Bentley Continental GTC Speed Launches

However hard I try, and however much the Continental GT is denigrated as a ‘Footballers Car’, I can’t help loving it, and its soft-top sibling the GTC.

When I first drove the GT I have to admit I was a little disappointed. Only a little, mind you, as it is unarguably a great car. But I’d expected even more than it delivered. It was mighty powerful, but it never felt really quick. It was quiet and comfortable, and had all the right bells and whistles, and gave more than a passing nod to tradition. But there was something a little underwhelming with its on-road manners. It didn’t feel taut enough. It tended to run a bit wide on hard corners (which was no great surprise, given the weight at the nose). Extremely good car, but not an exceptional car.

But then came the GT Speed. It was everything on my wish-list for the original GT. It threw in the Mulliner Pack as standard, but more importantly it felt alive to drive. You had to give it a good hiding to realise how good it was, but if you did it answered you fluently. The acceleration (and braking, with its massive carbon brakes) was awesome. Somehow Bentley had lost the nose-heavy feel on fast bends, and the whole car came alive.It was the Bentley to have.

Bentley then tried the same ‘Speed’ trick on the saloon version, the Flying Spur, and for me it didn’t work half as well. The Flying Spur should not be a GT car. It should be what it was designed to be - an elegant gentleman’s carriage with a lightening turn of speed. And now it’s the turn of the GTC to get the ‘Speed’ treatment.

The GTC Speed gets a lowered ride height, more aggressive front end, stiffer suspension and bigger boots. The steering gets to be more responsive, and there’s the same power hike as in the GT Speed. You even get some new colours - Blue Crystal and Aquamarine.

I really love the GTC. With the top down you get what you never really get in the GT - a wonderful V8 soundtrack. But it was even softer than the GT. It suits the GTC mind you, so a ride in a GTC was about the waft, not the thrash. But will the ‘Speed’ treatment suit the GTC? It is really hard to tell. If it turns it in to an open-top GT Speed then it will be a peach. But I don’t know if it will, or if it will just highlight the usual convertible deficiencies. I’ll have to wait for Bentley to send one over. But it does look very promising.

Citroen UK adds more incentives

It’s no surprise as car companies fight to shift metal that the offers to buyers will get better and better until we all start buying again. So Citroen has pitched in with some extra new year offers to tempt wary buyers.

Citroen are now extending their ‘VAT Free’ offer across the range on Berlingo Multispace, C4, C4 Picasso, C8 and C-Crosser, which means savings of up to £3.5k are now available without haggling at Citroen dealers throughout the UK.

As an extra incentive for buyers Citroen is also offering no deposit 3 years 0% finance on a number of C3s and C4s. In addition, two years 0% finance is also available on C3, C3 Pluriel, C4, C5 or C8 and 3 years 0% but with 20% deposit on the Xsara Picasso.

These sorts of offers will start to have an effect sooner or later. It’s already starting to happen in the US, and it will start to get sale moving in the UK as well. These special deal offers on price and finance, as well as the ‘Give back your Hyundai’ offer we reported on the other day, make a new car a sensible purchase even in these uncertain times.

There really has not been a better time to buy a new car than now. Probably ever.

2009 Nissan GT-R Review

Cars UK Rating:

Car makers who produce mass-market cars dream of having a ‘halo’ car, a car which showcases the extreme abilities of the maker and gets accepted as a supercar in its own right. It’s a hard thing to pull off, and usually ends up as a great car, but with little or no kudos. A recent examples of failure in this area is VW with the Phaeton. By any measure the Phaeton is a spectacular car, but buyers couldn’t get over the VW badge, and have consigned it to the bin marked ‘Big Passat’.

But Audi has managed to pull it off with the R8, a car which has taken the fight to the 911 with a passion, and is still riding high, even adding a more powerful version for 2009 (the Audi R8 V10). The R8 is accepted as a supercar in its own right, not just a posing Audi.

And now it’s Nissan’s turn with the GT-R. Nissan has had high performance cars before, and its Skyline, never officially imported as a UK Car, is the bloodline for the GT-R.

But how does the GT-R stack up? Is it a real supercar? Can it really take the fight to established marques in this niche like Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini?

Quality and Comfort

Nissan does build cars very well, and the GT-R is no exception. But the exception is the soul the GT-R has, something sadly lacking in most Japanese cars. Admittedly, the GT-R has not exactly got a traditional feel to it; you don’t really have a big sense of its lineage coming through. But a lineage it does have. Descended from the Skylines, which first saw the light of day in the 1960s, there is a long history of performance cars from Nissan, and it shows in the GT-R.

