I agree that the beltline and decklid could come down a LOT, but for how high they are the car sure makes them look nice.
The car actually breaks a couple of my Cardinal Rules of Styling, but it does so with such finesse that it still works.
The biggest one is that the decklid is NOT level. It slants downward. This is a no-no by my book. But with the Jag's lines it still works okay. A flatter decklid could look better, but would have to be done VERY carefully or it would accentuate the already too-tall height. If the rake of the backlight was sharpened up a bit, and the c-pillars' bases brought forward just a little, you could flatten out the deck without raising it any.
This Jag is another example of the DETAILS making the WHOLE work. It's NOT the other way around, as you see on so many cheaply and lazily-styled and -manufactured cars. Admittedly it's more expensive to do the details right, but when they ARE right, I would argue that the SENSE of value they add to the car more than equals that investment. The fine stuff all works. It's stuff that most people don't notice, but the stuff I look at first. No Camry owner would even blink at half of it. But it's what makes the new Civic look like a heap of rat turds to me. And what makes this Jag stand in a class of its own.
In regards to this XJ versus its predecessors: it fixes my BIGGEST complaint from older models: the continental overhangs. The last-generation XJR was GORGEOUS, but it had about twelve feet of car behind the rear axle, and about nine feet in front. Those wheels needed to MOVE out to the corners. This new design has overhangs like a supermodel's bikini: tiny and barely noticeable. Just the way I like both.
gwoods wrote:My XF has more trunk space and a wider backseat. In the XF 3 car seats fit in the back seat and the seatbelts line up. In the XJ/XJL the 3 car seats fit but they sit on top of the seatbelt.
That is a bit odd, but with big sportluxes like this one, it's the LENGTH that really matters. Your car is designed to seat three children across in the back. The XJ is designed to seat two adults across. In fact, many cars bigger than midsize offer an option of dual benches with center console in the back, rather than a bench. Seating for 5 isn't important. Seating for four is.
