A few summers ago, a run-in with a then-new Jaguar XF led me to criticize the Jag’s lack of what the Germans call “Überholprestige,” or, “the ability of a car to intimidate drivers into moving out of your way.” Granted, it’s not the most important consideration for most car buyers, but if you’re dropping upwards of $40k for a luxury sedan, you want its front end to leave some kind of impression. After all, who cares what badge you’ve bought, if the car can’t be recognized as an expensive speed freak in the rear-view mirror of the Avalon that’s hogging the left lane? Well, it seems Jaguar agreed that the front-end of its XF lacked a certain gravitas, and they’ve given the old girl a ferocious looking nip-tuck. Sure, its new scowl looks distinctly BMW-esque and all LED running lights invite inevitable Audi comparisons, but it’s also got the grace and ferocity of the brand’s eponymous predator. In short, the new fascia really ties the design together, and makes the XF a more broadly-appealing and visually impactful competitor. Well done, Jaguar.
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I see the headlights are back to the concept. What they did instead, the first time, really confused me
The C-XF concept actually came after the XF production car was finalized. It was meant to be an exaggerated taster, but the front end definitely did look better.
I think the XF looks HAWT. I really like the XJ but the roofline is way too low and interior space too small for me to consider it. I’d definitely take the XJ over a replacement S550 though.
Let’s see if Jaguar can fix the XF’s “Uberunreliability” problem.
Subtle, but much needed improvement. Nice work.
Am I evil because, when I see somebody driving like an a$$hole behind me and ducking in and out of traffic because they think they’re special, I sit in the left lane doing just over the limit and then find a car in the right lane whose pace I match? I mean if somebody is just cruising along and fast approaching I will move over, but if they’re harassing others on the road I won’t move over because they have an expensive car.
No, you’re not evil, but I don’t see where you’ve thought this through completely. Let the a**hole go past you, hopefully far, far ahead of you. That way when they finally f*ck up and wreck, you’ll be able to avoid the situation entirely. Or if they don’t wreck, they’ll probably get off the freeway and you won’t have to see them again.
Either way, when people are driving like that, I just get the h*ll out of the way. Let them go, and let the po po enforce traffic laws. It’s why we pay them to do it.
I understand your position, and agree that if they’re being obviously wreckless I won’t play. I generally don’t camp in the left lane anymore anyway. There’s too much of a chance that I will start speeding and that’s no bueno. If people play nice with me on the roads I’ll play nice, if not, all bets are off.
I guess my main point is that I refuse to move over just because the guy behind me has an expensive car and wants to “stretch out and cruise on the open road.”
I can remember a time when a guy in a Talon wouldn’t allow me to enter the freeway. I had a large Aerostar and started messing with him. Long story short, he wound up behind me going through a 55 mph exit going 30 mph. Then he tried to pass me when we hit the next roadway and was sorely irritated when I got ahead of him.
Let the a**hole go past you, hopefully far, far ahead of you.
That reminds of the time I got out of the way of an M5 when I was headed westbound on I-90 (the Masspike) even though I was doing about 80 at the time. Later when I crested a hill near the Lee MA speed trap, there was the M5 at the side of the road with a Mass State Trooper behind him. As I passed, the trooper was in the process of cuffing him. A classic.
@mcs: For all of the times I’ve let the a**hole go ahead of me, I’ve never seen that happen. I may have to re-think my belief in karma.
What you’ve done is create an a$$hole contest and, unfortunately, you win.
There’s never a good reason to hog the left lane – who made you traffic policeman?
I never said anybody made me traffic policeman, but I did say that I don’t generally camp in the left lane because I don’t find it worth it. I did, however , say that I refuse to move over just because, if that makes me an a$$hole so be it. This is also something that I don’t do much because it’s not worth it.
I especially won’t move over if I’m already exceeding the limit by as much as I am comfortable and there is no space in the right lane to move into.
@tankinbeans: After witnessing people pulling out guns and aiming them at one another in fast moving Atlanta rush hour traffic, I changed my attitude completely.
Yes you are evil. I’m that asshat (although admittedly not in a very expensive car) MOVE OVER!
I agree with geozinger. The left lane is for passing. If you aren’t passing someone you should not be in it. If you are passing, then do so quickly and then move over.