The GT-R is just the right side of boy-racer. You only need to look at it to know it’s something special. The build quality is superb, although some of the interior fixtures and fittings are a little underwhelming in the quality department. But you have to remind yourself that this is a sub £60k car, not a £160k car. The compromises in this area are completely acceptable.

It’s not particularly luxurious in the cabin, but it suits the car. Snug is probably the best description, but the back seats are definitely sub-snug - you’re not going to be able to put your teenagers in here for long. But the boot is spacious enough for a couple of decent sized bags (and with run-flats there is no spare wheel to fill up the space), and by supercar standards this is a quiet, comfortable and reasonably capacious car.

On the Road

This is the bit the GT-R is all about. And it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

The 3.8 V6 gives a huge 480bhp (although, as all the engines are hand built each is slightly different, and there have been many reports logging the bhp well in to the 500s), 430lb/ft of torque, almost 200mph and a 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds. Look at those figures again. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that can come close to the GT-R at this price. Quite frankly, there is almost nothing that comes close at twice this price. Quite incredible.

But it’s not just the power the GT-R has that blows you away, it’s the way it uses the power. The all wheel drive and huge array of traction and technical gizmos means the GT-R utilises every drop of power at its disposal in a way that rarely scares the pants off you, and makes you feel like you could give Mr Schumacher a decent run for his money.

The joy of the X-Box like GT-R is that it cleverly allows you to choose how you want to drive, and delivers the optimum set-up every time. Want a poodle around town. No problem, just choose the comfort setting and cruise with the best. Feeling a bit lively? Drop the mode selector in to normal and the car tightens up and feels much more eager. And if you want to play at NASCAR driver then shoot for the ‘R’ option and the car turns in to something no £60k Nissan ever should. I always believed that the Porsche 911 Turbo was the quickest car in the real world. Not any more. The GT-R does exactly what you want, when you want, whatever your mood is or the road conditions dictate. Astonishing.

Running Costs

Running costs rarely bother those who buy cars with this sort of performance. But the GT-R is different. It hasn’t been made to be brought out of the garage on a sunny Sunday for a mad country blat. No, it is a true everyday supercar in the 911 mould, and running costs are relevant.

You can take it as read that the insurance, particularly for younger drivers, is going to be high. But it won’t be a killer for those of us of more ‘mature’ years. Fuel consumption? Well, I always find the figures pointless on cars like this. The headline official figure is 23mpg. And if you drive the GT-R like a Micra you might achieve that. But you won’t. Believe me, you really won’t (and if you do, you should sell it and then book yourself in a retirement home immediately). You will drive it at every opportunity as it’s meant to be driven - quickly. And then you’ll be lucky to see 16mpg. But that’s as good or better than you’ll see in any other car with comparable performance.

Depreciation is a key factor, and you can rest pretty easy on this score for the time being at least. At this price, the cars are going to be, and remain, despite the economic gloom, highly desirable. Which means you have a pretty good chance of seeing high residuals - as much as 75% over 3 years.

Servicing isn’t going to be peanuts, but it won’t be Porsche-nomical either. Nissan is opening dedicated service centres for the GT-R around the country, where you can expect to get suitably deferential and knowledgeable service. It will be more than a Micra, but it won’t break the bank. And now that Nissan has decided to delete the launch-control from cars coming to the UK, you’re going to struggle to break such a bullet-proof car in any sort of massive way.

Verdict

Stunning. There is really no where else to go with this. I had expected great performance and good build quality, but expectations are exceeded in every department.

The GT-R looks good, drives incredibly and is built to last. It remains to be seen how reliable the X-Box elements of the car are, but there is every reason to expect they will be ultra-reliable.

The GT-R should scare the pants off Porsche and Ferrari, and every other car maker with pretensions at this level of performance. There is nothing that compares to what Nissan has achieved at anything like the price. And if that’s still not enough, there are modifiers starting to pop up offering ‘Tuned’ GT-Rs. It’s hard to believe you could make it any better than it is.

Cars UK Rating: A supercar that gives Pagani a run for their money, at the price of a high-end E-Class.

2009 Nissan GT-R Photo Image Gallery

Lotus planning Electric Car

I suppose it was inevitable that Lotus would not settle for simply supplying Tesla with the chassis for their electric car, and would look to jump on the bandwagon of electric cars (EV).

Lotus CEO, Michael Kimberly, has told the Financial Times that Lotus is planning an electric car “sooner rather than later”, and went on to say that it will be an extended range battery vehicle.

