driving impression jaguar xkr vs. xj auperaport

#Driving impression jaguar xkr vs. xj auperaport series

At launch Jaguar boasted of how much of the car had been re-designed and re-developed and was more reliable than the outgoing XJ40.

The development cost of the X300 itself came to £90m between 19. This was to also benefit the XJ40 in terms of improved quality in the twilight of its production life. In order to produce the saloon to the required quality, Ford invested an impressive £110m on newer manufacturing equipment at both Castle Bromwich and Browns Lane. Whatever the truth of the matter of the new model’s development, the saloon that emerged in September 1994 was an extensively reworked and re-skinned XJ40, a car that had it origins back in the days of British Leyland. The car had to be stopped – after I left, they took the centre section of XJ40 and put the nose and tail of XJ90 on, and that became the car (X300/308) that then ran on.”Īt the time of writing no images of the XJ90 have reached the public domain.

(Bill) Hayden, when he saw it, said he was going to have an orgasm! But everything hit a stone wall in 1991. “When Ford took over, we got the replacement for XJ40 in place, which was called XJ90, and that was a re-styled job, slightly taller, slightly longer, a very pretty car, which we finished off while Ford was there in fact. Having scrapped XJ41 and XJ42, simply because it was impossible to reconcile design specifications and market requirements, we had to do a complete review of what Ford’s chequebook would stretch to”.įurther clarification came from former Jaguar Technical Director Jim Randle in a 2004 interview with Michael Scarlett for Jaguar World Monthly. On the subject of the XJ90 and the cancelled XJ41/42, Roger Putnam, the then Sales and Marketing Director, said in 1996: “At the time a wholly new successor to XJ40, called XJ90, was being planned. However, the go-ahead for the AJ26 was not given until 1990, and it took twelve months for a running prototype to be built, which perhaps discounts Jeff Daniels’ claim. Jeff Daniels, on the other hand, maintained that “prototypes ran, powered by a variety of engines including the AJ26 V8 engine, but the project was abandoned around 1990 and probably with good reason, given the likely cost”. And then there was the XJ93, a Daimler and/or fitted with the AJ26 V8 and the V12. Prototypes were run in the late 1980s with a variety of engines the XJ91 was the V12 version the XJ92 was both a Daimler and/or fitted with the forthcoming AJ26 V8 engine. Jaguar historian Paul Skilleter, writing in 1991, reckoned that the XJ90 was a facelifted XJ40 four-door saloon, also known as the X90. With Jaguar now in financial difficulties the XJ41/42 sports car was axed. Jaguar’s own Sales and Marketing department felt the XJ41/42 was a “huge disappointment” and many other non-engineering parts of the company agreed with them, feeling it failed to reconcile design specification and design requirements.

In addition, the company was working on the XJ41/42 and the XJ90, which was intended to replace the XJ40 saloon.įord ordered a thorough review of Jaguar’s activities.

#Driving impression jaguar xkr vs. xj auperaport series

At the time of the takeover, Jaguar produced three basic model lines, the XJ40, the Series 3 XJ12 and the XJ-S, which had actually just enjoyed its best year. Jaguar was going to need major investment in order to produce cars of the quality expected of them. In July 1990, Ford nominee Bill Hayden succeeded Sir John Egan as Jaguar Chairman, and on his first visit to Browns Lane, was reputedly shocked to find out how shoddy the place was. This was in the same year that Toyota had created the Lexus brand, and turned the market on its head. One of the reasons Ford bought Jaguar was to gain a foothold in the world luxury car market. However, unlike British Leyland, Ford was not cash strapped, and had high ambitions. IN 1989 the Ford Motor Company took total control of Jaguar Cars Ltd, and once again, after five years of independence, the Coventry company came under the control of a large corporate motor vehicle manufacturer. Ian Nicholls charts the history of the impressive X300/308 and wonders what might have been… With Ford’s money behind it, Jaguar was going places during the early-1990s – and the X300 was a clear indication that Uncle Henry wanted the best for the Leaping Cat, sticking rigidly to marque values… perhaps too rigidly.