Top Gear Car of Year - Jaguar XK

[Tles]

Good news for Ford with PAG taking out Car of the Year and GT of the year with the Jaguar XK and the Freelander 2 stepping up to take the SUV of the year for LandRover. S-Max took the Big?Car of the year award for Ford too.

» Jaguar XK is Top Gear’s Car Of The Year
13-12-06
Wheels news
Words - Chris Gable


Announced in its magazine spin-off, the cult TV show has given the XK both its headline award and GT Of The Year.


Top Gear has given both its Car Of The Year and GT Of The Year awards to Jaguar’s XK.

The awards, announced in London last week and presented by the TV show’s host, Jeremy Clarkson, also included Car Of The Year gongs for:

SUV – Land Rover Freelander 2
Small Car – Mini Cooper S
Supercar – Lamborghini Gallardo
Roadster – Mazda MX-5 RC
Coupe – Audi TT
Big Car – Ford S-Max
Family Car – Citroen C4 Picasso
Sports Car – BMW Z4 Coupe
Executive Car – Citroen C6
Limo – Lexus LS600h

While awarding the top gong to Jaguar’s Ian Callum, Top Gear magazine editor, Michael Harvey said: “We feel justified in handing our big one to the fabulous XK, a car everyone now recognises as magnificently beautiful, that reclaims the lost role of the Grand Tourer and, we suspect, might reclaim the art of ride/handling compromise in the portfolio of skills any purveyor of so-called luxury cars must possess.”

The magazine's editor in the US, Jamie Kitman was equally effusive: “This is not only the best Jaguar in 40 years, it is a real Jaguar; one knows it in seconds. Jaguar has thoroughly demonstrated with the XK that it is an utterly serious modern engineering entity with a priceless institutional memory of that which made Jaguars great.”

Jaguar’s Design Director Callum (pictured with the car) said all the right things: “It was a tremendous honour to receive this award for the XK and for Jaguar to be recognised for creating such an accomplished vehicle by real enthusiasts such as Top Gear. I feel very proud of everyone at Jaguar responsible for their contribution to the success of this car.”

The magazine/TV show’s website features a video roundup of the top contenders for the award.

For anyone interested I posted the Wheels sister story on the Volvo XC60 Concept SUV in the Territory forum. Seems to have some Mondeo and IosisX styling cues to it.