Jaguar XF (2007): first official news and photos

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

28 August 2007 12:01

Jaguar XF: everything you need to know

It's been a long time coming. Eight years late, some would say. For it was in 1999 that Jaguar launched the S-type, its new mid-sized executive saloon to battle the Teutonic might of the 5-series/A6/E-class. From day one, the S was saddled with yesteryear looks that owed more to Jag's 1950s past than the new millennium marketplace it was joining. Sensibly, Jaguar has gone back to the drawing board with its successor, unveiled today. The XF marks such a departure for the Coventry firm that it's ditched the olde-worlde name to reflect the next chapter of Jaguar design. And this is a radical change. Out go the S-type's awkwardly retro nose, saggy bottom and unhappy proportions, to be replaced by something immediately different, more modern. Some insiders call it a Marmite design - one whose flavour you'll either love or hate.

Be prepared to be surprised - shocked even - when you first clap eyes on an XF. It is different to any Jaguar you've seen before. The boot no longer tapers down at the rear, as Jag saloons have done for so long - it's a wedgy, rising lid-line, to the benefit of aerodynamics. Note also the steep rake of the front and rear windscreens - the back window is as steeply angled as that on an XK coupe, incidentally. Small wonder it cleaves the air so efficiently, with a drag coefficient of just 0.29. There's more sharp edge and wedge everywhere, and less of the rounded radii that made the S-type look out of date before it had even gone on sale. Is there a hint of the Ford group's Mondeo around the rear haunch (above)? Maybe, but the slick and modern rear three-quarters is one of the best angles on the new XF.

By Tim Pollard