Used Jaguar – The XJ Series
An excellent all rounder when it comes to driving, the Jaguar XJ Series has been designed to accommodate a more lightweight, yet stronger frame which gives a sense of ease and a greater natural feeling whilst driving. It’s attractively designed exterior and smooth handling attempts to appeal to younger buyers as Jaguar tries to move away from the image of large, expensive cars.
With an aluminium body that makes it lightweight and more natural to handle, the XJ Series drives excellently in all conditions, slow as well as fast. Its small engine packs a powerful punch, able to reach from 0-60 miles per hour in less than seven seconds. It is economic too depending on which size engine is chosen, with a mpg of 15 in built up areas and 25mpg on motorways.
However the XJ Series is an expensive car to purchase initially, even when buying second hand. Older models with more mileage are pretty expensive at approximately £15,000 – £20,000, but newer cars with less mileage can be from at least £20,000 to £30,000. Though it is an excellent performer with low fuel costs, the initial price is what deters people.
But the XJ Series has several extra gadgets that bring the value of the model right up, including the amount of space available within the car. Rear passengers have more room than before although the boot space is slightly sacrificed to do this. The boot space is still sufficient enough for luggage or shopping bags and there is a central compartment convenient for hand luggage which is easily accessible. The front seats can be adjusted for passenger comfort and all passengers are guaranteed more comfort in longer journeys. Read the rest of this entry »
Fifty Years of the Jaguar E-Type
It seems incredible that fifty years have elapsed since the launch of the Jaguar E-Type at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961. That’s half a century! And like so many other developments of the 1960s – manned space flight – supersonic passenger transport – it still seems so far ahead of its time. Clearly technology has continued to progress in so many areas in the last fifty years but the sixties was a phenomenal decade for big headline breakthroughs.
There were of course other high performance contemporaries of the Jaguar. Aston Martin’s DB4, Chevrolet’s Corvette and the Ferrari 250GT. But these were all cars with price tags between two and three times that of the E-Type. Jaguar’s new sports car brought superlative speed and acceleration within the reach of, well, perhaps not the masses, but certainly a vastly increased number of motoring enthusiasts. It is perhaps the styling which was the biggest contributor to its iconic status. While each of its competitors has their admirers, no other car seems to have such universal appeal. Each curve flows into the next in a beautiful seamless whole. Even the great Enzo Ferrari had to admit it was “the most beautiful car ever made”. Perhaps the greatest tribute to the beauty of the E-Type is its exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Now, fifty years on, even those who are not car enthusiasts have heard of the Jaguar E-Type and are able to appreciate its beauty.
The E-Type came to market on the back of Jaguar’s most successful decade in motor sport. The Jaguar team won no less than five Le Mans throughout the 1950s with their C-Type and D-Type competition cars. Much of the styling of the E-Type was already apparent in the D-Type and the competition successes undoubtedly contributed to the immense interest enjoyed by the E-Type at its launch. Read the rest of this entry »