5 of Jaguar’s Most Underrated Designs
Jaguar built its reputation in a few ways. There were the race cars, yes, but Jaguar also sold sports cars that looked and performed like a Ferrari or an Aston Martin at a fraction of the price. It also sold brilliant sedans that were prettier than a Rolls or Bentley, with just as much shiny timber and fragrant cowhide for, you guessed it, a fraction of the price. Because of the obvious bargain that Jags represented, many buyers were willing to put up with sometimes dodgy reliability, until they weren’t. The Jaguar of 2024 was sadly out of tricks, and thus, the hard reset. With that said, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at the Coventry firm’s back catalog. Even the second-stringers were impressive. Here are five of our favorite underrated Jaguar designs:
1971-74 E-Type Series III Coupe
The Series III E-Type saw a new 5.3-liter SOHC V-12 stuffed into the car’s long wheelbase chassis of the 2+2 model. In period, the car was rather rudely treated by the automotive press and the public. People called it bulbous, ungainly, and a case of new wine in an old bottle. Those were some of the kinder epithets. The funny thing is, younger enthusiasts don’t see it that way.
Their tastes are different, and they’re not overly fond of the sainted Series I’s narrow track and skinny tires. To them, the Series III’s wider track, wider tires, and flared fenders have aged well. And maybe they’re right. A Series III coupe in the right color, like Silver Grey Metallic, Regency Red, British Racing Green, or Dark Blue—especially with disc wheels and not the anachronistic wires—is a great-looking car that has aged well. And while not cheap, it’s not that expensive for a vintage European V-12 sports car, either. Condition #2 (“excellent”) values in the Hagerty Price Guide range from $83,100 for a coupe to $135,000 for a roadster, though driver-quality examples can be had for much cheaper. The haters can deal with it.
1973-78 XJ6/12C
The BMW 2800CS and 3.0 CS (collectively known as E9 coupes) have been touted as the best-looking European coupes of the 1970s. Jaguar fans might have something to say about that. The original XJ6 sedan is a spectacularly gorgeous car in four-door form. Few, however, recall that there was a short-wheelbase, two-door coupe version of the car. The presence of the car was simply next-level—it even looked mean from the rear 3/4 with its squinty, Clint Eastwood-esque tail lights and the exhaust pipes that curved out of openings in the rear valance. The chef’s kiss? It was available with the Series III E-Type’s V-12. Nothing nearly as cool would come along until the V-12 C140 Mercedes, and the BMW 850i of the 1990s. In terms of rarity and style, the two-door XJ isn’t that pricey, with six-cylinder cars carrying a #2 value of $30,800, while the 12-cylinder cars’ complexity keeps them fairly close at $34,600.
1986-94 XJ
You mess with the styling of a Jaguar sedan at your own peril. Jaguar found this out with its first comprehensive re-design of the XJ6 since the model debuted in the 1960s. The XJ40 was, like the Series III E-Type, badly trolled by the critics of the day. Hysterics were directed even at things like the elimination of the radius curves at the bottom of the front and rear glass, and the square composite headlights. The design of the car has often been misattributed to Pininfarina—it was actually done in-house, although certainly, it appears as though Jaguar snatched a few elements of a 1974 Pininfarina design study for the XJ, like those aforementioned headlights.
Regardless, I think it’s a case of another once-controversial design aging well. Much better, frankly, than Jaguar’s subsequent attempts to reboot the style of the original XJ6. In black or British Racing Green, the car looks both regal and menacing. It was once a fixture in the Westminster car parks of the powerful in Margaret Thatcher’s post-Falklands Britain, but now it’s a rare enough sight to garner renewed interest and it’s still quite a cheap car to buy.
2006-14 XK/XKR
It’s a bit of a toss-up between this car and the XK8 of 1996-2006. As the sole arbiter here, I’m inclined to go with the later car, designed by the brilliant Ian Callum. The earlier Geoff Lawson car just has a bit too much of the 1990s Taurus jellybean thing going on for me, while Callum’s design is more aggressive and harder-edged, particularly the post-2011 facelift XKR. The supercharged XKR-S was particularly impressive, both in looks and performance. The later F-Type certainly falls into the A-list of Jaguar designs and certainly overshadows this car, but that’s what makes it underrated, and at the moment there’s very little buzz around it.
1976-94 XJ-S
If there was ever a moment in Jaguar’s history that resembled the recent uproar following the unveiling of the 00 Concept car, it was probably the 1975 Frankfurt Motor Show, where the XJ-S was unveiled. The E-Type was a tough act to follow, and perhaps rightly so, Jaguar took a “copy nothing” approach back then as well. Despite being penned by longtime Jaguar designer Malcom Sayer, it looked exactly nothing like any past Jaguar. The profile, the headlights, taillights, and flying buttress roofline were all clean sheet elements. Few onlookers were impressed in 1975, and today it’s mostly remembered as the E-Type’s disappointing follow-up. Yet Jaguar went on to sell over 100,000 XJ-Ss through the mid-1990s in coupe and convertible form, as well as a few of the odd, semi-convertible XJS SCs. Now over a quarter century removed from the car’s replacement by the XK8, the elegant simplicity of the design is finding more admirers.
