1995 Jaguar Xjs V12 2+2 Convertible 36k Red/tan Original Miles Mint! 67 Photos on 2040-cars

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The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

Latest Jaguar XJ snaps show old versus new

It is a rare day when automakers line up their current models and test cars right next to each other and allow us to compare them directly. However, Jaguar ending up doing just that during cold weather testing of the face lifted XJ, providing the perfect chance to see just what the company is changing.
We spotted the refreshed XJ testing last year, and it hasn't evolved much since then. The updated model sports clear turn signals and a slightly revised front air dam. The modifications are similarly minor at the rear. The bumper appears to dip down slightly further on the new sedan. Thankfully, those gorgeous taillights are still draped over the back of the car. The exhaust outlets have switched to oval shapes rather than the current parallelograms. This alteration could just be chalked up to it being a test car, but the previous tester we saw had a similar design. It's possible that the camouflage could be hiding other revisions, but don't expect anything radical from the facelift.
Our previous report indicated that Jaguar is also planning some interior upgrades with new infotainment and ambient lighting. The company seems to feel that there isn't a point in messing with the XJ's design just yet, since all of the changes we see here are very subtle. No problems, here - to our eyes, the big Jag is still one of the prettier sedans on the road today.

2014 Jaguar XFR-S is the power and the fury

If there's something wrong about a sedan with a 550-horsepower supercharged V8, we don't want to hear about it. Instead, we want to marvel at the car in person, which is fortuitous because Jaguar has officially unveiled the 2014 XFR-S at the 2012 LA Auto Show. That blown 5.0-liter V8 dishes up a full 502 pound-feet of torque, which is good enough to shuttle the four-door to 60 mph in a scant 4.4 seconds. And, thanks to a start stop system and a few other fuel-saving tricks, the 2014 XFR-S gets away without being hit by the gas guzzler tax.
That's all good news, but we're just as excited about the fact that engineers managed to crank up the vehicle's chassis stiffness by a ludicrous 30 percent. Stiffer dampers and springs also give the car a little more poise, and a wide-open exhaust lets the whole world know you're kicking down their door. You know, in case the electric blue paint and wild body work didn't tip your hand. Check out the full gallery above for a closer look.