Jaguar XF: sights set on the future - Introduction

Given Jaguar's current problems, it's inevitable that the new XF - the model that replaces the retro S-type next spring - will be seen by some as the car that will kill or cure the company. Inevitable, but wrong.

With red ink still covering the balance sheet and a future within the Ford empire increasingly unlikely, Jaguar needs far more than this one new model, produced at a maximum rate of only 50,000 a year, to get back on its feet.

BMW and Mercedes build at least five times as many 5 Series and E-Class cars.

It's a vital newcomer for Jaguar, all the same - a showcase of what the company can do, as well as a chance to start reversing fortunes - and the people who buy it won't be doing so out of sympathy. They'll have simply decided it's so utterly stunning, they have to have one.

From its saloon-within-a-coupe profile to its fabulous interior and the XK-based mechanical package, it grabs your attention like no production Jag in decades.

The XF makes most similar-sized German and Japanese cars appear over-conservative, contrived or inelegant.