The New Jaguar XK with a torchlight!
It’s not often we get to sample ultra high performance, ultra expensive cars – but last week we did, courtesy of a Lucky Door Prize.
Our prize was “Your choice of any new Jaguar for a weekend with a full tank of petrol” supplied by Alto Jaguar in Sydney.
So we chose the all new Jaguar XJ luxury saloon, and they gave us just that, but with an added bonus – equipped with the supercharged 346 kw 5 litre engine! That means it can accelerate from 0-100kph in around 5 seconds, making it the fastest standard four door large luxury saloon you can buy, and it’s mighty quick!
Prices for the XJ start with a 3 litre diesel at around $230,000, but ‘ours’ was well in to the $300k’s territory, so it had to be jam-packed with goodies, and it was.
We should all be familiar now with sat/nav systems, but how about a screen where the driver can read his route instructions, whilst the passenger can watch a movie from exactly the same screen? Or a ‘virtual dash’, resplendent in personal colour-coded computer simulated instruments that can be personally tailored to your preferences?…….or the ‘torchlight effect’ speed and rev dials? These need a bit of explaining.
When the torchlight effect is turned on the major instruments change light intensity to highlight the parts of the screen that the needle pointer is aiming at, which makes it much easier to read current speed and rev levels. Sounds simple, but it’s a much better option than a digital read out that some cars have.
Another big plus is the ‘blind spot monitor’, a real safety boost. How often have you changed lanes only to be greeted with a loud hooting from a disgruntled driver in your ‘blind spot’? No longer….this Jag has a small symbol on both external rear vision mirrors that illuminate when it senses a car in the blind spot – very clever and very valuable. Hopefully it won’t be too long before this excellent safety aid filters its way down to more affordable cars.
Any dislikes? That’s a very rude question when dealing with such a magnificent car as this. However there are a couple of things…the dynamic fast back shape looks terrific, but it does restrict the rear vision from the internal mirror ( but then it’s got a rear vision camera and those terrific wing mirrors). It’s also a daunting prospect to park, not because it’s at all unwieldy, but because it attracts so much attention, both from admirers and from the envious, so, sadly, you need to park it in a safe place..
So, to sum up , an absolutely brilliant car in every way, a very high speed luxury saloon that has NO equals – or none that we’ve driven, anyway. Thank you Alto!