Practical Perfection
How times change. It wasn't long ago that a Jaguar could only be one of two things: among the classiest sedans available or one of the most elegant sports cars to ever be created. Now three things that Jaguar had vehemently avoided in its storied past are presented together in one car.
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| In order to change with the times and maintain the bottom line, Jaguar needed to rethink their lineup. (Photo: Jaguar Canada) |
It's a bit of a shocker, this "coming of age" for the leaping cat marque, as must have been the realization that the company could not have sustained life building massive luxury sedans or six-figure coupes and convertibles. Now that the word sport is more often followed by utility rather than car, Jaguar has needed to adapt.
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| Jaguar has announced a sport wagon based on the all-wheel drive X-Type, dubbed the X-Type Estate. (Photo: Jaguar Canada) |
The answer? While not an SUV, the Ford Motor owned division has added a sport wagon body configuration to its all-wheel drive X-Type, dubbed the X-Type Estate. It's not the first time a "shooting brake" Jaguar has appeared, but the early XJS-based Eventer wasn't from the Jaguar factory but from Jaguar reproduction house Lynx Motors. The same can be said for the 1988 XJ6 Shooting Brake, built by Harrington.
With this courageous leap into pragmatism, it leads me to wonder why the boys from Browns Lane didn't go for the gusto and develop something truly out of bounds such as a sport utility or pickup truck. Without speculating about at least the former, there has to be a fair bit of nay-saying running through Britain's gentleman's clubs right about now, mainly the expected talk that deals with the company's heritage and whether or not the Estate is really a Jaguar. Those who manage to jump beyond the leaping cat hood ornament to conclusions, surmising that it's merely a rebadged Ford product out to make a fast buck on an unwary public, might be missing the point.