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The British firm’s new 500bhp super saloon made a number of high speed runs up the famous hill, with veteran test driver Mike Cross behind the wheel.

Jaguar officials are still cagey about confirming the XFR’s existence, describing the disguised saloon as a ‘sports prototype’. But sources close to the XFR project hinted that a production model could be expected in March 2009.

The Jaguar XFR will be powered by a new direct injection, supercharged 5.0-litre V8 with 500bhp on tap. Ex...Read the full article

This is sure to be a truly great car, considering how good the standard saloon is. It is definitely a good thing to expand the range but they need new models at the lower end of the range now. I contacted Jaguar UK last week to ask them when smaller capacity engines would be introduced and was told:

"Unfortunately there is nothing in the near future to produce a smaller engine in the Jaguar XF model range, and Jaguar cannot comment on any future plans for release on any of our Jaguar selection as we do not have this information available to us."

That's a bit odd. So there are no plans, you can't comment and you don't know anyway? OK then.... 

I agree about the bottom end of the range. Especially when the X Type shuffles off to the great showroom in the sky, which must be pretty soon. A four cylinder diesel engine with a decent CO2 figure looks like a must. However, the track record of JLR in these areas is poor - witness the six years it took them to introduce a diesel automatic X Type and the still complete lack of anything that looks like an environmentally responsible choice in the Land Rover range.

Well they need to sort it out quickly if they are going to make any money for their new owners. You'd have thought the X-Type fiasco would have been some kind of learning experience for them? Notwithstanding the fact that most auto-savvy people never considered the X as a real Jag, I am entirely convinced that the car would have been a raging success for them (and ultimately Ford) if they had released the 2.0 petrol engine and the diesels at launch.

I accept that, now, the X is a deep embarrassment for the company and needs to be killed off asap but it needn't have been that way. To afflict the stunning XF with the same avoidable handicap is just a little bit too dim. The XF rocks compared to most of the standard exec fare out there (yes I have before you ask) and I believe that they would sell as many as they could make if they widened the range sufficiently. But, they wont, until it's too late and the majority of people looking for a great car in the exec market will end up in an A6 or a 5-er by default. What a shame.

The XF-R will be a cracker, of course. I'd love one.... 

I clap Jag for not taking XF down market, make it a car people will trade up to from 520D's!

 Alright if you're minted I suppose.

 The lower spec models are only worth it if rental fleets are buying the larger numbers to make them profitable. That's why they took the cloth cars out.

Yes that's the point Seren. These things need to compete on several different levels, price included. I don't mean retail price, I mean lease costs. Don't get me wrong, I don't want every other car on the road to be an XF- there is a certain sense of premium gained from exclusivity (a concept lost on BMW & Audi)- but for Jag to be given the chance I think it deserves, it needs to sell cars. It will sell those cars to high end fleets if it can get the range and the lease costs right.

Seren Kuhanandan:

The lower spec models are only worth it if rental fleets are buying the larger numbers to make them profitable. That's why they took the cloth cars out.

Sorry but this is rubbish. A rental fleet wouldn't buy cloth cars because the residual values are rubbish - almost any used buyer who wants a Jag wants leather.

The vast majority of cars in the XF class, even if they are not strictly classified as fleet sales, are bought with some kind of company money. Anyone who pays benefit in kind tax on their company car looks at the CO2 output and the current XF turbodiesels are effectively priced out of many people's range in this way. The Government has signalled that the BiK sliding scale will continue to be reduced, so the Jag will get gradually less competitive, even without bearing in mind any credit crunch effects. And that's before we get into things like the expensive car disallowance for cars over 160 g/km on lease rates.

In the medium term, once the initial sales bubble has popped, Jag needs a smaller capacity turbodiesel, whether four or six cylinder. The lack of one was what made the S-Type so difficult to shift in later years, even for the people who wanted them the tax bill was prohibitive.

Well said.