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My love of British cars -- or at least those that were deemed worthy of export to the United States -- should be no secret. I grew up in the back seat of a heavily modified red 1959 Triumph TR3. Over the years, members of my family have owned TR4's, TR6's, MGBs, MGB-GTs, Sunbeam Alpines, Austin-Healy Sprites... and that's all just in my lifetime! The car I perhaps have heard the most about, however -- after the TR3 anyway -- was a Mark II 3.8 Jaguar saloon. Made most famous as the car that BBC/PBS' Inspector Morse drove, my parents owned a Burgundy red model until the late 1970s. It fell victim to the expanding family disease, and my only first-hand knowledge of it comes from a burled wood dashboard spare that my father has kept ever since. It is a very nice dashboard.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that growing up, I lusted after Jaguars, first the XJS, then later the XK. It's perhaps because of this that I've always held a soft spot for the Jaguar car company, and cheered it on even while knowing I was far from likely to be able to own one anytime in the foreseeable future. When the troubled maker announced the new C-XF concept, I was fascinated, and wrote about it here. Stylish, ultra-modern, and shapely, the car broke many Jaguar traditions in an attempt to hold up one very crucial one, the notion of a sedan that had guts, what Jag designer Ian Callum called, in typically British jargon, a "sports saloon".

Jaguar's in a deep bind, and its troubles are much the same as Cadillac's had been for the last twenty years, namely being the "fuddy-duddy" car, with little excitement or passion. Result? Declining sales and a shrinking, increasingly geriatric buyer base. Not exactly a growth formula. Some of the U.S. executives of the company hatched a plan to save the company in 2004 that would have seen the maker return to it's racing-inspired roots. The plan, however, was killed by defenders of the status-quo.

Now, however, the upper echelon at the Cat seems to have learned the hard lesson. Sales of the X-Type, meant to be an All-Wheel-Drive BMW-killer, never met expectations, while time has shown the S-Type to be an over-styled poor substitute for the Mark II whose styling it more parodies than parrots. Ford has put the company up for sale, placing all the more pressure on the company to prove itself healthy enough to be bought for more than just a Chinese name-badge grab.

Make no mistake. Jaguar needs the XF. Since revealing the C-XF, (Concept, XF), Jaguar removed the X-Type from the U.S. market; the XF production variant of the C-XF will, once it hits the market, replace both of Jaguar's middle-market sedans. If it succeeds, Jaguar will prove itself a viable investment. If it fails, it may sink the company.

But what would it look like? Production cars, industry wide, are rarely as exciting as the concept cars they are based upon. Despite raising pulse rates, concepts are usually far watered down, in fear of the risk of aggressive styling losing the pre-existing customer base for the product. Caddy's angular transition was perhaps one of the rare exceptions to this rule. (It's also one that's paying off well -- the CTS has proven a winner for Cadillac owner GM). Would Jaguar follow the rule, and water down the C-XF to a milquetoast sedan?

Recently, Jaguar revealed the new XF. The exterior styling is by far more conservative than the C-XF, most notably reducing the radical headlight shapes and toning the overall body shape into a more submissive shape. Ironically like the Cadillac CTS, in some ways photos do not do justice to the styling. At first, this was a disappointment, but I have to admit the styling has grown on me. This photo alone sells me on the heartbeat racing Jaguar feel the car has, in a way that no XJ series sedan, even the original XJ-6 of 1968, has had.

And the interior? While not quite as dramatic as the neon-glow infused C-XF interior, it still sports a clean minimal look heralded by some as the best luxury sports sedan interior on the market. Indeed, from a functional standpoint, it was designed with Apple Computer, known for their elegant interfaces. Note, too, the return of that Jaguar standby, burled wood trim. While a step into the past, the treatment appears to me modern enough not to be an anchor, while traditional enough to satisfy the need for some warmth as well as brand continuity.

What does it translate to for Jaguar? With such an iconic brand, any step away from the inertia of conservative, backward-looking designs will be met with a love-hate reaction. As Car Magazine UK states, "some insiders call it a Marmite design -- one whose flavour you'll either love or hate." The maker has rolled its dice... and it looks promising. Early reports indicate that there are now more U.S. pre-orders for the XF than supply; in short the XF appears to be on the path to selling out its first batch on U.S. soil.

And if you're Jaguar, you're hoping that's going to last more than a few months.

"I tried to write shorterbut I ran out of time"~Mark Twain

"I tried to write shorter
but I ran out of time"
~Mark Twain