2004 Jaguar Xjr Base Sedan 4-door 4.2l on 2040-cars

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Cat Scratch Fever: Jaguar's turnaround looks toward the US

It is ironic that a British car company, steeped in the European sports-car tradition and now owned by an Indian industrial conglomerate, will ambitiously be seeking to attract customers in the United States with, of all things, a truck. But there it is: Jaguar's beefy F-Pace crossover, the first SUV in the company's 80-year history, hit the ground last month at the Frankfurt motor show. The F-Pace – along with the new XE sedan designed to take on the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 both in Europe and on these shores – is spearheading the brand's hoped-for turnaround on this side of the Pond. In the States, Jaguar is still a big player for Tata Motors of India, which bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford for $2.3 billion after months of back-and-forth negotiations in 2008. It seemed like an incredibly brassy move at the time, when the economy worldwide was reeling and Britain's automotive industry was on its heels. And while the Jaguar brand name has a grand historical resonance, in the first nine months of 2015 it moved just over 11,000 cars in the US, down five percent for the same period the previous year. But if Porsche can capitalize on SUV sales, so can Jaguar. The tea leaves are promising come next spring, when both new premium luxury models arrive in the US. The F-Pace will have a starting price of about $43,000; the sedan range starts at a competitive $35,000. View 25 Photos Architecturally, both models are similar, with a modular aluminum chassis, and, for the F-Pace, a range of gasoline and diesel engines for Europe as well as rear- or all-wheel drive. For the American market, the model-year 2017 crossover will launch with a 380-horsepower gasoline V6 mated to an eight-speed transmission and all-wheel drive. Later in 2016, a 180-hp four-cylinder Ingenium diesel is expected to be added to the lineup. Both models are currently built in the UK, although if demand increases, Jaguar is likely to shift some production to Brazil, China, or Eastern Europe. I wanted a Jaguar that was designed as a crossover, not the other way round. For Jaguar design director Ian Callum, who showed up at the SUV's formal debut in Frankfurt, skepticism – did we mention that Jaguar was a sports-car company? – turned to enthusiasm as his team worked to develop some "drama" in the SUV's shape. "I wanted a Jaguar that was designed as a crossover, not the other way round," he said.

Watch the trailer for Jaguar's short film staring the F-Type and Damian Lewis

Jaguar continues to think well outside of the box when it comes to marketing it's new F-Type, now furthering plans for a short film which highlights the sexy roadster. Desire, featuring Damian Lewis (star of the hit series Homeland), Jordi Mollà (unforgettable in Bad Boys II) and Shannyn Sossamon (that girl you had a crush on for like a month in 2002 after you rented A Knight's Tale), Jaguar is clearly pulling out all the stops for this one. Well, nearly all the stops anyway ­- the "Ridley Scott Associates" billing isn't quite the same has having the man himself, if we're splitting hairs.
The short video below is still just a trailer for Desire - the full film will make its debut sometime in April, we're told. The sketched out plotlines tell us that Lewis' character Clark, "...delivers cars for a living, running into trouble after a chance encounter with a mysterious, young woman (Sossamon) in the middle of a lawless desert." The car looks good, at any rate.
Call us crazy, but the Desire trailer feels an awful lot like a spoof on the cool-but-overly-serious short films that BMW has done in this vein, already. Maybe we're just being cynical? Tell us what you think in comments after watching the clip.

Jaguar Land Rover calls in handful of vehicles over suspension bolts

With most recalls seemingly affecting mass-market vehicles, it'd be all too easy to assume, consciously or otherwise, that higher-end automobiles never face such issues. But the main reason we don't see the NHTSA recalling more luxury automobiles isn't because of their quality, we'd postulate: it's because of their relative scarcity.
Take Jaguar Land Rover, recalls of whose vehicles we only seem to have cause to report about once a year. So if you're figuring they're about due, here you go. The Indian-owned British auto group has just announced two recalls, both regarding suspension components: one affecting Jaguars and another concerning - you guessed it - Land Rovers.
First up we have a recall for 2013 to 2014 model year Jaguar XJ, XF and XK models - a whopping 297 of them - which have been found to have problematic toe links. Separation of the toe link from the rear sub-frame could result in impaired stability and control over the vehicle's direction, so JLR is calling them in to replace the nuts and washers on the rear toe links.