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The S-Type doesn’t utilize any of the design crap known as the cabin forward—in fact, if I had to explain the general profile of this Jag, then it has to be cabin backward. The extensive front-end and the rather short rear end is a complete opposite to the general direction of design followed by those Autobahn cruisers. Again, this is mainly to give the S-Type a more retro-styled look and feel. In effect, the S-Type has a very British feel oozing in every part of the exterior. Unfortunately, not even this car’s design is perfect, and it’s easily noticeable when you notice is god awful rear. Sure this Jag may have dual exhaust pipes that produce a balanced look and a couple of nice touches such as the chrome strips, but the overall look reminds me of a certain Korean car named Sonata. It may seem that British designers have worked all of their talents in producing a great profile and front end that they just burned out in designing the back of the S-Type. The multi-reflector rear taillights give a bit of cheesy effect of the car that don’t seem of fit a car of this caliber. In fact, I would wager that if you color the surrounds of the tail lamps, you’ll produce a rear-end that’s similar to a Mitsubishi Lancer with those Lexus IS200-tail lamp design. Generally, the same theme is carried into the interior of the Jaguar: a combination of retro, luxury and sporty feel. The overall look and feel of the interior is a mix of retro styling and super modern push button switches. The vents are particularly a nice touch, when they look as if were lifted straight from a classic Jaguar. The quality of the wood is a cut above the rest—no other German could match the opulence offered by a Jaguar’s interior. The plastics are soft to the feel and yet firm enough to keep it balance between being to soggy and plasticky. Even the glovebox is ratcheted and gives itself a soft swing down action rather than a hard plop. The messy stuff such as the sun glass holder, center utility box and cup holder are all cleverly hidden through soft-feel switches and seem very solid and reliable, unlike the BMW 5-series, whose wood feel like it was fashioned as plastic toothpicks. The leather covers a huge part of the car from the wheel to the side panels to the seats and these are high quality hide, mind you. These cows got killed to make sure that every Jag owner is comfortable, and by golly it works so fine with me! However, no car is perfect—and in this case, the S-Type’s great design is marred by a few problems regarding switchgear feel—Ford switch gear feel. Though the interior is nice to admire from afar, once the driver or the passenger starts changing CDs from Mozart to Beethoven, he’ll quickly notice the tacky feel of the central buttons. In fact, despite all the Jaguar labels here and there, it’s quite obvious that these have come from the Ford parts bin—and not just the European Ford parts bin, but rather the American Fords. Thus, here and there, you’ll begin to nice switches you swear you’ve seen before in the Ford F150 and Explorer Sport Trac. However, good thing is that you have an onboard computer to play with during traffic jams. |
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