Image has always been one of the biggest driving factors when it comes to buying a large and expensive car – and Jaguar’s XJ is no exception to that. When the company downsized from its complex 1960s saloon car range into a single model, no doubt it was hoped that the halo effect of the larger engined and more expensive models would filter down to the entry level 2.8. While Jaguars have always been good value, the entry level XJ seemed to offer better value still by dint of its appearance; looking like a car from a class above.
And its image was impeccable at the time. Having lost the association with people like the Krays and the Great Train Robbers, Jaguar was starting to offer the same level of quiet respectability that, even five years earlier, would have been the preserve of marques like Rover. Now sister companies under the auspices of British Leyland, Rover and Jaguar products were starting to appeal to the same type of person.
There was a natural progression, too – from the former Mk2-rivalling P6 models into the XJ. The 2000 might have been far further down the ladder, but Rover’s 1968 launch of a 3.5 litre V8 in the Three Thousand Five (facelifted into the 3500 for 1970) effectively offered an ideal bridge for the respectable type who couldn’t quite stretch to XJ ownership in the absence of the older S-type models. Between it and the entry level XJ, a successful executive might plot an automotive route from Rover 2000 to 3500,
