Jaguar F-Type: Does F-Type pricing mean the next XK heading in to Aston Martin territory?

Jaguar has priced the new F-Type at a higher level than we expected. Does that mean the next Jaguar XK is heading upmarket?

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The arrival of the new Jaguar F-Type heralds the return of Jaguar to the sports car market, a market they’ve not really been active in since the E-Type ended in the early 1970s.

The entry-level F-Type – with the V6 supercharged engine delivering 340PS – is going to cost £58.5k, and that’s before you stick on £10k of extras to get the bits you really want.

At that price, the F-Type starts just £7k below the starting point for the XK, £10k moire than the Porsche Boxster S and £12k below the entry-level Porsche 911. Probably a sensible price point, even if it’s more than we hoped.

At the top end, the V8 S F-Type is going to cost £80k – and that’s before we get a more powerful F-Type V8 R – which is pretty much what you’d pay for a Jaguar XKR convertible (but £10k less than the Porsche 911 S Cabrio). All of which makes us sure that Jaguar will be pushing the new Jaguar XK firmly in to Aston Martin territory when it arrives in a couple of years.

In many ways the current XK and XKR are comparable to the Aston Martin, yet the entry-level XK will cost you £65k whilst the entry-level DB9 is £132k. At the top end, the Jaguar XKR-S is a £100k car, but the Aston Martin Vanquish is twice that.

So with a new F-Type Roadster and F-Type Coupe on the market by the time the next Jaguar GT car arrives in the guise of the 2014 / 2015 XK, it seems highly likely Jaguar will be doing their best to emulate the price structure of the Aston Martin range, with the new Jaguar XK probably starting where the current XKR-S ends – if not more.