So Insty has a little notice of the new...

... Jaguar XJ, and I wanted to register some of my thoughts on the new model.

When I was growing up in the 70's, there were no Lexus' (Lexi? Lexum?), Infiniti's, and certainly no Genesis (I still don't think people realize how spectacular it is at it's price point).

BMW made very good coupes that had a tendency to overheat, but drove beautifully. However, they were truly sport coupes, as opposed to the luxury cars we know today. The Porsche 911 was a true rear engine sports car, as opposed to the nearly mid engine GT it has morphed into today.

Rolls had diminished to the choice of Liberace, and Cadillac was thought to be choice of "blaxploitation" characters (right or wrong, that was the stereotype of the day - I wonder what Ta-Nehisi Coates would say about that).

There really were just two luxury marques at the time: Mercedes and Jaguar. Mercedes were very well built, reliable, and well appointed. Style wise, some of the convertibles were nice, and the sedans, were, well, nice.

Jaguar, however, looked breathtaking. From the E type (still available in the early to mid seventies), XJ-6 to the XJ-S., every one a thing of beauty. And the engines were fantastic. Smooth inline sixes, and a superlative V-12 for the late E-types and the XJ-S. Jaguar was also one of the first manufacturers to capitalize on disk brakes, and independent rear suspension. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the drive line that was unreliable, it was the fitment of the panels (when Ford bought Jag, they measured a production car, and found one side was several inches longer than the other), and electrics (Lucas invented darkness).

But if you had the means, and a sense of style, Jag was the car for you.

In the intervening decades, they kind of lost their way, with continued quality issues in a segment that increasingly demands quality and reliability, and a poorly conceived mass market attempt.

Yet in the past few years, green shoots of hope. The exiting XJ was a great, if under-appreciated car. An aluminum body and space frame, a well paired engine that accelerated smoothly and effortlessly. I would say it "hustles", but that brings to mind Pete Rose chugging to first after a walk, and the XJ performance was too easy to be abused by that comparison.

The quality and fitment bugs had been worked out.

But the styling - pleasant, but retro in the wrong way. Kind of the "gone to the well one time to many" style.

The recently released XF is a game changer. Kind of back to the old Lyons mantra of "space, pace and grace" In particular the XF-R: "space, PACE, and grace." Beautiful styling that is like nothing else on the road today. This is a car that owns it's lines and silhouette.

And now, the new XJ.

Stunning.

One of the marques of my childhood is back where it should be.

To which I can say: "Here, kitty, kitty."