New Jaguar: Quality is Up

04/25/96

The first new coupe from Jaguar in 21 years will hit the market this fall. The new XK-8 sports coupe and the convertible version of the same model is expected to debut at well over $60,000. The new coupe is modeled after the Jaguar XK-E, the car that revolutionized automobile styling when it debuted 35 years ago.

Jaguar expects the new XK-8's image to be so compelling that the car will define Jaguar to the public. This, in spite of the fact that the company expects it's XJ-R series to continue to account for 80 percent of sales. Jaguar expects to produce 7,000 XK-8s during the car's first year.

Speaking about the new XK-8, Jaguar chief stylist Geoff Lawson says, "It's very easy to design a car that's a pastiche (of past styling), something that's trendy and hot. We worked very hard to avoid that temptation. Overall, we strove to bring obvious links with the past but without copying. The heritage of good design is like DNA: It must be traceable through history but not necessarily an exact duplicate."

One thing that Jaguar hopes won't carry over from previous models is their reputation for breaking down. The company insists that since Ford bought the outfit for $2.5 billion in 1989, quality has improved drastically. Under Ford, one old Coventry assembly line was replaced, jobs were cut, and the remaining work force was reorganized into teams where workers could stop the line if they spotted a defect.

Recent internal studies have shown that cars coming off the Jaguar line experience 0.7 problems per vehicle, which would put them at the same level as Lexus' sports cars. Five years ago internal studies revealed 11 problems per vehicle in the aging XJ-S sports car.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel