Jaguar - ends years of dull Sedans

The new Jaguar XJ hums quietly in the sunshine. I punch the dynamic sport button and the seatbelt gives a sharp tug across my chest, tightening automatically. A jolting, visceral signal between a promise and a threat.

While it once made gut achingly cool cars like the XK120 and E-Type, Jaguar has long been merely a facsimile of fab. Apologies to those who still regard it as the standard - bearer of British cool, but average customers are Florida blue hairs and Long Island podiatrists.

The Scot, considered one of the world’s top car designers (he also worked with Aston Martin), is known for being outspoken. It will be released this spring in the U.S, with prices ranging from $72,500 to the special - order XJL Supersport for $115,000.

It comes with three engine variations and a short and long wheelbase. The longer wheelbase adds as little as $3,000 to the price and weighs only fractionally more, with five inches of extra rear legroom. I can see no reason for not choosing it.

The base 5.0-liter V/8 delivers an asphalt-rendering drive which will shake loose any geriatric cobwebs. With 385 horsepower and a 0 to 60 mph charge of 5.4 seconds, it’s a willing hunter. A hungry thrust is what I expect from big throaty sedans like the Maserati Quattroporte or BMW 7 Series, not a Jag.

Your average podiatrist won’t know what to do with these fleet feet. The top of the Range Supersport will churn to 60 in a time - warping 4.7 seconds, yet handles meekly enough about town. Steering is spot on, with the kind of quick turning ratio you find in smaller cars. Moderate movements of the wheel get big results.

The interior is laid out like a sumptuous theater. The curved dashboard sits low, like a stage, with a narrow band of wood rimming the interior edge of the windshield. Callum compares it to the inside bow of a yacht. I’ve never seen it on another car, and it gives an extra layer of depth.

Playing to innovation over tradition, the XJ also has a new digital display system with gauges that completely change or disappear depending on driving mode and informational needs. Definitely the wave of the future.

Fit and finish is excellent - The wood and leather are luxury grade, encouraging repeated touching. Passengers will like the rear seat legroom as much as the front, as the long wheel Base model is infinitely chauffer worthy.

Engine: 5.0 liter V-8 with 385 horsepower and 380 pound - feet of torque.

Speed: 0 to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds.

Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz scored a publicity coup by luring Michael Schumacher out of retirement to race for its new Formula One team. It might backfire if he can’t keep up with drivers a generation younger.

At 41, the seven-time champion is the oldest driver in the series at a time when Mercedes needs to shake off an "old man’s car" image.

Daimler AG’s Mercedes is seeking to recover from a 10 percent sales slide in 2009 and lower the average age of its customers. Some 38 percent of clients in its biggest market of Germany are older than 60, and it’s targeting younger drivers with four new compact cars that will start being released next year.

Mercedes, which also hired 24-year-old driver Nico Rosberg, is betting on Formula One as other carmakers exit and the company’s unions complain about the spending.

Mercedes will cut spending on the series to 60 million euros ($82 million) in two years, partly by cutting 50 of the team’s 400 staff in 2011.

Schumacher “fits perfectly” with Mercedes’s brand. People in their 30s who grew up idolizing the seven-time champion are now looking at making their first premium car purchase. He is the oldest driver in Formula One since Nigel Mansell raced at age 42 in 1995. The series’ oldest driver was Louis Chiron, who raced at 58 in 1958.

Coup of Decade:

There is a history there and Mercedes has effectively captured the value of it.

In Germany, a 177,000-euro gull-wing SLS sports car that Schumacher is promoting in a television advertisement almost sold out in the country even before it goes on sale on March 27. Daimler declined to provide sales figures.

Mercedes drivers are 55.6 years old on average in German- speaking Europe, compared with 45.6 years for BMW and 47 for Audi.

Younger customers are important because if they have a good experience with the brand they’re likely to stick with it, while with older customers there reaches a point when they’ve purchased their last car. Mercedes does not have a good image with younger drivers. It is one of its biggest problems.”

If Schumacher trails younger rivals, it will set back its efforts to change that.

The Formula One involvement is a fine line. If Schumacher is not successful, it doubles the damage.