Alley Cat

Stylish with a touch of sinister. Is the new XF still a proper Jag?

- Parth Charan

Before Jaguar became one of Britain’s most prestigious exports, and a mainstay in the luxury car market, it was a wispy notion in the mind of its co-founder, Sir William Lyons. The man imbued his designs with a distinctly artistic flavour, betraying his own Edwardian underpinnings. His cars had to have a certain dynamism, flair and a touch of the futuristic, that would render them immortal. In an era largely devoid of marketing talk, a Jaguar needed to speak for itself.

Beholding the second-generation Jaguar XF in the metal, it’s clear that Jaguar has striven, for over half a century, to maintain some of those values – though with varying levels of success. With the new XF, Jaguar has been wise enough not to overly radicalize the traditional executive sedan form and trade it in for novelty value. So, the changes do remain minimal. That said, even today, with a more homogenous, brand-oriented design philosophy working its way into manufacturer brochures, one can easily trace the XF’s lines to Jag’s grand tourers of yesteryear.