First look video: 2011 Jaguar XJ

We drive over 100 new cars each year here at the track. Most of them are perfectly pleasant. Some are downright nice, while a handful get banished to the outer edges of the parking lot once the test miles are done. But not that many cars are exactly what I’d call special.

Jaguar’s luxury flagship sedan, the XJ, qualifies as special. You might argue that any car with a sticker price of $81,575 should be special, but that isn’t always the case.

What makes the big cat stand out? Previous XJs had traditional styling; you couldn’t tell if the car was brand new or 15 years old. This time Jaguar broke from the past with an eye-catching sleek new design. It inspires some controversy, especially in back, but it also gets attention.

The bespoke cabin has more universal appeal. It’s simply a cut above what you find in mass-produced cars, even luxury liners like the Lexus LS and Mercedes S-class. The suede headliner is lovely, leather covers the dash, and there are even fold-down tray tables on the front seatbacks.

Finally, the big Jaguar is a joy to drive. Several of us think it drives the way the BMW 7-Series used to drive (but does no more): nimble, light on its feet, and very responsive. Somehow we’re managing to make do with our car’s sweet-sounding base 385-hp V8; a supercharged version is available.

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS-yIWT8H

Jaguar Illinois

Jaguar Land Rover drops plans to close a UK plant

Ford Motor Co. sold to India's Tata Motors in 2008, said it would be significantly increasing the number of models in its range and creating thousands of jobs over the next decade.

Last year, Tata said it would merge two JLR plants in England as part of a business plan to tackle the impact of the economic downturn on demand for vehicles, which had seen its manufacturing running at less than 60 percent of capacity.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth said on Friday the company is now seeing a "great turnaround" in its business.

The carmaker will keep a Jaguar plant at Castle Bromwich and a Land Rover factory in nearby Solihull, both in central England, as well as its Halewood facility near Liverpool in northwest England.

Speth said the company had already begun hiring 1,500 new employees at its Halewood factory to help with production of the Range Rover Evoque, a new small SUV that launches next summer.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101015/COPY01/310159961/1193#ixzz13gKGT4Op

Land Rover Dealers

First look video: 2011 Jaguar XJ

We drive over 100 new cars each year here at the track. Most of them are perfectly pleasant. Some are downright nice, while a handful get banished to the outer edges of the parking lot once the test miles are done. But not that many cars are exactly what I’d call special.

Jaguar’s luxury flagship sedan, the XJ, qualifies as special. You might argue that any car with a sticker price of $81,575 should be special, but that isn’t always the case.

What makes the big cat stand out? Previous XJs had traditional styling; you couldn’t tell if the car was brand new or 15 years old. This time Jaguar broke from the past with an eye-catching sleek new design. It inspires some controversy, especially in back, but it also gets attention.

The bespoke cabin has more universal appeal. It’s simply a cut above what you find in mass-produced cars, even luxury liners like the Lexus LS and Mercedes S-class. The suede headliner is lovely, leather covers the dash, and there are even fold-down tray tables on the front seatbacks.

Read More: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/10/first-look-video-2011-jaguar-xj.html

Jaguar Dealers

Tata Brings In a German A-Team to Make Sense of Jaguar/Land Rover

A flurry of snickers went through the crowd of assembled journalists at the Paris auto show when the new CEO of Jaguar/Land Rover took the stage. Instead of the dulcet lilt of an English brogue, the new boss of some of Blighty’s oldest and most revered brands, Dr. Ralf Speth, chiseled through his speech with the oompah-oompah beat of a thick Bavarian accent.

Since January 2010, an executive shuffle at the top of the newly combined Jaguar and Land Rover operations has put German executives firmly in charge. Welcome to the globalized auto industry, which doesn’t let a little bit of historical irony get in its way.

Take, for example, the 2008 purchase of both Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford by an industrial conglomerate headquartered in one of England’s former colonies. Everybody who has met Ratan Tata, chairman of the Mumbai, India–based Tata Group, says he’s very polite, intelligent, and down-to-earth considering he’s a billionaire many times over.