In some of the more enlightened states, you can be ticketed for blocking the left lane. And in Europe its not unusual for the person behind to give your rear bumper a friendly tap. (At least, so I understand.)
I don’t do this anymore, due in part to my increased efforts at attaining the best mileage possible (forking with people isn’t conducive usually) out of my car. I’m also growing increasingly aware of people and their road-rage, and am not interested in finding out what would happen if I ran into the wrong person, and I don’t feel it’s worth it.
The only reason I brought this up was the tone of the article when there were statements about needing a car with, “the ability of a car to intimidate drivers into moving out of your way.” I’m not going to be intimidated by your car. If you, on the other hand, look unstable, that is a different story. Perhaps, I’m not making myself as clear as I ought to.
Right now I am content to trundle along in the right lane letting people pass. The only time I use the left lane now is for passing, or when I know the right lane is ending (35E and 35W – heading southbound – recombine into 35 – in my state for instance).
Geo – I don’t know where your other comment about turn signals turned up, but I agree that it would be nice to see those used more often. Are they optional on BMWs, MBs, Lexus and the like?
+1 Besides, I have seen that M5 scenario above many times. I travel in excess of the limit and love to see folks going even faster to occupy the attentions of the law. I’ll do my Jerry Reed bit and let you deal with Buford T Justice.
And in Europe its not unusual for the person behind to give your rear bumper a friendly tap. (At least, so I understand.)
It is very unusual to do that actually. In most European countries the speed limit on highways is about 80mph so a little nudge here and there is out of the question. It is however taught in driving schools (at least here in the Netherlands) to try and use the left lane for passing only as much as possible and weave back into the right lane when you get a chance, even if up ahead you can see there’s another truck you’ll be passing 10s or so up the road. This is also enforced by quite hefty tickets for hogging the left lane (I think 160 Euros currently), so to some extent weaving in and out of traffic is the way to go. The only exception for this is of course when both (or all) lanes aren’t doing the maximum speed limit because there is too much traffic. In different countries the situation might be a bit different but contact with another car on the highway isn’t acceptable anywhere.
It’s true that is some bigger cities where the speed limit is obviously a lot lower, some people may see little wrong with a little bump and grind (Paris and Rome are classic examples), but I guess that’s not unlike New York.
Not evil, but don’t be surprised when you have someone do a cut-off swerve in front of you, missing your front bumper by inches. It’s a favorite of mine for left-lane bandits, particularly when I’m driving my diesel benz.
If you can be passed by a _diesel_, you really suck, and need to get the fuck off the road.
And BTW, no radar detector anymore, no tickets in the last 7 years.
As I’ve probably mentioned before, my procedure for left-lane hoggers is as follows:
-Get close. Back off a bit. Get close again.
-Flash my high beams a couple of times.
-Toot my horn. Just once.
-Get up close one more time.
-If they haven’t taken the hint, pass ’em on the right and cut within 6′ of their front bumper, using my signals.
-Ignore any horns, fingers, or lights I get in response. If their high beams stay on, a brief brake-check is acceptable.
-Get the hell away and do whatever speed I was trying to get up to to begin with.
All of this assumes that the right lane has been clear for the majority of this procedure and that the offending driver and their cell phone don’t have a left-lane exit to take.
Oh, and yes, I drive a relatively powerless old Volvo (two of them, actually), so passing is a big deal to begin with.
I’m over highway vigilantism. Like any other situation with someone driving aggressively, I tell myself that they just have to go to the bathroom really badly. I’ll leave them to deal with the increased risk of getting a ticket or a crash. No need to escalate things and raise your blood pressure over what, really? A few square feet of space? Pride? Ego? C’mon.
You know what I do when I see someone going slow in the fast lane. USE THE SHOULDER. I typically ride my CBR on the highway and oh yeah you think you can keep up with me have fun. Left lane has the assumption to be used as a passing lane and in some states that’s all you can do but here in the midwest we use all lanes for travel and some have a pov next to them. Someone comes barreling up my ass I slam on the brakes and hope to god they hit me because then I can get a new car and their insurance goes up. Have fun telling the wife you were being a dick on the road again
Some of these photos are actually of the XJ. And I’m having a hard time telling them apart when the C-pillar isn’t visible.
