1969 Jaguar Xke Coupe 4.2-liter Fhc 2+2 4.2-liter Automatic on 2040-cars

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Jaguar Land Rover moves closer to building Slovakia plant

Jaguar Land Rover has announced its intention to build a new assembly plant in Slovakia. Though it has yet to make the final decision, the British automaker has signed a Letter of Intent with the Slovakian government. Its next step is to launch a feasibility study before committing. If the company does go ahead with plans, it wouldn't be the first automaker – or even the first European luxury automaker for that matter – to start producing in Slovakia. Nor would it be the first Jaguar Land Rover plant outside the UK, either. The Volkswagen Group, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and Kia all manufacture in the Central European country. VW's Bratislava plant in particular handles production of the Touareg, Audi Q7, and Porsche Cayenne. In the past few years, JLR has expanded its production capacity to new locations outside of the UK. It has a new factory in China, one under construction in Brazil, and has been manufacturing in India – home country of its parent company Tata – since 2011. It recently announced a manufacturing contract with Magna Steyr in Austria, and is investing in its facilities back home as well. Though yet to be finalized, the prospect of manufacturing in Slovakia has proven more favorable to JLR than other locations in Europe or in the United States or Mexico – all possibilities that the company says it looked into. It has yet to reveal just what it would produce there, saying only that "the plant would manufacture a range of aluminium Jaguar Land Rover vehicles," that the plant would be earmarked to come online in 2018 and eventually ramp up production to 300,000 vehicles. The prevailing wisdom would seem to indicate, however, that the site is being considered for the next-generation Land Rover Defender. Related Video: JAGUAR LAND ROVER UNVEILS NEXT STAGE OF GLOBAL EXPANSION PLANS - Letter of Intent signed for potential new plant in the Slovak Republic - Indicates the next stage of the Company's expansion plans to support a competitive global business in the future - Jaguar Land Rover's global expansion underpins long-term investment in new vehicles and technologies in the UK Coventry, UK – Jaguar Land Rover has signed a Letter of Intent with the Government of the Slovak Republic for the potential development of a new manufacturing plant in the city of Nitra in western Slovakia. With its established premium automotive industry, Slovakia is an attractive possible development opportunity.

2021 Jaguar XF gets new interior, down to four-cylinder engines and sedan body style

Just like the F-Pace, the 2021 Jaguar XF luxury sedan is getting a light refresh for the new model year. Unlike the F-Pace, the XF's new features are mostly limited to interior and exterior design. And it also loses an engine and body style option. From the outside, not much has changed with the XF. It has a fresh grille, new LED headlights and taillights, and fender vents with the "Leaper" Jaguar logo. It's inside where things have really changed. A completely new dashboard design has been added, which looks a lot like the F-Pace's. It has a full-width air vent motif at the top, and below it are panels with nice stitching and either open-pore or aluminum trim. Whether all this also includes a much-needed improvement in materials quality won't be known until we test one.  The focal point is the new 11.4-inch infotainment system screen made of glass with a magnesium frame. Powering it is the latest Pivi operating system with the capability for over-the-air updates. Jaguar has also added a number of standard features including proximity entry, wireless phone charging, active noise cancellation, a surround-view camera system and a 12-speaker Meridian sound system. While some new features have been added, Jaguar has also removed some options. The XF is now only available with four-cylinder engines, as the supercharged V6 has been discontinued with no direct successor. The base engine is the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 246 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. It's available with either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. A version of this engine making 296 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque is optional, and it comes only with all-wheel drive. The other deletion is that of the Jaguar XF Sportbrake wagon, news first reported by CNET Roadshow, and then confirmed by Jaguar. This comes just as two new luxury wagons of its size have been introduced to the market: the Audi A6 Allroad and Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain. However, like the Volvo V90 Cross Country, they're of the mildly lifted and body-cladded wagon sub-segment, which the XF Sportbrake most definitely was not. The surviving un-cladded, un-lifted wagons in this segment are now the regular E-Class and V90, but the latter can only be special ordered in the United States.  The XF will go on sale around January. It should also be priced similarly to the current XF, which starts at $52,250. Update: Jaguar confirmed that the XF Sportbrake has been discontinued for the U.S.

Jaguar could replace two of its slow-selling sedans with a compact hatchback

Jaguar needs a home run, and it might merge the slow-selling XE and XF into a single model in a swing for the fences. The company is considering several ways to replace its two smallest sedans, and one option on the table is filling the gaps they'll create with a compact hatchback that would take Jaguar into a segment it's never been in before. Nothing is official yet, and Jaguar still hasn't ruled out developing a direct successor to each model, but British magazine Autocar learned at least two other options are being evaluated. Julian Thomson, the company's design boss, suggested their spot might be filled by a city-friendly hatch that would stretch about 177 inches from bumper to bumper, a figure that would catapult it into a segment dominated by the Audi A3, the BMW 1 Series, and the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. It would lure a new set of customers into the company's global showrooms. "I'd love to do smaller cars, and it feels as though the time is right. Jaguar needs a global product that could appeal to younger buyers, and more females as well," Thomson the publication. Although that's simple on paper, it's a lot more difficult to achieve in real life. "It's a tough sector. You need big numbers, which means big factories, and a big organization to sell them. But that's definitely where I would like us to be." Jaguar would need to find a cost-effective way to build the model. Developing an architecture from scratch is one possibility, though it's an expensive one for a company whose financial foundations are shaky at best. It could use its new MLA platform if it's flexible enough to underpin a small car, or it could ask BMW — which it's linked to via several on-going partnerships — to use the front-wheel-drive UKL architecture found under the aforementioned 1. One point the original report doesn't address is that, while a hatchback in the vein of the A3 would do well in Europe, it would fall flat on its face in the United States. That's why Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz all added a trunk to their Euro-flavored hatches for American buyers who prefer three-box sedans. Jaguar would either need to do the same, meaning it would replace two sedans with a hatchback turned into a sedan, or it would end up giving up thousands of sales in one of the world's largest car markets, which would be counterintuitive. Another possibility floated by Autocar is replacing the XE (pictured) and the XF with a compact sedan described as eco-focused.