Extended range EVs (like the Chevy Volt) are probably the best option for a mainstream car at the moment, at least until you can buy hydrogen at the pumps other than in California. The extended range system uses a conventional petrol engine to charge the batteries, giving a good range, and no problems with a lack of somewhere to plug-in to complete a journey.

But which existing car (if they use an existing car) will Lotus choose for this new EV? Well, our money is on the new Lotus Evora. There will have to be somewhere to put the batteries, and the Evora’s 2+2 layout offers a bit of spare room where the back seats would be.

Lotus could of course use the Elise, but that would probably be a case of foot-shooting if they do. Lotus already supplies the chassis for the Tesla EV, and I’m sure it wouldn’t go down too well with Tesla if Lotus went that route. But if they use the Evora, they could probably get Tesla to chip in some technical know-how and swap Elise chassis for EV components.

It could work out well for both Lotus and Tesla.

2009 Hyundai i20 Review

Cars UK Rating:

Hyundai has really made an impact in the UK Car market in recent years, despite its offerings until recently not really being up to European standards (with the exception of the Hyundai Coupe). But things are changing, and Hyundai has taken the bold step of having its Getz replacement, the i20, designed in Europe ( as was the new i30).

The Supermini segment is a very competitive one, and Hyundai has sold relatively well to date, based mainly on price. But how will it fair with the i20, which is much more Euro mainstream?

Well, price-wise it remains very competitive, with prices kicking off at a very modest £8k. And the little Hyundai is well equipped, with even the base versions getting aircon.

But can its stand up to the (more expensive) offerings from the likes of Ford?

Quality and Comfort

The Getz, the i20’s predecessor, was not exactly renowned for the quality of its fit and finish. So it’s not going to be too difficult to improve on the very mediocre standards Hyundai has set. The Getz finished a pretty poor 55th in the JD Power Survey, with owners complaining about the styling and the poor quality of materials used, particularly on the inside.

The i20 is an improvement on the Getz, particularly on the exterior styling front, but the interior fixtures and fittings are still cheap to the eye and the touch. The cabin is not a great place to be, but I suppose the low headline price has to be achieved by keeping material costs down. But does it have to look cheap, as well as feel it?

But you have to give Hyundai their due - the i20 is pretty well equipped. Even the base models get aircon and electric windows, with another £800 or so bringing the ‘Comfort’ features such as ipod connector, 15″ alloys and electric mirrors. Throw another £900 at the car to get the range-topping Style, and you get bigger alloys, climate control, half leather and folding mirrors.

On the Road

The i20 is a direct replacement for the Getz, which was not exactly a world beater on the road. Hyundai has spent serious money engineering this car in Europe, and it shows. Its all new platform is vey much up to European standards, and anyone trading up from a Getz will feel like they’ve jumped in to a car from a different age. It’s almost as good as the old model Fiesta, but it’s quite a bit short of the class leader, the new Ford Fiesta.

But the chassis is tight, and it handles well. There is a bit of understeer, particularly if you hustle, but nothing too drastic, and the grip levels are good. The standard stability control does a good job, and keeps the i20 under control even in wet conditions.

But the ride is a bit crashy-bashy, particularly over that bane of urban life, the speed bump (and it’s too narrow to straddle the mini-bumps as well), and it just lacks suppleness.

The diesel engine is undoubtedly the economy buy. But it is just not worth the saving. It will drive you mad in every day use. It is very unrefined, and very nosiy. Slow doesn’t cover it, although its better torque does make it just about acceptable around town. The choice is the 1.4 petrol, which is still economical (50mpg) but does at least feel reasonably lively. It can do the 0-60 sprint in around 11.5 seconds, and a bit over 110mph, so it’s up there with other cars in this class. And it is actually quite nice to drive.

Running Costs

Not surprisingly, the cheapest i20 to run is the 1.4 diesel. It offers an acceptable 74bhp and a quite astonishing 62mpg. But it is a pretty uninspiring engine; noisy and uncouth. But if out and out economy is your goal it is acceptable, if not inspiring.

The 1.4 petrol engined i20 is probably the best of the bunch, with 99bhp and a fairly lively turn of speed. But the economy drops to around 50mpg. Good, but could be better.

Depreciation on Hyundais has historically been fairly reasonable. Not up there with the class-leading VWs, but on a par with Ford. Expect to lose around 33% on the i20 in the first 3 years / 30,000 miles. Which when you take in to account the pretty low purchase price means around £18 a week in depreceiation. Cheap motoring, by any standards.

