Big Jaguar saloons used to have a wonderful raffish air to them, fine quality leathers and wood trim, but when they came to be sold on, disgruntled owners found that they were worth less than the annual subscription to their favourite gentleman's club. They fell into the hands of sheepskin jacketed car dealers and the sort of rogues portrayed on The Sweeney and this did no end of damage to the Jaguar corporate image. How things have changed. The Jaguar XJ8 series of cars has taken the basic premise of previous generations and made massive steps forward in many key areas, not least of which is quality. Although superficially similar to the outgoing model, the XJ6 series, the XJ8 represents the thinking of a new generation of engineers at Jaguar's headquarters in Coventry. The proportions of the car are wonderfully judged, leading to a Milanese panel of experts voting it L'Automobile piu Bella del Mondo - 'The Most Beautiful Car In The World', surely a testament to its stylist, the late Geoff Lawson. The design philosophy was to identify all of the aspects that turned traditional Mercedes and BMW buyers away from Jaguar and to ruthlessly excise them. The fruits of this exercise have been to make Jaguar residual values amongst the strongest in their class. The Jaguar emblem now says all the right things about its driver.

About the Jaguar XJ8

The target for the Jaguar XJ8 series, namely to remove all of the traditional excuses to buying British, has been achieved with considerable panache. Drop in behind the wheel of an XJ8 and there's a palpable sense of occasion that's missing in its rivals. Behind the wheel you'll feel like a charmingly roguish bounder rather than a Junior Vice-President. As an ownership proposition, the XJ8 is leagues ahead of its predecessors, and is right up there with German counterparts. The trickle down effect of this to used car buyers has already begun, and XJ8s command good prices. A well looked after example should make an elegant addition to any driveway, and will only look better with age.

Representative finance example

If your borrow amount is £7,000 with a deposit of £1,000, a selected term of 48 months, at a representative APR of 17.9% (fixed) and an annual fixed interest rate of 17.9%, you would pay £171.83 per month. Total charge for credit would be £2,247.84 and total amount repayable is £8,247.84.

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