The middle car in the second photo is the XJ, right?
One XJ-only photo snuck in there, but I’ve deleted it… in the three-car pictures, the silver car is the XJ.
Back when I was young, wild and poor, I occasionally amused myself by playing impromptu chicken with expensive cars while driving a junker. I quickly learned that the more expensive the car, the quicker the driver would bounce out of the way. Even big SUVs bounced almost to the point of rolling if I just stood on the gas, closed my eyes and braced for the impact.
This was LA, so I guess Germans are different. But even today, when I’m as often as not the guy in the expensive car, I’m much more tentative about cutting off some meth head looking character whose car demonstrates how nonchalant he is about crashing, than some uptight in a Ferrari or AMG. Those guys bounce 3 feet if I knock on their hood or window while on a motorbike.
I had my own clunker, an ugly, dented-all-over ’63 Chrysler Newport with a 4″ deep crease in the front bumper a previous owner apparently made by knocking a freight car off its tracks. I’d had a devil of a time driving a Rambler, with girls in Toyotas jumping in front of me at intersections and out of driveways, but that stopped when they saw the Newport.
On the freeway, I picked a lane and kept to the limit, and cars naturally avoided me. One guy in an old Beemer 2002 thought he could beat me on a ramp where two lanes merged into one, but the 361 4bbl could really move that car, which weighed under 4,000 lbs., way less than people thought. The only things that car couldn’t do is 1. impress girls; 2. keep from rusting faster than I could spray the rustoleum, and 3. stop in a reasonable distance. Those 10″ drum brakes were a joke.
Of all the models in the XF’s segment it is by far my favorite for styling and now it looks even better. I’m sure the reason they sell so few of them is their poor reliability track record. Too bad for Jaguar as the car itself is a beauty. If Jaguar reliability was on par with Audi/BMW/MB their sales probably would be too.
Clogging the left lane, merely b/c you don’t feel like moving, or particularly if you’ve assessed that the guy behind has an expensive car/attitude, may not be evil (even if maddening to others).
But in Missouri, it’s against the law.
The Missouri statue deems the left lane of multi-lane highways to be a passing lane; to be used for passing. If you’re camped out there, you’re a violator. MO Rev Statutes 304-015
And yes, there is ample evidence here that this law is rarely enforced.
A little public service message / education would go a long way to avoiding some road rage and improving traffic flow.
And while they’re at it, some for how to use/enter/exit roundabouts / traffic circles. And for 4-way stop-signed intersections.
Hey I’d be happy if I could get everyone to use that funny stalk that comes out of the left side of the steering column. I think it has something to do with turn signals…
Great, they’ve gotten the details right. Now for the general shape; side-on, it still has strong whiffs of Lexus GS.
Next problem- to make the boring sides look less like a 20K Kia Optima!
It looks a bit Alfa’ish to my eyes… and that is a very good thing.
This is why the performance version of any German car has a different Grille. Americans put wings on the car if they want you to think it is fast. In Germany they only do small wings but the headlights of the GTI, AMG, or M class will be different than the normal version, specifically so when you look back, you can tell if it is an RS32 or a 1.4 liter Golf basic and act accordingly.
Of course, here, that Camry doing 15 under the limit and erratically speeding up and slowing down won’t notice.
I dunno about Germany, but here in Ammercuh, if you’re tailgating some slowpoke in the leftmost lane, there’s even odds that he’ll see your expensive sports sedan and go even slower. The only car with the “intimidating look” capable of clearing out the passing lane is a Crown Vic with a blacked-out grille and a spotlight.
The scenery in the background looks familiar. Along the coast of False Bay near Cape Town, South Africa methinks. Its a staggeringly beautiful drive along there but the rip tides, freak waves, rocky cliffs, unpredictable weather with strong winds and sharks add an element of danger. Its also a real drivers and bike riders paradise with billions of well cambered corners.
I was wondering about the location, which looks like a place I’d like to drive in.
Upwards of $40k? Try more like $50k…in the U.S. the XF starts at $52k.
So now it looks like an angry Camcord. Meh.
I find it truly shameful that a premium brand like Jaguar cannot come up with something more distinctive. Vanilla works for Camrys and Accords, not predatory big cats.