2008 Jaguar Xk 2dr Cpe Xkr Supercharger, Navigation, Bluetooth, Heated Leather on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Junkyard Gem: 2001 Jaguar XJ8

After Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, the bosses in Dearborn finally got their hands on a storied luxury brand that would be taken more seriously than Lincoln outside of North America. A fresh infusion of dollars worked wonders to improve the quality of Jaguar's engineering and assembly, and development of a modern DOHC V8 engine immediately took a high priority. That engine made its debut in the 1997 Jaguar XK8, then went into the engine compartment of the very first production Jaguar sedan to get factory V8 power: the XJ8. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of that first generation of XJ8, found crashed in a Colorado self-service boneyard. The 1998-2003 XJ8 lived on the final iteration of the mid-1980s-vintage XJ40 platform, the X308. While this means that the X308 had chassis ancestry stretching back to the British Leyland era, Ford's money ensured that it would be built better than its predecessors had been during the cash-strapped bad old days. Exterior styling wasn't much changed from that of the XJ300. Inside, the old XJ40 dash finally went away for good, replaced by a design more appropriate for the new century. Jaguar couldn't compete with BMW and Mercedes-Benz on leading-edge chassis engineering, but its heritage was hard to top. The engine is a 4.0-liter DOHC V8 with variable valve timing, rated at 290 horsepower and 290 pound-feet. Ford should get credit for funding Jaguar's own engine instead of simply stuffing some member of its Modular V8 family in here. If you wanted a manual transmission in your XJ8, the answer was a firm no. In fact, Ford ended up using the 3.9-liter version of this engine in the Ford Thunderbird and Lincoln LS. The MSRP for the base 2001 XJ8 was $56,355, or about $98,725 in 2024 dollars. The 2001 BMW 740i listed at $62,900 ($110,190 after inflation) and the 2001 Mercedes-Benz S 430 cost $70,800 ($124,030 now). Perhaps the $51,745 BMW 540i and the $56,050 Mercedes-Benz E 430 ($90,649 and $98,190 in today's money, respectively) were more realistic sales rivals for the XJ8, though. This car's interior is a bit grimy but appears to have been in nice enough condition when it arrived here. What happened? This happened. On a near-quarter-century-old European luxury sedan, body damage like this usually results in the insurance company declaring the car totaled. Remember when Dennis Tito paid $20 million to become the world's first space tourist? Jaguar could have saved him some money. You'll never, ever lose it in the parking lot.

Why this could be the perfect time for Apple to make a car play

While the automotive and technology worlds have been pouring billions into autonomous vehicles (AVs) and preparing to bring them to market soon as shared robo-taxis, Apple has mostly sat on the sidelines. Of course, Apple is the last company to ever make its intentions known, and the super-secret tech cult giant hasn't been totally out of the AV game based on the clues that have slipped out of its Cupertino, Calif., citadel over the past few years. Related: Apple self-driving cars are real — one was just in an accident News first broke in 2015 that it had assembled an automotive development team, in part by poaching high-profile talent from car companies, to work on a top-secret self-driving vehicle project code-named Titan. (Thank you very much, Nissan.) Apple also subsequently broke cover by making inquiries into using a Northern California AV testing facility and receiving a permit to test AVs on public roads in California. But then as the AV race started to heat up in the last few years, Apple reportedly began scaling back its car activities by downsizing team Titan. More recently, Apple's car project has shown signs of life with the hiring a high-level engineer away from Waymo and luring one Tesla's top engineers and a former employee back to Apple. It also inked a deal with Volkswagen to provide a technology platform and software to convert the automaker's new T6 Transporter vans into autonomous shuttles for employees at tech company's new campus. That is a far cry from giving rides to Wal-Mart shoppers, like Waymo is doing as part of its AV testing in Phoenix. But this could be the perfect time for Apple to enter the AV market now that ride-sharing is reaching critical mass and automakers and others are planning to deploy fleets of robo-taxis. Apple could easily establish a niche as a high-end ride-sharing service – and charge a premium – given its cult-like brand loyalty and design savvy. The growth of car subscription models could also play in Apple's favor since is already has many people hooked on paying for phones in monthly installments – and eager to upgrade when a new and better model becomes available. To achieve this, some believe Apple will fulfill co-founder and CEO Steve Job's dream of building a car. And as the world's first and only $1 trillion company it's sitting on a mountain of cash that certainly gives it the means. But other tech darlings like Tesla and Google have discovered how difficult it can be to build cars at scale.

Jaguar C-X17 Concept teased before Frankfurt

Just ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show, which begins September 10, Jaguar is teasing the reveal of a design study to introduce its new advanced vehicle architecture. Dubbed the C-X17, the mysterious concept "illustrates the diversity of vehicles that could be produced using this architecture, which underpins the innovative future of the Jaguar brand."
While it's not entirely clear what this architecture involves or what type of vehicle the C-X17 may be, this reveal is reminiscent of Jaguar's decision to unveil the C-X16 concept, a hybrid electric sports car, in Frankfurt in 2011. From the looks of the teaser image Jaguar released (click above to enlarge), we're guessing the C-X17 will be something between a low-slung crossover and a sporty wagon. But we won't have to wait too long to find out - Jaguar is streaming the live pre-show reveal to invited guests on its Facebook page on Monday, Sept. 9.
In addition to the C-X17, Jaguar be showing off the performance-oriented XJR and XFR-S, and, of course, the F-Type convertible. Scroll down for the official press release.