A Major Step Forward
by Ross Finlay (10 Aug 04)

It doesn't seem so long ago that we were making sniffy noises about the original S-Type being rather too "Hollywood" in its interior presentation, although that may have seemed OK for the important US export market. The interior has long since been altered to be rather more traditional Jaguar in appearance, and has recently been revised again, but the really notable thing about the mid-2004 range is that it includes a really top-class turbo diesel engine.

Saying to a Jaguar person, "Oh yes, that's the Peugeot 2.7-litre, isn't it?" is the kind of thing which leads to a modern motoring equivalent of the P G Wodehouse line about "Ice formed on the butler's upper slopes."

The engine is indeed the first fruit of the joint PSA/Ford project to design and produce a twin-turbo diesel V6 for Ford, Peugeot, Citroen and - in Jaguar's case - brands within Ford's PAG portfolio, but Jaguar is the pioneer make here, and was able to make detail modifications to the basic engine to suit its own requirements.

Just as Jaguar is paying attention to overall body weight - the latest S-Type has an aluminium rather than steel bonnet, for example - so the team which designed the new V6 turbo diesel  engine made it as light as possible. It weighs in at only 202kg, lightest diesel engine in the class, and no more than 15kg heavier than the corresponding petrol V6.

It's also a genuinely state-of-the-art design. Diesel enthusiasts can wallow in descriptions of the variable swirl intake system, and the toroidal combustion chambers in the piston crowns, but the simple message is that this is a 2.7-litre with very impressive performance, economy and emission figures, throttle response and flexibility.

The SE turbo diesel is fitted as standard with a six-speed J-gate automatic, not quite able to match a six-speed manual's acceleration, fuel consumption or CO2 rating; but, as market observers are fond of saying, at trade-in time it's a lot better to have any kind of automatic Jaguar, because there will be many more hopeful second owners wanting one of those than are interested in a manual.

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