Report: Jaguar Planning New Entry-Level Model

By Nelson Ireson

Nelson Ireson

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9 4,277 views March 4, 2010

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Jaguar's XF and new 2010 XJ sedans have made waves in the sport-luxury seas, bringing a newer, fresher face to what was once a bit of a stodgy lineup. Now it looks like Jaguar may be planning even more boat-rocking, with an entry-level car on the table.

The reasoning behind the entry-level car is obvious: moving metal. To make money, Jaguar needs a volume car, and that means lowering the bar for entry. While the XF might be argued as Jaguar's current foray into that field, it's nearer a 5-Series/E-Class size than a midsize sedan, and it starts from $52,000 and quickly runs upward of $80,000 for the XFR Supercharged. That leaves a lot of headroom for a sub-XF model.

According to an Autocar interview of Ravi Kant, vice chairman of Jaguar parent company Tata Motors, a new entry-level car "has to happen if you want to keep the brand alive."

So what will an entry-level Jag look like? It won't be the XE sports car coming toward the end of 2012, and it probably won't be coming until after that car makes its debut. It will be a sedan, most likely, and it will be intended to run up against the likes of the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. According to Kant, there's a possibility that Jaguar will collaborate with another carmaker to build the car, since it won't be readily adaptable to any of Jaguar's existing platforms. Aside from that, it's simply too far out to guess as to its design parameters.

For more on the upcoming XE sportscar, however, you can check out our renderings here, and catch the speculative details here.

[Autocar]