FORD MOTOR Company’s European model launches for 1994 were a decidedly mixed bag: on the one hand, we had a thoroughly sensible joint venture with VW Group to build people carriers in Portugal which would ultimately prove very lucrative, while on the other hand we had the seemingly lunatic decision to allow the curiously styled Ford Scorpio into production. Sitting somewhere between the two and slipping somewhat under the radar was the restrained elegance of Jaguar’s fifth generation XJ saloon: what we know as the X300.
Launched in September 1994 and displayed at the Paris Motor Show the following month, the Jaguar was as neat as the Scorpio was comical and although it was touted as an all-new model it was effectively a top-and-tailed version of its predecessor, the XJ40.
Indeed, it’s the historyX300 generation, since it was that car’s drawn-out gestation which meant that it was ripe for replacement even as it was launched in 1986. By the time Jaguar had become part of the FoMoCo empire in 1989, the XJ40 was outclassed by the German rivals, with newcomer Lexus coming up quickly on the outside.