Read More: http://blog.caranddriver.com/tata-brings-in-a-german-a-team-to-make-sense-of-jaguarland-rover/

Land Rover Dealers

Jaguar considers production for the C-X75

Jaguar is planning production feasibility studies of up to 2,000 cars a year for its new 780-hp supercar, sources say.

Jag is remaining coy about firm production plans for the elegant mid-engine C-X75, but AutoWeek sources say that two levels of production are under consideration.

AutoWeek is an affiliate of Automotive News.

The higher one is up to 2,000 cars a year, the lower one up to 1,000 cars a year. Each needs to be explored independently because each demands different production methods -- the lower number with more hand assembly and lower tooling costs; the higher one with more automation but higher tooling costs.

A production version faithful to the gas-turbine powered C-X75 will also have to wait between five years and seven years while Jaguar proves the Bladon Jets micro gas turbines at the heart of the hybrid-electric powertrain.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101008/OEM04/101009876/1283#ixzz12Lux0PzJ

Jaguar Dealers

2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque - Auto Shows

The production version of the LRX concept heads for a Paris debut.

Land Rover is using the Paris auto show to fully reveal the production version of the Range Rover Evoque—say “evoke”—the brand’s latest effort to reach urbane city slickers who are no more likely to drive off pavement than they are to stock their fridges with non-organic seaweed croquettes. Based on the 2008 LRX concept car and built off the current Land Rover LR2 platform—itself based on Ford’s European mid-size front-drive C architecture—the Evoque will hit showrooms in the fall of 2011 with prices starting around $45,000.

Drawn by Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern, the production Evoque varies little from the LRX concept, looking like a Range Rover Sport that has been stepped on. It pushes various hot-roddish buttons, including pinched headlights and taillights, a hiked-up beltline, a rearward-sloping roof, and humongous 19- or 20-inch wheels. One Range Rover tradition remains: the “floating roof,” which, thanks to blacked-out pillars, seems to be separated from the body only by glass.

A 2.0-liter four-cylinder stretches fuel mileage, and it puts out 240 hp with the help of a turbocharger and direct injection. The company says that the Evoque will be the most fuel-efficient Range Rover ever but, considering that thriftiest model sold in the U.S. currently is the Range Rover HSE with an EPA rating of 12 mpg city/18 highway, that’s not saying much.

Read More:  http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/10q3/2012_land_rover_range_rover_evoque-auto_shows

Land Rover Illinois

Promise Fulfilled: 2011 Jaguar XJ

When it comes to cars, the Brits have had a habit of coming up with great ideas. The only problem has been the execution. The original Mini is a case in point. It was a truly innovative packaging exercise -- never had so many been able to ride so comfortably in a car so small -- but hapless BMC managers never realized they were losing money on each and every one they built.

The original Range Rover is another. Smooth and fast on road, unbelievably comfortable and utterly unstoppable off it, the 1970 Rangie set a benchmark for all-terrain, all-weather capability that few SUVs come close to matching even today. But with electrics by Lucas, The Prince of Darkness, and build quality that made even the worst efforts of the UAW look like something made by German craftsmen, exploiting that capability was something best left to Rover test drivers, journalists, and customers wealthy enough to have something else in the garage as a backup.

Jaguar's original XJ sedan was another great idea hamstrung by poor execution. The low-slung XJ established the template for the modern luxury sedan; it was fast and stylish, yet it was smooth and comfortable -- key characteristics you'll find to varying degrees in every Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Audi A8, and Lexus LS of the past 20 years. The XJ rode like a magic carpet, cosseting its passengers in its wood and leather trimmed cabin, yet its performance and handling rivaled that of raw-boned sports cars. It instantly made Mercedes-Benzes look staid and stolid; like the boring but well-built sedans for bankers from Dortmund they really were. Only problem was, by the 1970s, as Jaguar was sucked into the industrial anarchy that was the state-owned British auto industry,  the XJ wasn't so much a car as a loose assembly of car parts that all too frequently parted company.

Read more: http://blogs.motortrend.com/6701115/auto-review/promise-fulfilled-2011-jaguar-xj/index.html#ixzz10qKOxC7M