Jaguar XK8 Review

There must be few times when you really wish you were not driving the latest Jaguar sports coupe, but that's exactly what happened to me.

You see, I had managed to book the new XK for one night - a Friday to be exact - but a communication error resulted in me attempting to return the car on Saturday after the dealership had closed. Now, by now you will all be going 'ahhhhh, yes...." because it's certainly a pleasure to have an XK for more than one night.

But, and it's a big but - I have a wife and two children, and having to drive what is generously described by Jaguar as a '2+2' when you have an actual family to transport means that I yearned - yes yearned - to retrieve the Toyota Aurion I had left at the dealership.

I could of course drive my own car, but seeing as it's in the middle of having its original engine being replaced by something far more exotic meant transporting one spouse, one three year old and one eight year old in Jaguar's new NZ$214,990 XK.

The first surprise? They both fit, although my eight year old son kept banging his head into the ceiling and the rear seat isn't exactly built to take the Recaro child seat my three year old daughter uses. But we could actually do it, and it is possible that adults could even sit there for a limited amount of time. The boot of the XK though, is actually quite usable. It's not exceptionally large, but the huge hatchback removes any problems with actually getting any objects into the boot.

So that's the habitability out of the way, what about the rest of the car? You get the 4.2 litre V8 and six speed auto that's already in the XJ, with 224kW and 420Nm of torque which is enough - Jag says - for a 0-100km/h sprint, of 6.2 seconds. But that's not really the point, because this cat sounds brilliant. It's a guttural deep chested howl that rather suits something named after a big cat. The supercharged version should be even better, because from my experience of supercharged Jag engines it will sound just like a Spitfire, and give you the urge to shoot at BMWs.

But even in the standard non supercharged XK you can outrun most of what the Bavarians have to offer, and the real surprise is that the XK actually handles quite well for a car that is really intended to be a GT. It grips hard in corners, with minimal body roll, and with the engine up the front and the power being delivered to the rear it is a very well balanced car. But it's still a GT, and I must say it's a bloody good one.

The ride quality is something you have to experience, because the body control is fantastic. The car never feels unsettled and you get the feeling that you should be crossing France at an exceptionally high velocity rather than driving down the southern motorway behind a Bongo van belching black smoke.

You'd expect a car like the XK top come well equipped and so it has a spec list longer than a Dan Brown novel, but a breakdown includes Trac Dynamic Stability Control, ABS, Emergency Brake Assist, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, dual front and side airbags, Jaguar Smart Key system, featuring keyless start and keyless entry, sports seats with ten-way electric adjustment, Jaguar touch screen system, cruise control, tyre pressure monitoring system, dual zone climate control, Bluetooth enabled telephone system, front and rear parking assist with touch-screen visual aid, and rain sensing windscreen wipers.

And of course anything that's not constructed from plastic, aluminium or wood trim has come from the outside of a former cow.

In fact, my only problem with this car is that it's the sort of car you buy when you're past fifty. For a start, even though you can fit children in it's really something an empty nester would be able to use every day, and Jags still have that old man feeling about them, as if they remain men's clubs on wheels. And let's face it, despite the marketing campaigns, have you ever seen anyone under the age of forty driving a Jag.

Not that that's a problem, as I'm sure there are plenty of grey haired men (and women, although I doubt they have grey hair) with the readies to get behind the wheel of the gorgeous Jag. I wish I could like it more, but I'm afraid I'm just too young.
I'll get the Jag salesperson to drop me a line in twenty years.