifices nothing in the way of aesthetics).
A detailed run through the kit you get for your money is the stuff of telephone books, and you can read it in our launch reviews. Suffice to say you want for little, and what's not there is optional.
Standard equipment highlights include a 20cm touchscreen that can be split in two for multitasking and a particularly clear reversing camera.
At this Portfolio spec level you also get a monster 1200 watt Bowers &Wilkins audio system with TV. Although it's not hard to pair up with Bluetooth phones, it (and I) got a bit confused with the wireless audio streaming and the hardwire input, at one point playing iPhone music back at half speed.
Our car's blind spot monitoring – little warning lights in the wing mirrors switch on when someone's in your blind spot – is a usefully spent $1100.
The boot is a big, deep 540 litres – nigh on 10 per cent more than a Commodore or Falcon. A comparatively narrow opening makes it less accessible than others, but it's not hard to get a decent trunk in there. There's an alloy spacesaver spare underfloor.
Fire it up and you're met with just enough V8 rumble to suggest you're dealing with the goods. Turn the tidy rotary transmission switch to Drive to disengage the electronic park brake automatically, plant your foot and very quickly you know you are.
It happens even more quickly if you dial up Dynamic mode via the chequered flag switch on the console, which sharpens the steering, tightens the suspension settings and remaps the silky six-speed auto to pour forth its hefty 575 Nm peak torque all the way from 2500 to 5500 revs. The result is a huge, linear surge of acceleration that shanghais you to 100 km/h in just 5.2 seconds.
Jaguar intends to take up ZF's next-gen eight-speed but it could be a long wait and this box still deserves its legendary reputation. The paddles can be used to enjoyable effect on the right roads, but the auto mapping is so intuitively prescient with this mill it renders them near redundant.
The XJ's favourable power-to-weight ratio (it weighs just 1892 kg), melds with sharp, communicative steering, well sorted air suspension with adaptive damping and loads of grip from its 20-inch boots for a drive that belies its no-steroids exterior. If it doesn't match the 375 kW Supersport version (from $354K) it's exhilarating enough.
Although we included some freeway time, the XJ lived in Sydney for our week, managing 15.8L/100 km. That's better than the official urban cycle figure of 18.3, and should mean you get a reasonable range out of its 82 litre tank.
What Jaguar has come up with in its revitalised top-ender is something much more attractive and imposing in the flesh than on paper. The value package looks good in the rarefied $300K-plus realm with its mix of equipment, technological advancement, on-road competence and, most importantly, design integrity.
As long as it transcends its Britishness and doesn't trigger any more cognitive dissonance on the reliability front, it's just what its makers need to prove that Jaguar is back near the head of the prestige pack.
Jaguar XJ Supercharged
Road Test
Model: Jaguar XJ 5.0 Supercharged
Price guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $311,000
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Blind spot monitor $1100; adaptive cruise with forward alert $3780
Crash rating: N/A
Fuel: 95-98 RON PULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 12.1
CO2 emissions (g/km): 289
Also consider: Porsche Panamera
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