The Jaguar F-Type dropped at last week’s Paris Motor Show and instantly became the star of the event. Jaguar is thriving under Tata’s ownership, and what better way to generate excitement for the company than a new sports car. The leaping cat has pursued divergent strategies over the past decade, but appears to have hit its stride.
There is a lot of momentum in 2012, and going into 2013 Jaguar will be better positioned than ever thanks to new V-6 engines and the added availability of all-wheel drive. Evidence of Jaguar’s resurgence is the fact that the F-Type is having an even bigger impact than any of us anticipated.
Enthusiasts are stoked about a new Jaguar, and that’s a great development. For years we’ve heard of the F-Type being a Boxster competitor. New pricing has come out and it shows that Jaguar might not view it that way. Clearly they are charging for the exclusivity of the Jaguar name, pricing the F-Type at $19,500 above its chief competitor.
Would Ford have been this bold? We doubt it – it’ll be interesting to see if the move pays off. The new F-Type is pretty small and we expected to come in at a good deal under its larger XK brother. The new convertible starts at $69,000. The base model is powered by the company’s new 3.0-liter supercharged six-cylinder. It makes 340 horsepower in this application. For 40 more horsepower, beefed up braking and a limited-slip differential (along with a host of other upgrades) be prepared to shell out $81,000 for the F-Type S.
The top-shelf 5.0-liter V-8 powered Jaguar F-Type S dings the cash register at $92,000 and pumps out 495 horsepower. As for 0-60 times, the base model comes in at 5.1 seconds, the F-Type S is at 4.8-seconds and the V-8 takes just 4.2 ticks. With this move in pricing, the mid-grade and top-line models are very close to XK territory. This XK has been on the market for a while and is due for a full redesign. Sources say the XK will be pushed up the ladder a rung to provide space between it and the F-Type. These are exciting times for Jaguar – 2013 should see the brand post its best sales figures ever.
