Ken Gratton•16 Sept 2013
NEWS
Shake-up for Jaguar naming?
New small sedan now confirmed, but could pioneer new nomenclature for XF, XJ and sports carsJaguar is yet to settle on a name for its new C/D segment 3 Series rival, the company's global brand director has stated during an interview with motoring.com.au.
Speaking at the Frankfurt motor show last week, Adrian Hallmark effectively advised that the new sedan may introduce new nomenclature for the company. And reading between the lines, it's the company's XK sports coupe and convertible range that looks likely to bear the greatest change.
Hallmark had officially announced that the new sedan was definitely headed for production, but side-stepped the question concerning the car's name.
"Jaguar... something," he replied in jest. "There may be an 'X' in there; there probably won't be the word 'TYPE' in there... just to put your mind at rest.
"We've not named it yet, but the big debate is whether we create a family name – and then expand that family – or we use traditional structures, which Jaguar is now used to.
"There's one thing that we know, for people that aren't into Jaguar – new customers – they find our nameplates a bit confusing. They can't remember which way around XF and XJ is, or XK – is that bigger or smaller, more expensive or less expensive.
"So we'll use model expansion as an opportunity to tidy up the names – and make it really clear. 'F-TYPE' and 'something-TYPE' we will use for sports cars. But whatever else we do we haven't determined yet. Watch this space."
But if the XK – and/or its next-gen successor – looks set to be known by another name ('K-TYPE'?), the company remains officially unclear on the subject of renaming the XF and XJ.
"Remote possibility; it could be – but unlikely," Hallmark offered.
If Jaguar opts to retain XF and XJ names – which would make sense given the investment in them – the new small sedan might dust off the 'XE' nameplate at one time nominated for the sports car we now know as the F-TYPE. It would fit alphabetically in sequence with the larger XF and XJ models.
But perhaps the 'tidying up' of the brand's model names might be driven by the new C-X17-based SUV. There's no word yet on how that car will be named as a production model.
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Written byKen Gratton
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