Do you have the Nissan Juke in Canada as that takes the prize for ugly over here. Somebody said that it was the result of an illicate night of lovemaking between a house brick and a Rino or a Hippo.
Not a proper test on snow and ice and I would not rate Matt Saunders too highly as he seems to be the mouthpiece for Jaguar these days and Mike Cross in particular as their official press release magazine Autocar.
The review in February's Car Magazine was complimentary. Looks like it will be some car (SUV) and will give Jaguar a much needed sales boost given that everyone is now buying an SUV. Well apart from Baron and Jagular that is...
Car likes it. They say it is a better vehicle than the Sportbrake it replaces...lets hope not. The new XF Sportbrake has not yet been built so how can they know.
The upshot of the test is that Jaguar has hit the target for a road car with some off road capability. No surprise really given the awd system they get to use, their software expertise and the need not to overlap the Range Rover market.
A true driver's crossover from Mike Cross's team, who'd have thought that?
Car likes it. They say it is a better vehicle than the Sportbrake it replaces...lets hope not. The new XF Sportbrake has not yet been built so how can they know.?
There is very little difference between a wagon (estate) and a car-platform-based SUV. AWD is typically available for both. The appointments and safety features are very close. Some manufacturers are making tall wagons. Some manufacturers are making sporty handling SUVs (like the Porsche Macan).
The main thing separating them is image. Wagons are for the fuddy-duddy, SUVs are for the active buyers.
Net result is that wagon sales are declining and SUV sales are exploding, particularly in Europe, which has been behind the curve on the transition and is now playing catch up.
The F-Pace, not the Sportbrake is the high-priority product for Jaguar. It is likely to become Jaguar's #1 selling vehicle in short order.
Yup, those "wagons" are definitely for fuddy duddys.
Mercedes can't find buyers for its AMG 63 Estate. Audi could hardly sell its RS6. Even Cadillac couldn't shift any CTS Sport Wagons. Oh wait, right, not enough fuddy duddys in the US. I nearly forgot about that.
Jaguar sold a lot of Sportbrakes but not to US buyers.
And there is a huge difference in driving dynamics between a crossover and an estate. Something that is important to the European buyer and not understood in America. Something about cg and chassis weights.
If Jaguar ever made a new Sportbrake, the F-Pace would outsell it by 10 to 1.
Once the SUV/CUVs were made to handle well enough, it was game over for the fuddy-duddy wagons. Just like when the SUVs/CUVs were made practical enough it was gave over for the mini-vans.
Any mainstream brand can survive without a wagon. None can prosper without an SUV. That is why Jaguar, Maserati et al had to follow Porsche who had to follow BMW, Mercedes, Audi, who in turn had to follow Ford, GM and Chrysler into the SUV fray.
Wagons are being cancelled left and right (see Sportbrake and the above mentioned Cadillac CTS Wagon). But SUVs are multiplying at breakneck speed. See the F-Pace, Levante, Bentayga, etc, etc, etc).
This ship has sailed. Arguing that wagons are more desirable by the buying public than SUV/SUV is beyond silly.
Even Aston Martin is throwing in the towel with the Aston Martin DBX concept:
Only in America. Estate cars still sell well in other parts of the World.
No matter what you do the SUV/COV cannot be made to drive as well as an equivalent Estate car. Since Americans don't know how to drive, naturally they can't tell the difference.
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