Motoring
Looks good, feels good
Alan Judd
Last month the Beast, now the Beauty. The Beast was the frog-eyed Fiat Multipla, unmistakable in its quirky ugliness but practical, versatile and good value. The Beauty is the Jaguar S-Type, the smaller curvaceous Jaguar whose lines so strongly recall the Mark us and S-Types of the 1960s. Could it be the Marilyn Monroe of modern saloons? One thing we can be sure of: those curves ain't Twiggy's.
When introduced two years ago, the SType won plaudits for its self-conscious retro-styling but there were a few brickbats. Some regarded it as a design cop-out rather than a courageous contemporary restatement of eternal verities. The truth restated in the S-Type is that we like flowing lines and swooping curves, as more than 75,000 buyers have demonstrated since it was launched.
Nor is it only the body that is retro. The cabin, from roof-line and cloth to dashboard and seats, immediately recalls the Mark II, though there seems — if memories of my three Mark us are right — to be more room, particularly headroom. Even without the leaping cat on the end of the bonnet (I've seen one added, set rather far back for irritating legal reasons), you still get the feeling you're flying a compact but not cramped fighting machine. It wants to go, and goes where you put it, sporty without being a sports car; more Mosquito, perhaps, than Spitfire or Hurricane.
Another criticism was that it couldn't quite live up to the BMW 5 series, for years the benchmark for mid-range saloons. I've not driven a 5 series but experience of the 7 series inclines me to believe in them. Although the S-Type was held to match or even exceed the 5 series in some ways, its handling at the limits of performance was judged not as good. However, this is more important to test drivers than to the rest of us for whom the car's handling during the 6.9 seconds it takes to reach 0-60 mph or at its top speed of 146 mph is fairly academic (and that's just the base model). What matters is that driving this car feels as good as it looks.
The model I had was the 3.0 litre V6 manual, which comes with dynamic stability control and air-conditioning as standard and costs a competitive £26,700. Automatic would be an extra £1,100 but I preferred it with the manual gearbox, not only because it made it yet more reminiscent of the Mk II (albeit infinitely better in every aspect of handling and performance) but because it suited the car. It feels as if that's how it should be driven, just as automatic suits the bigger cats. It was very quiet, the radio controls were sensibly sized and arranged, the gear change slick and precise and the pedals a reasonable distance apart. The black leather seats were large and far better for the back than Jaguars used to be. However, if you're going to make them electrically adjustable, then memory should be standard, not an extra. The rear seat has a 60/40 split and fold, so you don't need to worry about the golf clubs. Boot size is adequate, though boot shape is my one reservation about the body: it ends too abruptly, as if it ought to taper just a little more. It doesn't incite the same urge to caress as the front. It lacks the Monroe factor.
But you don't worry about that in the driving seat. It's a perfectly usable everyday car that feels special, and makes you feel the same. Also, as performance figures show, it's got legs. The range-topping 4.0 litre V8 (£35,350) is only marginally faster than this model, which — were I a lawbreaking motorist — I would say wafts you to 100 mph uphill in no time and with barely any noise. Combined urban/extra urban consumption figures are given as 25.2 mpg, though I averaged 22.2. Must've been those hills.
Ford are proving good stewards of Jaguar and deserve to do well with the SType, especially as they overpaid for the Third World production line at Browns Lane and in modernising it shelled out sums that look like mobile-phone numbers. Very soon they'll launch a baby sister to this beauty, the X-Type, which will be pitched against the BMW 3 series. It's hard to believe in a baby Jaguar, but as I said the same about Mercedes when they launched the 190 (precursor of the C class) I'd better withhold comment. Except to say that the chairman of Jaguar is Wolfgang Reitzle, the former BMW director, which means we'll have to take the X-Type seriously. So will BMW.
Meanwhile, long-term loan of a 3.0 litre S-Type manual, in black, would do me nicely, Mr Reitzle, please. I may not be a government minister but I can still be corrupted. My ethical reporting policy would mean I'd feel obliged to praise it everywhere. Please.
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