A Dodge Viper may get more attention, but the XKR is less likely to go insane, carry you into a tree and kill you.

Upon hearing the $30,000 sticker price of the Jaguar X-Type I was test driving, my brother-in-law said, “I thought Jaguars were supposed to be the luxury car you always wanted but couldn’t afford.”

That may have been the case a decade ago, but the X-Type sports sedan brings Jaguar sensibilities to a level that’s within reach of a much larger segment of the population.  With its $29,950 base price, the X-Type is priced close to the Lexus IS300, Acura 3.2TL and Audi A4, all of which are sporty luxury sedans known …

In a market segment that thrives on the newest, latest, and greatest, the Jaguar Vanden Plas soldiers along with a basic body shape that dates to the 1970s.  It doesn’t quite reach the extremely high luxo-technology bar set by the Lexus LS430 and Mercedes S500, nor can it match the performance available from a BMW M5 or Mercedes E55 AMG.  Yet it costs more than any of them.  Are we missing something here?

By virtue of longevity, the XJ sedan is Jaguar’s signature car.  Although it’s not the most technologically advanced …

We approached the 2001 Jaguar S-Type with a healthy dose of skepticism, because a lot of other reviewers have used words like “sublime,” “refined” and “sophisticated” to describe it.  This set off our Rhetoric Alarms; a lot of car folk pay too much lip service to Jaguar, Mercedes, and Porsche thanks to the heritage of these makes, and not necessarily because of the quality of the current product.  Personally, we’d never met a Jaguar before, so we had no reason to be moved by its Jaguarness.

We drove it, and can …

Whatever the mojo is, Jaguar has definitely rediscovered it. The XF is the kind of car that your friends don’t mind squeezing into to get a ride.

Rolling through Detroit in a Jaguar isn’t as big a deal as it might have been a decade ago.    That’s because Ford’s world headquarters is right here in town, and because Jaguar’s a part of the Ford family, all of the executives and engineers can get Jags at employee-discount prices.  Thus, there are perhaps more Jaguars roaming around the Motor City than you’d expect, and our silver-blue XK8 coupe created nary a stir as I prowled my hometown.

That’s kind of a shame, because the XK8 is one of those rare …

You know that friend who’s always messing up and can’t seem to win for losing, but who’s so much fun to be around that you just can’t stop hanging out with him or her? That’s the Jaguar XJR in a nutshell. Jaguar’s flagship sedan isn’t the best or the most respected of large sports sedans–but when it’s good, it’s good enough to make you forget about its many flaws. Like that buddy of yours, you’ll be willing to overlook the occasional screw-up just to keep it around.

Jaguar itself has …