So that’s it, then. The dear old Jaguar XK is no more. Last week, someone at Jaguar had the not especially pleasant task of hitting the stop button on the production line at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, where the XK has been built since 1996.
And for the foreseeable future, Jaguar’s elegantly styled big coupé will not see the light of day again.
The official line from Jaguar is that no decision has been made yet over the car’s future. Jaguar says it simply hasn’t made up its mind whether there’s a business case for a new XK now that the F-type has been unleashed upon the world. Behind the scenes, however, an internal debate is raging – it may even be a full-blown argument – over the XK’s replacement.
Certain people at Jaguar believe it to be a travesty not to replace the XK at some point in the future with a super-elegant, high-performing, luxuriant GT car – with a machine that, broadly speaking, replaces like with like at the top of Jaguar’s range, albeit with more modern thinking and architecture at its core.
Others in the company, however, claim that a new XK simply doesn’t add up commercially in 2014 and beyond. They will point out that just 3223 XKs found homes worldwide last year, while a mere 1970 of them were sold between January and June this year, out of a total of 145,320 sales globally since 1996.
The XK’s naysayers will also point out that a Jaguar SUV or something similar would make far more sense – and shift much more metal, which would in turn net massively more profit – than a new version of a car that is already perceived to be something of a dinosaur.
Read the full Jaguar XK review
Whatever the XK’s fate – and right now it doesn’t look good, if you’re being realistic – Jaguar has produced one last and final version to celebrate the car’s 18 years on the road. It’s not exactly a bells and whistles with extra chilli sauce on top kind of run-out model.
Instead, the XK Dynamic R, as it is officially entitled, is basically eight-and-a-half-tenths of an XKR-S but for £30k less than the big daddy variant. And in its way, it’s a car that befits the XK’s legacy to perfection.
That’s because despite the extra power and performance that accompanied the carbonfibre wings and eye-watering £100k price of the RS versions, which were available in coupé and convertible forms, it was actually the lesser XKs that were arguably the sweetest to drive.
With 542bhp, the XKR-S could, on occasions, feel like it was trying to eat itself dynamically. But knock the power back to 503bhp and the torque down to a still-rousing 461lb ft and the XKR’s chassis always felt that little bit less stressed. And rather better balanced as a result.
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Your XK Dynamic F-Type comparison
The XK Dynamic is the last truly GT that Jaguar has made. It has room for Golf Clubs, trolleys cases and is a 2+2 even though the +2 is a little 2. I have used it - and it works.
The F-type is a child racer with a boot just big enough to house the mother in laws cat. The showroom tried to fit in "reduced length" golf clubs but this only just worked.
It might be new technology but it really takes an expert to differentiate the handling - and in extreme conditions. How many owners take their Jag on the track?
Please Autocar - get real and lets have a grown up piece of journalism
not sure where the idea came
i think jag should keep the XK on the cards. try out some concept designs rather than killing it off over an hopeless SUV. killing off xk is what would happen when managers get involved rather than designers.
if i had a choice between these i'd happily go for the XK and happily go for it over any rival eqv.
Electric depreciation