Hidden Beauty
by David Morgan (15 Feb 08)

Jaguar has produced an S-Type replacement that's full of contradiction. The front of the new XF is unmistakably Japanese with a horrible chrome-plated plastic moulding for a grille that's over-large and flanked by fussy headlight assemblies. There is too much nose plastic and fiddily decorative chromed bits. But this is a car that will move the world. It will sell in droves – despite the controversy Jaguar Chief Designer Ian Callum has drawn into its fascinating lines.

The nose is not so much weak as confusing. It looks more Lexus than Brown's Lane - but there was method in Callum's labours. At the launch in Monaco he answered my doubts with a walk round the car highlighting why the XF had to be different from Jaguars of the past; why it had to move on in styling terms and why it looks as it does.

Photography does the XF no favours. But in the metal the car is elegant, with beautiful rear quarters that ape the original E-Type coupé, a side profile that evokes the 1960s Jaguar Mk2's rear window line and a crease line that mirrors the short nose of the original saloon and camouflages the XF's long collision-absorbent front overhang.

I can't warm to the XF front. It's bland, and that chrome-coated wire-lookalike plastic grille would have been far better crafted from real metal. But taking a closer look I could see the nose features evocative Jaguar design clues and, viewed from the right angle in the right light, is a design masterpiece. But should you have to work so hard to see the car's beauty?

Callum told me: "The XF had to be modern, a coupe shape to reflect Jaguar's sporting past. We couldn't simply pick up from what we'd done before. Jaguar design has always evolved - look at its past and see how many different forms the cars have taken."

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