Jag gets lift-off

RoadTest: Jaguar XJ8Jaguar has long been a gentleman's conveyance. The XJ is the Lord of this particular club, the lower models mere eager new members. Now in its seventh generation, the XJ has heritage. Why, there wouldn't even be a club without it, my good fellow, with more than half of all Jags sold carrying the two-letter tag.

The XJ is the car of choice for the British establishment - the deputy Prime Minister is a renowned fan, much to the undoubted annoyance of Jaguar's image consultants. While loyalty to the Jag is partly political in Britain, it's also built on the firm's tradition of providing luxury transport.

After all, how many cars feature a button marked "valet" on the dash. This is there ostensibly to allow owners to comfortably leave their cars in the hands of summer jobbing teenagers outside fancy restaurants, without them emptying the glovebox, but it's also a good test of the class of potential purchasers.

The salesperson showing the potential client around the car can await the question about the button, noting pronunciation. A silent "t" replaced by an "ay" and you're in the club, a strong "t" blackballs you immediately.

Jaguar fans will put a bounty on our head for saying it but, between the 1970s heyday and the Ford takeover in the late 1980s, the only thing the marque was renowned for was rust and unreliability. Like an old club with peeling plaster and torn leather chairs, it got a good refurbishment under its US parent, losing none of its character but most of its faults.

Criticism may be levelled at the firm for being too conservative in terms of design for the new model. But, while the outer skin and indeed the inner décor may seem too similar to its predecessor, the new XJ is certainly innovative, most notably with its aluminium body.

Before your eyes mist over in a haze of engineering babble and science, let's just sum up the benefits in three easy words: performance, economy and handling. To put that in perspective, it's 200 kg lighter than its predecessor - that's three burly passengers removed from the back seat.

The lightweight body also means extra space inside - and, finally, back seat passengers get the sort of leg room you expect in a car in this class. There's also extra luggage space and the boot is big enough to fit those three displaced passengers and a bag of cement with a total space of 470 litres, more than 25 per cent larger than the previous model. Even the glovebox is bigger.

As expected, when you go into something as innovative as changing the body-type, you want to retain as much tried-and-tested equipment around it. So a great deal of the underbody is effectively shared with the S-Type, from the six-speed transmission to the powertrains and brakes.

There's a choice of three engines, with an entry-level 3-litre V6 making its debut in Jaguar's flagship saloon. Replacing the 3.2-litre V8, it has comparable power and is the catalyst for the reintroduction of the XJ6.

The 3.5-litre engine is the new member of the AJ-V8 engine family and the one we tested here. The XJ shares its larger 4.2-litre V8 engine with the recently launched new Jaguar S-Type and 2003 Jaguar XK. It features in three versions: an XJ8, the more potent XJR version and in the lightning fast Super V8, which offers 400 bhp.

There is no diesel option, however, which is sure to hurt sales given the growth of oil burners, particularly on the Continent. Jaguar's new 2.7-litre diesel unit will be introduced in the S-Type only next year.

The marque is busy updating its range and along with the lack of a "sporting" estate model, Jaguar is set to lose sales on an almost weekly basis until it expands its options in these areas.

Jaguar claims combined fuel consumption of 26.5 mpg for the 3.5-litre V8, though we only managed 21.3 mpg.

Our eight-cylinder 3.5-litre idled gracefully on the motorways, the car so silent and the ride so cushioned it felt hard to be annoyed, even in traffic. And, with a 0-60 mph in 7.3 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph, it's no slouch when you tickle the throttle and the Jag pounces forward at full belt, an ever rising warble from the front as we approach the 6,900 rev limit.

Criticism, however, for the standard six-speed auto transmission. There is an occasional jolt as the car adjusts to your changing demands and, for those who push harder, they may find it rather slow to change down.

Handling is impressive. For a car of its size, it corners confidently on our winding country roads. You find yourself eagerly pushing forward. Of course, it comes with the usual technology to avoid errors of judgement, such as Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) and traction control.

As with its competitors, when you remove the key, the steering wheel and the seat retract to ease exit or entry. Nothing new, but it has that extra touch of servility given the beautiful stitched leather and real-wood inlay.

Three levels of spec are available on the entry model: classic, sports and luxury, but only luxury is available on the 3.5-litre we tested. The Sports pack removes the chrome and increases the alloys from 17-inch to 18-inch. The 4.2-litre XJ8 comes in luxury or sports.

The key phrase with the XJ is relevant technology. While aware of working off a stereotype, XJ drivers probably listen to at most four different radio stations and rarely want to meander through a maze of screens and sub-screens.

We were particularly taken with the LCD touchscreen system. While it will win few awards for graphics - on a par with Windows 96 - it's so user-friendly you would have to give it the gold star of all the luxury marques.

As with most in-built Sat-Nav systems, our informed guide lost her way once we went past the modern day moat of Dublin, the M50. Outside the Pale we were left to wonder in no-man's land.

The adaptive cruise control works a treat on the motorway and, once you get used to the system braking for you and maintaining the set distance with cars in front, it's the ultimate in cruise control.

There are, of course, parking sensors, as you would expect from a car of its size these days. Parking the XJ is tight, but that's probably why they have the valet button. XJ owners shouldn't really be expected to park their own cars.