The XF - Design features - Some Suggested Revisions
As a Jaguar owner and keen follower, I am more than delighted with the huge success of the model. What a superb motor car it is with accolades coming from all quarters. And we do want Jaguar to be very successful.
However, I have fallen for a perceived need to try to improve the frontal appearance. I feel that the grill setting is wrong, and the front lights are, to me, awful oversized gashes; they are too far from what the C-XF promised. No doubt this was for good reasons, but here I go anyway.
A drawing is shown (it’s very poor!). But my message is that the grill setting should be vertical. Its current ‘slope’ may be smooth but it looks weak - like the S-Type, unfortunately. Marketing photographs of the front are now mostly taken 2ft. from the ground, perhaps for this reason.
Effectively, if the whole grill unit was to be pivoted forward at the top about an axis somewhere near the centre of the badge, then a vertical grill could be achieved. A fresh unit with a new chrome surround around the upper elements would continue the lines of the bonnet, and the bottom edge would ‘move’ back into the opening. This would present a stronger, more eager appearance, in my humble view. Does it not look more ‘Jaguar’ too?
Then there are the front lights. These seem to me to need diminishing, and should have a more rounded/curving appearance to be achieved with more enveloping bodywork - maybe using the existing units. However, somehow, the flasher’s side extension should, ideally, be much reduced in size too - even be separated from the main light unit.
I was so glad to see the revised X-Type ‘face’ looking so much stronger now, and I would like to see the XF likewise. These things are important to us.
We all look forward to the new XJ in 2010. And it’s good luck to the Jaguar team