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| Road Test: Jaguar XK (2006-) |
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| Exotic Sports |
by: Gavin Conway |
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Jaguar XK (2006-) Gallery
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| COMFORT AND EQUIPMENT RATING: |
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The latest XK offers more headroom, shoulder room and front-seat legroom. Subjectively, the new car does seem marginally more spacious, particularly with regard to headroom for taller drivers. The rear seats, though, remain strictly parcel-shelf devices, or a place to strap in a child seat. Only put an adult you want to punish back there. Likewise, the boot - even on the hatchback coupe - is ludicrously small. This is a situation you can significantly improve by dropping the space-saver spare and gaining the extra boot depth.
When it comes to cruising comfort for the two lucky souls upfront, though, the Jag is an exceedingly good place to spend time. Ride comfort is just as compliant and absorbent on rough surfaces as you expect from a Jaguar and the smoothness and refinement of the drivetrain is first rate, too. There is, though, a fair amount of tyre noise over most types of surface and the convertible doesn't do a very good job of containing wind buffeting, even with the deflector in place. That said, the convertible's roof is a lovely piece of work, very well-insulated and finished and quick to raise and lower - this you achieve by simply by pressing a button and letting the electro-hydraulics get on with it.
While the exterior is a big step forward design-wise, the Jag's dash layout is just a bit too ordinary. This isn't a car you jump into and feel 'wow'. The Driver Information Centre display on the console - basically a menu-driven touch screen that allows control of the cars functions, from navigation to audio and everything else - is certainly more intuitive than BMW's notorious i-Drive, but it still took us six menu clicks to get to from the nav screen to sound system's bass control and back, which isn't ideal. We miss the days of being able to simply tweak a button labelled bass.
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Introduction This new XK is lighter, faster and roomier than the car it replaces... |
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