Verdict

The i20 is a big improvement over the Getz, make no mistake, It feels like a European supermini and is, at least in the 1.4 petrol version, a pretty good car. It’s economical, handles quite well and is very well equipped.

I suppose it all comes down to just how cheap you want your motoring to be. It’s fair to say that the new Ford Fiesta is the pick of the bunch in this sector, but the i20 undercuts the Fiesta by around £2,000 across the range. With running costs on a par with the Ford, it all comes down to purchase cost. Yes, a more than 20% differential in price is significant, and can’t be ignored. And the reality is that when you factor in borrowing costs and the extra purchase cost, the Fiesta will cost you an extra £1,000 over 3 years (about £6.50 a week).

So if you’re really stretching to buy a new supermini, then the i20 Hyundai 1.4 petrol is a decent buy. But if you can manage an extra £1 a day, buy the Fiesta. You won’t be sorry.

Cars UK Rating: Rating: Big improvement on the Getz, but it’s no Ford Fiesta

2009 Hyundai i20 Photo Image Gallery

Audi R8 V10 gets full time LED lights

And there was us thinking those pretty LEDs at the front end of recent Audis (and others) where just a bit of bling.

It transpires that the new V10 version of the Audi R8 is to be the first car in the world to be fitted with LED headlights. So what, you may say? An advantage or two, it transpires.

Headlining the advantages, unsurprisingly in these Co2 obsessed times, is a reduction in Co2 use. Not a huge amount, admittedly, but when car makers are being given targets to hit, every bit helps.

But it’s in the type and efficiency of light that the real benefits start to become apparent. Your average xenon lights emit something like 80 lumens (units of light) per watt, compared to around 20 for a household bulb. But these LED lights shove out over 100 lumens per watt. Not only that, but the light they emit is much closer to ordinary daylight than xenons, and has a much better spread.

Dr Wolfgang Huhn, Head of the Light and Visibility Department at Audi (now there’s a title!) is the man responsible for this. But it gets better. What’s worse than some moron flying your way on a back road with his mains on, blinding you to what’s coming, whilst merrily plodding on his way? Drives me mad. But Dr Huhn reckons this will soon be a thing of the past:

“We’re striving to create intelligent headlights and taillights which think and anticipate in the interest of enhancing a driver’s safety and comfort. For example, there are already high-beam headlights in pre-series development which will allow drivers to navigate roads at night without temporarily blinding oncoming drivers. This is made possible by a variable distribution of light: An electronic system continuously calculates the distance to any approaching vehicles to ensure that the road ahead is ideally illuminated at all times – without irritating oncoming drivers.”

Which is very good news. I have been known to moan frequently about the new LED lights just being Audi bling, but I take it all back. Seems they are a great idea, and once we get lumbered with daylight running lights from our Lords and Masters in the EU in 2011, at least they’ll be a lot more efficient and intelligent.

Audi R8 V10 Photo Image Gallery

Bugatti Type 57S Atalante found in a barn

You’d have thought that every barn in the world had been scoured for lost classic cars by now. But it would seem not. An extremely rare Bugatti Type 57S Atalante has been found in a barn in the North East, property of a late Dr Harold Carr.

The nieces and nephews of the late doctor were aware he had some old cars in his barn, but they could have had no idea they would turn up anything as dramatic as this. I’m sure Uncle Harold will have been toasted to the ceiling after this find, and even if he wasn’t the favourite uncle before, I bet he is now.

Bonhams have got the Bugatti Type 57S Atalante up for sale in their Paris sale in February, and estimates are all over the place. But it’s a fair bet that someone is going to cough up at least £3,000,000  for the car, which needs a full restoration.

This Bugatti Type 57S Atalante was originally owned by Earl Howe, but was bought by the good doctor in 1955 for just £895. The last tax disc apparently ran out in 1960, so the car has been sat in the barn for nearly 50 years.

But with only 17 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante ever made, and half of those in a French museum, this is going to be some legacy.

I’m sure those nieces and nephews are going to have a very Happy New Year!

Daihatsu Terios - cheap as chips motoring

As my Dad was fond of saying, you don’t get ought for nowt, but it’s starting to be a close run thing with the Daihatsu Terios.

The Daihatus Terios is an odd little car/suv, but it does have real appeal. Sure, it looks like it’s been on a boil-wash and come at at 2/3rds the size it should be. Yes, it rattles your teeth when you hit a bump and manages to wallow round corners at the same time.

