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The new Jaguar XF is still months away from New Zealand but already company executives are talking it up as the car that will put the shivers into German rivals.
"The XF is synonymous with the forward-looking focus that now defines the Jaguar brand," says Wallis Dumper, managing director for New Zealand's Jaguar importer, Motorcorp Distributors.
"Its design language is entirely new, its performance and dynamic flavour support - even eclipse - its sporting looks, and intelligent use of advanced technology and innovative control interfaces set the XF far apart from any other premium sports sedan. This is the future, now."
Jaguar will use the XF sedan to attempt to regain the good will it enjoyed before it tried to become all things to all people under Ford through the 1990s.
Plummeting sales, hefty annual losses and murky marketing aims pushed Jaguar to the brink. Now Ford has the brand up for sale, along with its British stablemate, Land Rover.
The XF is crucial to Jaguar's future. It believes it will challenge such luxury stalwarts as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5-Series and Audi A6.
"This (XF) is the physical representation of everything we've been talking about for the past three years," said Bibiana Boerio, Jaguar's outgoing managing director. "Craftsmanship and attention to detail are what we want to stand for. We lost it and now we have it back."
The XF replaces the slow-selling S-Type. But unlike the budget bits - cloth trim and so on - that marginalised the S-Type, the XF will be top end, with "rich standard feature specifications and extensive use of advanced technologies", says Dumper. "It will appeal to buyers who expect value for money. XF pricing will be competitive," he says. The XF is built on a retooled Jaguar chassis. The cash-strapped company the Americans call the "English patient" couldn't afford a new platform. It fashioned the XF from the best bits of the S-Type, XK coupe and XJ sedan chassis and borrowed the suspension, subframes, engines, six-speed ZF gearbox, propeller shaft and differential.
But unique components include anti-roll bars, bushes and engine mounts. The car has a wider rear track with different suspension tuning. It is also made of steel instead of the aluminium build of the XK and XJ.
A major change is the absence of the traditional Jaguar J-gate gear-shift, replaced by shift-by-wire paddles on the steering wheel. Jaguar claims the XF can zip through gears faster than Audi's direct-shift gearbox.
"We analysed everything from ingress to foot room to headroom," says XF programme engineer Mick Mohan. "It was vital to have the coupe look but still have rear headroom. That was the trickiest area of the car."
The centre console has an interface control knob that handles the audio, climate, navigation and phone functions. Jaguar has borrowed this from BMW and Audi. Switches are tactile metal, backlit in a cool blue. The glove box and interior lights are activated by touching them. The vents rotate open after the vehicle starts, preventing stale air coming into the cabin. The stereo comes from Bowers & Wilkins, the company that equips the Abbey Road studios in London.
"Interior design shouldn't be fussy," said Ian Callum, Jaguar design director. "This is a simple but dynamic architecture."
The sloping rake and broad shoulders of the rear bootlid hints at Aston Martin design. The front end and its grille screams out that Jaguar is trying something new.
The XF will be available here with a range of four engines, including the range-topping supercharged 4.2 V8. No word on price but the 3-litre V6 is listing in Britain at £33,000 ($94,402).
