LOGBOOK LOWDOWN
designers have taken the knife to the front of the Jag but the cosmetic work is quite subtle even though a fair few things have changed.
THE BONNET is new and has more of a clamshell shape to its edges and the headlamps are slimmer which has allowed them to make the front intake wider and deeper.The effect of the changes is to make the car look longer and wider even though it isn’t. I loved the look of the orginal and I like this one very much too. It hasn’t been spoilt.
Inside there’s not been a drastic change either.The 10in infotainment screen is Jaguar’s latest system and there’s a new 12.3in digital instrument cluster. The infotainment system isn’t the easiest or clearest to use but at least you get old-fashioned knobs for adjusting the heating and ventilation.
The interior quality is good enough for a £54k car but you would start to moan if you had paid £97,280 for the top of the range version.
Most of the hard plastics are hidden mainly out of sight and
Coupe
Jaguar F-Type
Now £54,060 Petrol – 2.0-litre 300bhp
0 to 62mph in 5.7 seconds, 155mph top speed
29.9mpg
184g/km Porsche Cayman, Alpine A110 certainly out of reach. Our white test car is fitted with 12-way heated seats at an extra £1,340 which are supremely comfortable.
If I had a tenner for every car brochure that described the layout as “driver focused” I’d have
■ enough bread to buy this car. In the Jaguar that claim is true.
I had to drive from west London up to Burton upon Trent in the Jag and it was a lovely experience and one of the best drives I have had in ages.
The weather wasn’t particularly lovely; the traffic not especially light; but I did take a fun cross-country route.
The four-cylinder F has conventional damping rather than theV8’s adaptive system but the ride is comfortable and the handling is sharp and direct.
The four-cylinder engine doesn’t sound brilliant and the eight-speed automatic gearbox (you can’t buy a manual F-Type any more) is a bit clunky at times. There’s plenty of power, though, and torque with it.
You get these drives sometimes where everything just falls into place, you’re in the right mood and in this case, in the right car.
The fat end of fifty-five grand is still too much to pay for this car as you’re dangerously into Porsche Cayman territory, but it’s a lovely car and I still want one.
Buying secondhand is the obvious solution.
Early cars are just about to break into the teens and probably will have done so within the next few months.