Orlando Sentinel's view

By the time you read this, Jaguar and sister company Land Rover may no longer be owned by Ford, both having been on the block for some time. Given the economy and the general state of the luxury market, it has not been an easy sale, and at this very moment, the most likely buyer is Tata, a very successful Indian manufacturer that certainly has the resources to close the deal.

And while all this may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Jaguar, it is in this atmosphere of uncertainty that the company is offering cars such as the 2008 Jaguar XJ Super V8, list price $94,285. As with the company itself, it’s a tough sale. This has nothing to with the car itself — actually, aside from some comparatively minor issues, it’s quite good — but you need to like Jaguars, what they are and what the storied brand stands for, before you can justify writing a check for nearly $100,000 to this company, as opposed to import competitors such as Mercedes-Benz or BMW.

But this is a road test, where we test the car, not the company. The XJ is Jaguar’s flagship, and for 2008, received a minor facelift inside and outside. Whether the styling is staid, or traditional, is up to you: Personally, I wish the designers had moved a bit further from the last generation, as they did with the stunning two-door XK.

Size-wise, the XJ Super V8 is a big car, measuring 205.3 inches in length, slightly longer than a Mercedes S-Class. This translates into big room inside, which makes the most serious complaint I have about the car seem all the more unfortunate: The driver’s seat doesn’t slide back far enough to suit me, and I’m only 6 feet tall. It took a lot of maneuvering of the power seat to find a position that was tolerable, and “tolerable” doesn’t work in a car this expensive. Even with the seat all the way back, there’s legroom in the rear seat for NBA players.

As you’d expect, the leather and burl walnut trim in the cockpit is done to Jaguar standards, but the design and instrumentation seems a generation behind the best cars in this segment. Why Jaguar insists on sticking with the space-robbing “J-gate” shifter in the console is beyond me — the room could have been better used for cup holders that don’t intrude into the center space.

On the road — well, that’s where the car shines. There’s plenty of punch in this 400-horsepower supercharged engine, delivered smoothly and with authority through an excellent six-speed transmission. For a car this size, handling is far above average.

What the Super V8 does best, though, is drive down the highway. There’s sense of solid stability at expressway speeds, with a quiet ride that is both firm and exceptionally comfortable, that makes you think that yes, maybe this car is worth the money.

As the price suggests, the XJ Super V8 is loaded to the gills: There are no options, with standard equipment ranging from a rear-seat DVD player with twin headrest-mounted screens, to cooled and heated front seats, to adaptive cruise control, which monitors traffic ahead, and adjusts your speed accordingly. (Shouldn’t you get satellite radio for this price, though?) There are multiple models of the XJ, starting at about $65,000, so if you don’t need all that the Super V8 has to offer, you don’t have to pay for it.

Many of us in the business are rooting for Jaguar, and some of the future products we’ve seen suggest that our confidence is not misplaced. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that whoever ends up with the brand is a suitable caretaker for a legendary company that has a lot of life left in it.

Sentinel Automotive Editor Steven Cole Smithcan be reached at scsmith@orlandosentinel.com.