LIGHTS do a lot to define the look of a car.
Take the Jaguar XF. It's a handsomely-proportioned success story that's done an awful lot to bring one of Britain's favourite car makers up to date, but most pundits agreed that among its very few weak points were the clumsily-styled headlights, which were a bit of a let down after the sharply-sculpted ones which appeared on the original C-XF concept car which previewed the executive saloon.
It's obvious Jaguar secretly agreed, because after a mid-life facelift the big cat's finally got the nose it deserves, not only improving on the aesthetics of its immediate predecessor but also moving it closer to the look of the bigger XJ saloon, launched last year.
Don't think it's a case of a quick nip and tuck for the BMW 5-Series rival, though, because work's been going on beneath the Jaguar's bonnet too. For the first time there's now a 2.2 litre diesel engine, which makers Jaguar Land Rover reckon is going to account for the bulk of the freshly-revised XF's sales, along with a new eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox and an innovative Stop-Start system.
The XF might be - whisper it softly - related to the old S-Type beneath the skin but that's no bad thing, because with the latest facelift Jaguar's got a luxury car contender which is both modern enough to take on the competition and look good while its doing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment