Jaguar XF 2012 Spy Photo

Camouflaged 2012 Jaguar XF

It only seems like five minutes since Jaguar started its style Renaissance with the very good Jaguar XF. Gone was the pastiche of past glories – the Jaguar S Type – and in came a perfect rendition of a contemporary, 21st century Jaguar.

Jaguar dared to shed the shackles of its past to produce a cool and contemporary car, which has shown that Jaguar can still make one of the best ‘Executive Expresses’ in the world.

But it’s not just the styling of the XF that has made it the success it has become, it’s the dynamics and the engines. The XFR started out as competent, but the arrival of the 5.0 litre Supercharged lump turned it in to an M5 slayer.

The even more recent arrival of the 3.0 litre diesel S has driven another nail in to the heart of BMW with its offering of silky smooth diesel power, ridiculous performance for a diesel exec-mobile and a realistic 40mpg.

But by 2012 the Jaguar XF will be four years old and a facelift will be in order. It looks like Jaguar is well ahead of the game as there appear to be a plethora of spy shots running around at the moment of a camouflaged XF, which appears to be sporting a new nose.

It does seem too soon to be running body changes around if we’re not seeing this facelift until 2012, so we’re wondering if it’s coming sooner. Whenever it does arrive it should comprise of the usual nips and tucks, lighting tweaks, interior mods and a more ‘XJ’ nose to get the family theme flowing.

There is also a chance that by the time this facelift arrives Jaguar will feel confident enough to throw a smaller diesel lump at the XF to start and mop up some of the rep sales it is undoubtedly missing out on by not having a low-cost entry model (current start point is £30k).

Jaguar told us only a few months ago that there were no plans to fit the 2.2 litre diesel in the XF – which JLR uses to good effect in the Freelander 2 – even a tweaked version with over 200bhp. But Tata are planning their own four-pot engines for Jaguar and Land Rover, so by the time the 2012 Jaguar XF arrives there is a chance there will be a smaller, in-house diesel option available. We’ll see.

Of course, the missing piece of this story is the variations on a theme we’ve been expecting (well, expecting is a bit strong. Encouraging may be better) on the XF. We’ve been banging on about an XF Estate, and XF Coupe and an XF Roadster for what seems like forever. We’re still convinced they’re coming, we just hope we don’t have to wait until the 2012 facleift.

If in fact it is a 2012 facelift. Our money’s on sooner.

By Cars UK