A novel form of uplift

[frozenwater]

Man, this roo character better turn up to be some sort of collective trying to piss us all off. Cause' if this bloke is real my life REALLY sucks in comparison.

[truth]

Originally posted by frozenwater
Man, this roo character better turn up to be some sort of collective trying to piss us all off. Cause' if this bloke is real my life REALLY sucks in comparison.

There is no Roo.

[bad_roo]

A few shots from the launch. Here's the flop house in Annecy Jaguar put us up in.

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/hotel1.jpg

and the view out of the hotel window over the lake...

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/hotel2.jpg

This is the car they wanted us to report favourably on...

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/stand.jpg

And here are some nice skis to show us how 'lifestyle' said car is

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/dentist.jpg

[bad_roo]

We drove up to a small ski resort called Le Grand Revard for a coffee stop. I got out of the old man spec SE and into the far more agreeable Sport.

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/revard.jpg
Token blonde Jag hottie on the deck at Le Grand Revard

We then drove up to the Massif de Bauges to do some snow driving. It's torture to be in a place like this with no damn ski gear.
http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/bauges.jpg

But there are compensations (Mont Blanc on skyline of first pic)...

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/snow1.jpg

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/snow2.jpg

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/snow3.jpg

The challenging snow climb in fact turned out to be a figure of eight course in a snowy (and flat) car park . On the way up, one of the journalists fell off the mountain road in quite spectacular fashion. He lost the back end of his X-TYPE and went over the edge of a switchback and came to a rest about fifty feet down the hill, lodged precariously beween two trees. Fortunately nothing was hurt other than his ego and the rather sorry looking Jag. But then he is a major dick.


So yes, I do exist.

[InspectorGadget]

I've driven wagons for years . . . . no, not an Aston. The Jag estate looks pretty good, how does the sport model drive?

http://www.badroo.alivewww.co.uk/XTYPE/stand.jpg

Too bad you're able to ski while you're there.

[Mulletizer]

Shit happens to some people, right? Very nice Roo!

[bad_roo]

Slightly firmer ride than the SE model, 9-way electric seat robs it of head room. The alcantara/carbon interior works a lot better than wood/leather. The 3.0-litre engine feels about as quick as a BMW 2.5 and the 2.5 feels like a BMW 1.8. The 2.0-litre common rail diesel is the best engine in the whole line up, but Jaguar will only offer it with a front-wheel drive rather than four-wheel drive chassis.

Feedback from the steering is quite good, but the rack's a little slow. Inadequate suspension travel, too much front toe in and bump steer. Well finished, decent amnount of space in the back and Callum has done a good job with the conversion. They let him design new rear doors instead of just grafting a 'backpack' onto the car and the DLOs look Jag-elegant.

Definitely worth £1,170 over the saloon and when on the road prices are taken into account (£3k less than an equivalent Audi A4, £4k less than Merc C Class) it looks as if it will be class competitive...

[Big E]

Clearly, I made an egregious error by not majoring in automotive journalism.