It has a pretty laboured 1.5 engine (which is better than the old 1.3, but no drag-racer) which does 0-60 in around 3 weeks and a top speed of 90mph (downhill - on a good day). And yet….

The Terios already offers a 5 year warranty and 5 years roadside assistance. But, with effect from now (until 31st March), the little Terios offers 5 years free servicing as well.

At around £12.5k it’s not a bad little buy at all. It can genuinely do off-road (it has just about enough ground clearance) with a locking centre diff. It has aircon and parking sensors, enough room for ’stuff’ and is pretty bullet proof.

It even has character, something missing in most Japanese cars. It’s cute and friendly. It would make a good little town runaround, with its high (ish) driving position and chunky stance. It actually has real appeal, in an ‘aah, bless’ kind of way.

And with nothing to pay for but fuel and insurance for 5 years, you’ll know exactly what it’s going to cost you.

Mercedes CLS Grand Edition

The CLS has been with us for 5 years now, and has been a real success story for Mercedes. It really started the trend for 4-door coupes, and its success has made this a really busy niche of late - VW Passat, Aston Martin Rapide, Porsche Panamera and the soon to be reality Audi A7, amongst others.

The CLS had a mid-life freshen-up in 2008 to keep it on the ball, and we now see this special edition launched from today - a typical manufacturer response to a model getting near the end of its life - the new CLS, based on the new E-Class, is due next year.

Despite its E-Class underpinnings, the CLS has never felt like an E-Class. Its looks are its ace - it is probably the best looking Mercedes for a very long time. The interior, although a little short on leg-room in the back (and a pure 4-seater), is different enough, and the performance and handling are pretty decent. So what’s on offer with this ‘Grand Edition’?

Well, it’s a cosmetic, rather than mechanical, limited edition. Heavy use is made of Mercedes Designo features, and includes as standard a Designo Magna Platinum Matt paint finish, which does make the car look pretty impressive (and on a more prosaic note, it hides dirt and scratched really well!), BiXenons with a dark casing, good looking 18″ AMG alloys with grey pockets and big rubber, and the required ‘Grand Edition’ badges.

The interior gets the Designo treatment as well, with a choice of matt or gloss for the laurel wood trimmings. A decent standard spec includes COMAND APS Multimedia, comfort telephony and Parktronic.

Euros prices start at around €67k for the CLS280 Grand Edition, although it’s anyones guess what they’ll be for a UK Car, such is the exchange rate.

Good looking car, though.

Mercedes CLS Grand Edition Photo Image Gallery

Morgan celebrates 100 years - and a new model

There aren’t many car makers around the world who have been in business for 100 years, and even fewer that have remained in the same family for all that time. But Morgan, that maker of anachronistic 1930s-style cars, is not only still going strong, it is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2009, and is now the only remaining British-owned car maker in existence (aside from the ‘Garden-Shed’ makers).

The anniversary is an excuse for a whole raft of events, including a gala dinner, factory tours and a track day at Castle Combe , plus a weekend celebration at Cheltenham Racecourse in August.

But the launch of a new model? Why didn’t we know about this before?

Well, it’s a pedal car. But what a pedal car! This is the stuff little boy’s dreams are made of (or at least they were when I was a little boy!). A real Morgan, just junior sized.

The Morgan blurb says:

In 1909, HFS Morgan designed and built his first iconic Morgan 3 wheeler. To recognise this achievement 100 years later, the Morgan factory is proud to announce a limited run of 500 Centenary pedal cars.

Built alongside its bigger brothers at the Morgan factory, this 2/3 scale masterpiece shares the same quality materials throughout, is crafted from light weight aluminium, and features an imitation cast V-twin engine, tubular chassis and hand formed louvres.

Suitable for 6 - 13 year olds, this authentic and lifelike 3 speed crank pedal car is similar to a recumbent bicycle, and should offer exciting performance with low effort. With working lights and hand stitched adjustable seating, the Supersport Jnr. will not only deliver hours of enjoyment for the younger members of the family, but become a collectors item in years to come.

I’m probably too big to fit, but I’d love one!

Seat announces Exio prices

It was always a game motor manufacturers played. Re-badge an outgoing model with a subsidiary marque’s name, throw in a few ‘Design’ features, and Hey Presto. New car!

Fiat has played the game in the past, and VW are not averse to it. So it was not a huge surprise when Seat announced the forthcoming Exio at the Paris Motor Show that it was in fact a re-badged, outgoing Audi A4. Not that there’s anything wrong with the old A4 - it is a fine car.

