1998 Jaguar Xj8 Base Sedan 4-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

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This or That: Mercedes S-Class 350SD vs. 2003 Jaguar XJR [w/poll]

Budget. It's a wretched word, whether you're going out to eat, shipping for a new outfit or, more relevant to today's discussion, buying a car. Massive marketing machines have convinced us, as a population, to buy the best you can afford, repercussions be damned – If you've saved up some money, spend it! All of it, on whatever it is that currently sits atop your personal Amazon wishlist, be it a Timex that takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', a $17,000 Gold Apple Watch or a $60,000 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. But what if the best you can afford is... say, $12,815? For that price, you can buy a brand-new 2015 Nissan Versa (including destination), assuming you're happy with zero options and a manual transmission. For that price, you'll get standard air conditioning, a CD player and... well, a warranty. Pretty sensible choice, Captain Frugal. But also ridiculously uninspired. And so that brings us to today's edition of This or That, in which two Autoblog editors pick differing sides of an argument and duke it out to see which one of us can convince you, dear reader, is better. Or at least less wrong. You be the judge. As a refresher, I'm two-and-two on these challenges, having lost the first and second editions before storming back in rounds three and four. Today, as alluded to above, we decided to throw our collective brainpower (oh lord, what have we done?) at what may be the single most difficult question currently confounding the best minds our planet has to offer: What is the best used used luxury car you can buy for the price of a 2015 Nissan Versa? Shall we meet our contenders? Allow me to introduce you to the most perfect luxury car money can buy (assuming the amount of money you're holding is equal to the amount of the cheapest new car currently sold in America, the Nissan Versa). My pick is the 1991 Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Not just any S-Class, but the legendary W126, which was produced between 1979 and 1992. And not just any W126, either, but one powered by a 3.5-liter turbodiesel engine. And with that, I send the argument to my esteemed colleague, Associate Editor Chris Bruce. Bruce: Jeremy, we had over $12,000 to budget for this challenge, and the best you can manage is a 24-year-old diesel Mercedes? I love oil-burners as much as any other auto writer with their mountains of torque and huge cruising range, but you're making this too easy on me. Also, you're really choosing a brown, diesel, German luxury sedan?

Entry-level Jaguar X-Type successor due in 2015, crossover a year later

Jaguar's future product plans keep on slipping, slipping, slipping onto the internet, and the latest on it's entry-level luxury challenger is a 2015 due date. According to Automobile magazine, "most significant game-changer from Coventry" will be arriving on the same PLA platform that supports the Jaguar XJ and 2013 Range Rover. Kacher says the small sedan has already got the green light as codename X760, and will bow first as a four-door sedan, then as a crossover a year later.
This puts a date to a recent Autocar report that a small sedan and crossover were in the works. We've been getting reports of and concepts for a successor to the X-Type ever since Tata bought Jaguar - like the Bertone B99 concept last year, and this enthusiast concept more recently - since everyone knows it's what has to happen for "a new Jaguar" to succeed. We're looking forward to seeing what the English maker comes up with; if it remains true to form, it could be one of the few luxury competitors whose distinct model each look, well, truly distinct.

Jaguar's V8-powered F-Pace SVR gets quicker and meaner-looking for 2021

Jaguar is making several visual and mechanical changes to the F-Pace SVR for the 2021 model year. The modifications turn the SUV into a quicker, meaner-looking cat with an appetite for all things Cayenne-flavored. Power for the SVR still comes from a supercharged, 5.0-liter V8 rated at 550 horsepower, but its torque output increases from 502 to 514. Although that's not a drastic improvement, it's enough to lower the SUV's zero-to-60-mph time to 3.8 seconds (three-tenths of a second quicker than before), and to raise its top speed from 176 to 178 mph. Jaguar also gave the F-Pace the XE Project 8's torque converter, and a Dynamic Launch function that relies on driveline inertia to ensure the power flow to the wheels isn't interrupted when the transmission shifts. Revised suspension components and a retuned steering system complement the driveline tweaks. Engineers also developed a recalibrated braking system with an electric booster that improves stopping performance. All-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission linked to shift paddles continue to come standard. Stylists made subtle visual changes that add up to give the F-Pace a cleaner, sharper design while reducing drag by 35%. Up front, the hood now stretches all the way to the edge of the grille, the headlights gain two individual strips of LED accents, and the trim around the air dams on the lower part of the bumper has been reshaped. Out back, the lights ditch the hemisphere-shaped insert -- a nod to the F-Type -- for a completely horizontal design. The nip-and-tuck is aligned with the one Jaguar performed on the non-SVR variant of the F-Pace. In 2020 more than ever, technology is the yardstick used to measure luxury cars, so Jaguar invested a significant amount of time and money into making the SVR smarter and more connected. It added a 12.3-inch high-definition touchscreen for the Pivi Pro infotainment system, the ability to receive over-the-air software updates, a wireless device charger, and active road noise cancellation technology, among other features.  As the flagship of the F-Pace family, the SVR needs to look and feel suitably posh inside, and our time behind the wheel of the outgoing model suggests that wasn't always the case. Jaguar tells us it addressed this shortcoming. The 2021 SVR's interior gets a split-rim steering wheel, a redesigned center console with more storage space and a shorter gear selector, plus a new-look climate control panel.