Great Britain, great cars. The UK motor industry is respected the world over, and though many of the vehicles are actually owned by foreign manufacturers, there can be no doubting of the fantastic heritage of the British motor.
To celebrate Britain’s famous history CarSupermarket.com is launching a series looking back on some of the most famous vehicles the UK has ever seen.
Jaguar XF
When Jaguar designer Ian Callum, created the XF back in 2007, it came off the back of a challenging period during which under Ford’s ownership, the restyled S-Type hd failed to hit the mark.
What Callum created was a bold and daring estate, with economical diesels and a brilliant facelift which would see the Jaguar go back to the top echelon of luxury cars.
Jaguar has always remained keen to challenge the German dominance at the top end of the market and when the project with codename X250 was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007, it was seen as brave bid to challenge that very dominance on the doorstep of BMW and Audi.
The new XF incorporated an oval mesh grille, which was a knowing nod back to the Jaguar XJ of 1968. Inside, the interior was pure class, with the JaguarDrive Selector rising ou of the centre console to deliver some real technological brilliance, a new ambience courtesy of the pale-blue backlighting and flush-fitting air conditioning vents built into the dash. The fact there was no cloth interior option shows that Jaguar were determined to place the XF at the top of the luxury motor lists.
But the XF wasn’t just about the looks, it had plenty of oomph, and in November 2008, a modified XFR broke the Jaguar speed record with a top speed of 225.675 mph.
Those speeds did not go unnoticed and the Jaguar XF was on the order book of the UK police car market from 2010.
With all the comparisons to the M5, it was only natural that the critics would join the clamour to compare and Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson went so far as to say "I'm not going to, even for a minute suggest that it's [XFR] better than the M5, but it's as-good-as. And praise does not get higher than that".
Sales of the XF in all of its guises have remained consistently above 30,000 units per year since launch, with an encouraging spike between 2013/14.
As expected, the motoring press were keen to heap praise on the car and in August 2011, Auto Express named the Jaguar XF as the Car of the Decade.
Years of manufacture: 2007-present
Price when new: £33,900
Price now: £32,490
Engine: 1,999cc 4cyl diesel, 163bhp
Top speed: 132mph
CarSupermarket.com has a range of Jaguar XF's available. Order yours online today and get it delivered to your door.