But now Seat has announced UK Car prices for the Exio and the model line-up. There is a choice of two diesel engine - a 141bhp and a 168bhp version - together with a petrol turbo putting out 198bhp. All three cars get a 6-speed manual ‘box as standard.

So what about the prices? Well, they start at around £17.5k, which is a couple of thousand less than the current A4 starts at. But for £17.5k you could get a pretty good spec 08/58 Audi A4. Which makes the Exio seem something less of a bargain.

The re-badging is a good way to utilise tooling that has already paid for itself, and give a subsidiary marque a prestige vehicle at a decent price. But I don’t think that Seat has pitched this right. Drop the starting price to £14,995 and you could have a winner. But at £17.5k I think the shrewd money would simply go and buy a few month old A4. More prestige. Better re-sale value.

Bit of a no-brainer, really.

2009 Seat Exio Photo Image Gallery

Top Gear to do ‘Economy’

Don’t think for a minute that we’re going to lose the supercar stunts we know and love, and see them replaced by the charms of a Kia Cee’d economy run, but Top Gear, in common with the rest of the Beeb, is having its budget cut - apparently.

Andy Wilman, who is the brains behind TG (and its producer) together with Jeremy Clarkson, has been bemoaning the budget cuts planned for the show on the TG website. He said:

‘No point in moaning about that. All shows are suffering and nobody’s got a pot to p*** in any more anyway, so no reason why we shouldn’t suffer as well.

Our problem though is that there is no fat to trim off the show, in that we waste almost nothing behind the scenes and the old cliche of “every penny goes on screen” is actually true.

So in 2009, the budget cut has to affect what you watch and Clarkson has had a brainwave in making this as painless as possible. ‘Basically instead of trimming back a little bit on every show - losing a helicopter here or a truck crash there - we’ll endeavour to make 13 of our 14 shows as per the usual Jerry Bruckheimer standard and then the last one, when we only have a tenner left, will be utter, utter sh**e.

‘But they had fun singing songs in the dark during the Blitz, so let’s see what happens. Great stuff may come of it.’

I have no doubt that there is an element of truth in what Andy says, but I’d be inclined to take it with a very big pinch of salt. TG is far and away the most successful BBC2 show there is, and its overseas revenue is huge. The show has an enormous fan base in all English speaking countries (and many others besides) and brings in far more than it costs to make.

And I’m sure regular TG viewers remember an episode a couple of years ago where the boys claimed to be making an episode for nothing. It’s all good publicity, but the BBC are not daft enough to let one of its flagship shows look cheap. And one way to make sure it doesn’t happen, from the producers point of view, is to let the world know its a possibility.

Good move, Andy!

Top Gear Stunts Image Gallery

Jaguar XF Diesel S Bares its Claws

We all know how many problems the world’s car makers are having at the moment, and unless central banks ensure normal lending resumes very quickly we’ll all be in a big hole without a shovel. But when you look at what some of the best car manufacturers now have to offer we should be queueing at their door, and finance companies should be bending over backwards to lend.

We’ve seen some great new models, and updates to existing models, come along in the last couple of months since the credit crunch has really started to bite. And none more appealing than the new Jaguar XF Diesel S, which has been announced today by Jaguar.

When the XF was launched many commentators suggested that the XF was Jaguar’s last chance. Its models were outdated and sales were falling badly, but the XF was a beacon of light for the company. And so it has been, with Jaguar now seeing the XF standing shoulder to shoulder with the best from Audi, BMW and Mercedes. But this new Jaguar XF Diesel S is a real star.

This new XF has a 3.0 litre diesel with 273bhp, 0-60 in 5.9 seconds and 445 lb/ft of torque. And all this together with 42mpg and just 179g/km of Co2 emissions. 

Cosmetic changes include 20″ wheels, a boot spoiler and the ubiquitous ‘S’ badges, together with sports seats and some tinkering with the SatNav and AirCon. Throw in an updated auto ‘box, with fully auto mode or paddles on the steering wheel, and you have a very good package indeed. 

And this new engine will also be seen in de-tuned form in the base level diesel, replacing the old 2.7 litre option. 

The XF is a crackingly good drive and despite the ‘all or nothing’ feel that a diesel always brings to the driving experience (no diesel ever ’sings’ like a good petrol engine) this could well be the XF to have.

Expect to see these engines (which are really a very tweaked version of the old 2.7) to spread through the Jaguar range. More power with less fuel could well see this new engine push Jaguar to the very top of the choic