Top Cat
What makes a champion? Jaguar’s new XJL was the clear winner of Professional Driver’s Car of the Year Award for 2010 – both the outright crown and the Chauffeur Car of the Year Award.
And it won the top prize against the strongest of opposition – the Mercedes-Benz S350 LWB, recently facelifted with an array of hugely impressive technology; and BMW’s 730Ld, the 2009 Professional Driver Car of the Year, and a vehicle that certainly raised the bar for performance in its class.
Yet the Jaguar became a first-time winner, and looking at the judges’ reports it’s clear where the immediate appeal lies – most agreed that the XJL looks great and drives superbly. But what’s it like to live with? Our judges had about half an hour with the car – what’s it like to use all day, every day?
We took the car for a week’s hard driving – more than 1,000 miles, including long-haul motorway trips, urban driving around London and some brisk cross-country drives. We carried passengers and we carried luggage. Just the sort of things a chauffeur would do, in fact.
It may be the shock of the new, but clearly, the XJL is a head-turner. Its striking looks give it the kind of visual impact that the S-Class, 7-series and Audi A8 can only dream of. They’re all broadly similar big German three-box saloons – stylish and imposing, for sure – but the XJ’s looks are something else.
Jaguar tore up the plans with the XF, abandoning decades of organic styling evolution and ventures into retro design. And the XJ takes it a stage further, breaking a line of styling heritage that stretches right back to the original Series 1 XJ of 1968. Designer Ian Callum took reference points from outside the Jaguar archives, namechecking Italian cars and up-market yachts and motor boats as his inspiration.
All this gives the XJL a sense of occasion – just seeing the bold grille and aggressive headlamps and the flowing long coupe-like body drawing up will give the customer the sense that the chauffeur firm has sent something special to pick them up.
